アメリカ式会議

ロッシェルさん、

I have only one experience attending an American meeting in Floriday when I was working for a division of Ryder (famous for yellow trucks). I tried to understand the conversations for the first 30 minutes but gave it up. So, I asked president's secretary to notice me if there was anything I should know. The attendances were twenty Americans and only one Japanese.

What do you think of this, Susan?
（スーザンさん、このことについてどう思いますか？）
Is it possible to say " How do you think of this, Susan? " like many Japanese say.

Jack, do you have something to add?
（ジャックさん、何か追加したいことがありますか？）
Jack, do you have anything to add?
Is there any difference in the two sentences?

Have a nice day.

St. Paul

やはり文化の違いなんでしょうね。
相手に届かなければ、ないと同じ！！
勉強になりますありがとうございます。

初めて返信します。
SHIDATAMAと申します。

そうですね、あなたの言うとおりだと思います。
私もよく会議に参加しますが、発言する人はいつも同じ人だったりします。

私の印象ですが、アメリカ人は何も無いところから何かを発明することに長けていると思います。
「会議の意味を大切にして、ポジティブにディスカッションしアイデアを引き出してゆく体質」が
大いに関係して、新しいものを生み出す”場”が出来ているのでしょう。

ファシリテーションにとても興味があります。
日本語の会議ではなんとかなるのですが、英語の会議でポジティブに会議を
進めていくにはどうしたらよいのかと、悩んでいたところだったので、まさに
今すぐ役立つ情報です。ありがとうございます。

ロッシェルさん、
I counted comments on your past topics.
I saw only few comments.
Your topics always give us food to think.
I hope more iKnow users come here to enjoy talking and debating.

Have a nic day.

St. Paul

Hello St. Paul,
I like you idea of asking the President's secretary to help you out, that's very clever.
" How do you think of this, Susan? is not grammatically correct. "What do you think of this, Susan?" is ok.
"Jack, do you have something to add?" is the same as "Jack, do you have anything to add?"
And yes I also hope more people will add comments! It's nice to have a group discussion.

Mana.k, so glad you found this to be helpful.

Shidatama, I agree with your impression. Americans view meetings as an important "space" to get things done through everyone's participation.

Keikom, so glad you found this to be helpful. And actually, I am thinking to write a book about facilitation -- I think it's interesting too!

Thanks everyone for your thoughts!

Hello Rochelle san,

I think that "facilitation" makes Japanese meeting more efficient.
I've never attended to any business meeting before so I don't know the detail, but I heard that Japanese meeting is generally very slow to make decisions.
A part of the reasons might be coming from a culture that "日本の会議では、黙っている参加者がいてもよしとされます。"
Moreover, Japanese people might not feel comfortable to volunteer their opinions especially in such business meetings, gatherings of people of various positions in a company. I guess there are complicated relationships between people.
However, I think that Japanese need to learn rational mind from the U.S. people.
It may lead to increase of efficiency not only in meeting but also in various business situations.

I want to study through these useful topics you are offering to us and hope to get some hints for preparing to be a business person:) Thank you!
Have a nice day!

Hi, Rochelle san and my friend Miyucho san,

It's nice to meet you Miyucho san here.
Rochelle san has been giving us good topics to talk and think
but very few people say something here as you can see.
I hope I can see you again here.

Rochelle san, thank you for your reply.

I hope you both have a nice day.

St. Paul