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Courses
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Global Mindset
In an increasingly globalizing world, being culturally aware and skilled at working effectively with people from divergent national cultures is essential for success in an ever more competitive international market. Having a Global Mindset means being open-minded, adaptable, and capable of adjusting to different environments. At Berkeley Professionals, we believe that these skills are the most essential for international success. In this program, participants will take part in lectures and exercises and group discussion sessions to learn how to communicate, how to think about different cultures, the rules of etiquette, and more. We recommend taking this course first.
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Presenting to the World
In this program participants will learn how to make a successful and impactful international presentation in English, and will study the presentation process covering preparation, rehearsal, delivery, and Q&A. They will learn how to structure a presentation to make it easy to follow, logical, memorable, and most importantly with a conclusion that inspires their audience to action. Focus will also be on preparing visual supports (MS Powerpointc, etc.) that will grab the interest and attention of Western audiences.
The training will conclude with each of the participants delivering a work-related presentation with Powerpoint. Participants will receive feedback and learn practical skills that will help them to prepare and deliver presentations with confidence. This course is meant for those who need to give presentations to international audiences. -
Business Meetings in English
In this program, participants will learn how to participate actively and effectively in English language international meetings. Specifically, the training will focus on presenting information and updates confidently, asking questions proactively, giving opinions clearly and directly, jumping in and interrupting when necessary, and checking and confirming and summarizing what they hear when there is any doubt. Participants will effectively enhance their skills through role playing and receiving feedback.
This course is meant for those who participate in English language meetings inside their organization and with external stakeholders. -
Negotiating Internationally
In this program participants will gain the ability to create better win-win outcomes for both sides and to improve negotiation outcomes for their side. Based on the Harvard Negotiation method, participants will learn how to prepare for an international negotiation. They will then learn and practice “active skills” to clarify issues of concern to both sides, ascertain and state priorities and their reasons, “log roll” options and possibilities, and to creatively bring the process to a conclusion. The training will begin with role playing simple negotiation scenarios to introduce the skills, and moves, by the end of two days, to more indepth case studies. Participants will receive extensive feedback on language skills and strategies from the trainer and from fellow participants.
This course is meant for those who are engaged in negotiations with joint venture partners, vendors, customers and regulators outside of Japan.
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Business Writing Skills
In this program participants will learn how to write professional business emails, memos, and reports in English that correspond to a Western-style logical approach to business writing. There is an emphasis on structure, clarity, directness, and politeness. In writing e-mails, participants will learn how to differentiate requests from offers from instructions from suggestions and advice from asking permission. These are all areas that often cause confusion for Japanese writing in English. In report writing exercises, the focus is on being clear and concise and using a ‘Conclusion First’ structure and deductive logic. Participants will use a combination of their own work-related e-mails for editing and improvement as well as original teaching materials developed by Berkeley Professionals, based on business writing from their own industry or job role. Participants will engage in writing exercises, and will receive feedback from their trainers and other participants in order to effectively improve their skills.
This course is meant for those who are currently or will soon need to deal with foreign colleagues inside their organization as well as overseas business contacts. -
International Teleconferencing
In this course participants will gain specialized teleconferencing skills, which differ quite remarkably from the skills used in face-to-face meetings. Participants will also learn language and the confidence to use that language for speaking assertively, jumping into discussions with comments and questions, and confirming that what they are saying is being understood clearly—skills that Japanese people typically have trouble with. In particular, issues such as active listening sounds or poor pronunciation can lead to unforeseen problems. These problems must be avoided. Toward that end, participants will increase their skills through role playing in separate rooms and receiving continuous feedback, until they are able to communicate clearly and confidently over one-to-one telephone calls and when engaged in international teleconferences and video conferences.
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Persuading and Influencing
In this course participants will learn specialized techniques to more effectively make their points, and get understanding and agreement from their colleagues around the world. Participants will learn how to gain a firm understanding of others’ situations, where they are open to persuasion, how to respond to negative responses, and how to communicate their own proposals logically and clearly. Through role plays based on case studies and trainer feedback participants will develop these skills. While this course focuses on the skills needed to persuade colleagues and counterparts from other cultures, many participants find the skills are equally useful with their Japanese co-workers.
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Facilitation Skills
In this course, participants will gain specialized international skills for chairing international meetings and teleconferences. During this program they will learn how to confidently open and close meetings, create a positive atmosphere that encourages discussion, keep the meeting on topic, elicit questions and comments and opinions from attendees, and drive the meeting to a positive outcome. With a special focus on the challenges of Western-style meeting situations, participants will learn how to handle disagreements and confrontation smoothly. They will engage in multiple role plays to practice these skills Japanese people tend to be unfamiliar with. Participants will receive detailed feedback from trainers and gain the confidence they need to lead meetings to optimal outcomes.
