あ Is for Apple: Learning Japanese and the JLPT
The FT is owned by Nikkei and is always looking for ways to improve relationships and collaboration between the two organisations. We were lucky enough to be part of the first cohort of employees to go through a new Japanese language learning program offered by the FT: a 60-week Japanese language course at SOAS (the School of Oriental & African Studies). The material covered SOAS’s Beginner and Elementary courses, concluding with an examination: the initial N5 level of the standardised Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT).
Our cohort consisted of FT employees from departments we might not ordinarily have the chance to mix with — journalists, newsroom editors, marketing and partnership managers — and who were geographically distributed (London, Hong Kong, Singapore). We had varying degrees of prior Japanese experience: some had lived in Japan, while others were absolute beginners. Lessons were conducted online in weekly 90-minute sessions with 2-3 hours of homework to be submitted by the following week, as well as the occasional mock test.
The students who passed the JLPT are eligible to undertake a short secondment in an equivalent department at Nikkei’s Tokyo office. One of the students in our cohort visited last year and found it a fascinating and enriching experience, and one where basic Japanese was crucial to making the most of it.
Bracken House, the FT’s London office, also provides many opportunities to practise and improve upon what we have learned. The secondments are bidirectional, meaning Nikkei employees will occasionally join our teams for spells of weeks or even months. Also, a contingent from Nikkei recently visited London for the Engine & Delivery Room (the Product & Technology department’s annual internal conference). In both cases, having a grasp of the language serves as an icebreaker and allows us to establish a connection with our guests. In many cases these connections are sustained: Emma collaborates with the equivalent Nikkei department to her own, writing and speaking in both Japanese and English.
Furthermore, Bracken House’s first floor is home to Nikkei employees on long-term London placements, and an initiative was started to create an ongoing language exchange programme between those individuals and London-based FT employees. Native speakers of English and Japanese respectively are paired up and meet regularly to practise each other’s language. This was enormously useful during the course as a means of complementing our studies, and now that we’ve finished, provides a way to continuously improve on everything we learned.
Working for the FT is already endlessly varied, though these sorts of extracurricular opportunities are truly unique and allow us to achieve life goals you would not expect to be offered by an employer. One of the main challenges of learning a language is finding the places to continually practise it, though the outgoing and curious nature of both FT and Nikkei employees alike means those opportunities are plentiful and cultivate ever stronger ties between us.
More can be read about this experience in an FT Product & Technology blog here.