
Mineko Ebihara
B.Sc. (Mathematics)
Sophia University
After having returned to Japan in June 2003, she is now a volunteer helping out refugees from Asia
and Africa. She coordinates Japanese classes for them. Bunka Language School supports the activity by donating textbooks.
She also volunteers in NGO Japan Lay Missionary Movement.
“When you feel like dropping out, just remember me. Remember that I started Bunka from zero. Remember that only daily small efforts help you to realize your dream.”
Founder’s Gift To You:
“Tool For Success In Learning Japanese”
Founder’s Speech at Bunka’s 25th Anniversary Celebration on 29th August 2010 By Ms Mineko Ebihara
Konbanwa,minasan.
First of all, I’d like to say “Thank you” to everyone who has made this 25th Anniversary possible.
I thank all the students, both past and present, who have enrolled in our school, continued studying Japanese language diligently and sometimes recommended our school to their friends. I thank all the teachers and staff working hard for the school.
To show my gratitude, tonight I’d like to give everyone a gift. It is a “Tool for Success”. I think all of you have a dream and want to realize your dream. I know that your dream is to speak Japanese very fluently. Now I’ll show you how to accomplish it by sharing my experience.
When I set up this school 25 years ago, I did not have special talent, big background or big capital, but I had a big dream. I wanted to bring up the school to be very popular in Singapore. So I wrote down what I should do to realize the dream.
Firstly, advertise our school in The Straits Times newspaper everyday. During that time no one knew the name of Bunka Language Pte. School. So I decided to advertise in The Straits Times everyday because there was no internet at that time.
Secondly, organize the curriculum and teaching materials very effectively so that students can master Japanese very quickly.
Thirdly, help students not to just study in the classroom but also enjoy. So I planned cultural events to introduce Japanese culture.
The staff and I worked on these things everyday. Slowly, people got to know of Bunka Language Pte School. A few years later our name became well-known to those who were interested in studying Japanese. As time went by, our school got more and more popular and finally my dream came true.
Set a concrete goal
I want you to follow these steps to realize your dream. Only daily small efforts help you to succeed.
If you want to speak fluent Japanese, you must set a concrete goal. For example, to pass JLPT Level N3 this year or pass Level N1 next year depending on your present standard. Then write down what you need to do, like expand your vocabulary or improve listening skills or kanji writing and work on them everyday.
Visualize your effort
I recommend you to prepare a table in A4 size and put 1st to 31st in the first column and put “Items to work on” in the first row. The table is named “to-do-everyday list”. Items to work on are things such as “learning one new word”, “listening to a Japanese CD for 30 minutes”, etc. At the end of each day, put a tick in each box if you did it on the day so that you can visualize your own effort. At the end of each month, count the number of ticks in each column. If you have more than 25 ticks in each column, praise yourself. If you continue doing this, your Japanese standard in three months’ time or six months’ time will be higher than the present one for sure. Eventually, you will achieve the goal that you set.
100% sure to succeed
I do not know anyone who has failed to achieve his/her goal using this tool. If you use this tool “to-do-everyday list”, you are 100% sure to succeed and your dream will come true. When you feel like dropping out, just remember me. Remember that I started Bunka from zero. Remember that only daily small efforts help you to realize your dream.
I am sure that you will be speaking very fluent Japanese when I come back to see you next year.
I went back to Japan in 2003 and now I have a new dream. So I set a concrete goal and I am making small effort everyday. You and I together gambarimashoo!
Thank you very much.
Mineko Ebihara