2013.04.17
Topic 1 ”Hika Ito” 自己紹介
ビジネス英語教育のエキスパート Hika が語る Tell Me About 第1弾は、”Hika Ito” です。
「Hika Ito について」 、つまりは自己紹介ですね！
Hika とは、Hi（日）は日本、Ka（加）はカナダを意味して名づけられた名前だったのですね。
カナダで生まれ育って、日本の大手英会話スクールで働いて、そしてBizmatesを創業、という人生における３つステージがあり、それらが Bizmates を始めるモチベーションになった、と Hika は動画の中で語っています。
これまで日本人や多国籍な人たちと一緒に働いた経験から、
グローバルな環境における「ビジネスで信頼関係を築くためのコミュニケーションスキル」の重要性を感じ、
「日本人が世界の人達と真のパートナーシップを築けるように」
という想いを込めて作られた教材が「Bizmates Program」ということなんですね。
そんな「Bizmates Program」にご興味がある方は、
ぜひBizmatesのオンライン英会話「無料体験レッスン」でご体感ください！
Hello and welcome to this Bizmates
Tell me about video series,
where I share some information on a given topic,
OK, in each video.
And today's topic is me,
which I'm not so comfortable talking about but I'll do my best.
OK, so anyway my name is Hika Ito.
And Hika has kanji for it. OK?
It's written like this, 日加.
And it has a special meaning.
Can you guess what it means?
Yeah, well 日 means Japan.
And 加 means Canada.
And I was born and raised in Vancouver, Canada.
But my parents are both originally from Japan.
So I have a Japanese face,
but my native language is English.
That's right, OK?
And today, instead of talking about my hobbies,
my family and becoming too personal.
I thought it would be nice to explain the 3 stages in my life
that have been the motivation for me to start Bizmates.
OK, and the first stage is, of course, growing up in Canada.
And then the next big stage in my life is working in Japan.
And the third stage is now at Bizmates.
OK, so let me explain each of these stages.
So growing up in Canada, Yeah. And you know
I'm really lucky to have been raised in a place like Canada.
And Canada is like the microcosm of the world.
It's like a mini world, you know.
Half of my friends were Asian.
There were Chinese, Koreans, Vietnamese, Indians.
And I also had a lot friends of European descent as well.
Greek, Italian, Polish and so on.
So being bilingual, speaking two languages, was nothing special.
Yeah, there were a lot of people who were bilingual around me.
OK, and then after over 20 years of living in Canada, I came to Japan.
And I joined this language school, a global company
that taught many different languages, dozens of languages.
So once again, I was in an environment,
working in kind of like a mini world.
People from Germany, France, all over the world.
And I saw so much miscommunication,
misunderstanding on a daily basis
because of, of course, language barriers,
but also due to cultural differences.
And this happened a lot. And there were many Japanese people
in my company who could speak English really well.
They had excellent listening skills.
They had excellent speaking skills in English.
But there were very few people who could create true partnerships
in English, to really gain trust with the non-Japanese.
So over the years, I realized
that skill or that part was really important.
And it was something that the Japanese people,
Japanese businesspeople really needed to learn.
And that's why I started Bizmates.
And I created the original Bizmates program in order to help Japanese
businesspeople create true partnerships with people around the world.
OK, so that's me. Hika Ito.
And I hope you enjoyed this first tell me about video series.
And I hope you see the next one soon.
OK, thank you.
Tell me about video series,
where I share some information on a given topic,
OK, in each video.
And today's topic is me,
which I'm not so comfortable talking about but I'll do my best.
OK, so anyway my name is Hika Ito.
And Hika has kanji for it. OK?
It's written like this, 日加.
And it has a special meaning.
Can you guess what it means?
Yeah, well 日 means Japan.
And 加 means Canada.
And I was born and raised in Vancouver, Canada.
But my parents are both originally from Japan.
So I have a Japanese face,
but my native language is English.
That's right, OK?
And today, instead of talking about my hobbies,
my family and becoming too personal.
I thought it would be nice to explain the 3 stages in my life
that have been the motivation for me to start Bizmates.
OK, and the first stage is, of course, growing up in Canada.
And then the next big stage in my life is working in Japan.
And the third stage is now at Bizmates.
OK, so let me explain each of these stages.
So growing up in Canada, Yeah. And you know
I'm really lucky to have been raised in a place like Canada.
And Canada is like the microcosm of the world.
It's like a mini world, you know.
Half of my friends were Asian.
There were Chinese, Koreans, Vietnamese, Indians.
And I also had a lot friends of European descent as well.
Greek, Italian, Polish and so on.
So being bilingual, speaking two languages, was nothing special.
Yeah, there were a lot of people who were bilingual around me.
OK, and then after over 20 years of living in Canada, I came to Japan.
And I joined this language school, a global company
that taught many different languages, dozens of languages.
So once again, I was in an environment,
working in kind of like a mini world.
People from Germany, France, all over the world.
And I saw so much miscommunication,
misunderstanding on a daily basis
because of, of course, language barriers,
but also due to cultural differences.
And this happened a lot. And there were many Japanese people
in my company who could speak English really well.
They had excellent listening skills.
They had excellent speaking skills in English.
But there were very few people who could create true partnerships
in English, to really gain trust with the non-Japanese.
So over the years, I realized
that skill or that part was really important.
And it was something that the Japanese people,
Japanese businesspeople really needed to learn.
And that's why I started Bizmates.
And I created the original Bizmates program in order to help Japanese
businesspeople create true partnerships with people around the world.
OK, so that's me. Hika Ito.
And I hope you enjoyed this first tell me about video series.
And I hope you see the next one soon.
OK, thank you.
