Episode #343: How To Engage Japanese Audience Members When Presenting

Most foreigner delivered presentations in Japan will be delivered in English and have a mixed audience of both Japanese and non-Japanese. There is the tendency to imagine, because it is in English, that any necessary Japanese cultural components can be over-looked. The presumption is the presentation can be delivered, just as it would be, for a foreigner only audience. Why would we imagine that? The Japanese audience members may speak English in their firms, but often the language capability will vary and very, very few will be operating at native speaker levels. If we are not clued in, we could lose a sizeable chunk of our audience.

The speed of delivery is usually the first barrier we erect, to keep our Japanese speaking audience from getting our message. We are speaking in English, so we assume we can speak as we normally would, without ever considering the needs of our audience. It is extremely rare in my experience to listen to a presenter who is speaking too slowly. In fact, I cannot recall anyone having that issue. The opposite, though, is the norm and unfortunately, I am guilty of this too. I get passionate about my subject and I start really leaning into it. Invariably I speed up. The cure for this is to keep in mind that too fast a speed will lose a lot of the audience and that I need to keep a slower pace than normal. Also, by using pauses, I can regulate the delivery in a way which will stop the speed from revving up.

Idioms are the nemesis of international understanding. I grew up in Australia, so we were bombarded with American and English television programming. In this way, we learned the dual languages and the idioms associated with them. One of the tricky problems I have is to deduce which idioms are international and which are purely of Australian invention. There is a surprising amount I found. I know this because the non-Australians I am speaking to go blank when I let loose with one of these little Aussie specials and I realise my message is not getting through. As a presenter in Japan, it is better to delete idioms entirely and find alternative methods of expressing the same idea.

Sporting references are the other barrier to communication. Australia is a very sporty nation, so we have tons of these too. Americans have their own favourites and many times I have to ask what they mean and I am a native speaker, so imagine how quickly you lose your audience of Japanese guests. It is better to just cut these out of the presentation delivery entirely and look for more easily accessible expressions to convey the point we want to make.

In Japan, in normal polite society, we know that looking someone straight in the eye isn’t done and we have to look at their forehead, or throat or chin instead. What about eye contact with our Japanese members in the audience – should we just ignore them to make certain they don’t feel too uncomfortable? There is eye contact and there is eye contact. Anything under 5 seconds is too short to make a connection and anything over six seconds is too intrusive. We can still engage our Japanese members in the audience with eye contact if we keep it within these bounds. When we look at audience members, we are creating a one-on-one personal connection which is very strong. We are saying, “You are the only person in this room and I am talking directly with you”. Japanese guests are not used to this, so when it happens, the impact is enormous and they really gravitate to us.

Here is a hint – don’t worry about the expression on their faces. Sometimes it can look like they are rejecting what we are saying, but in fact they are just concentrating hard on the content to catch it. What we see is their serious face, not their angry face, but it's hard to divine which is which for foreigners. I had my breakthrough moment on Japanese physiognomy in Kobe, when I was speaking in Japanese to a hundred salespeople about Australian education. Midway down on the left he was sitting there throughout my hour-long presentation, with the angriest look on his face, as if he was not buying one thing I said.

When I finished, he leapt out of his chair and hurried down the center aisle to where I was standing. I honestly thought he was going to punch me in the face and was getting ready to defend myself. To my astonishment, he started double pumping my hand and telling me in Japanese what a terrific talk that was and how much he learnt about Australia. Assume the Japanese guest is concentrating on what you are saying and don’t be put off what may appear to be a hostile reception to your message.

Don’t worry if Japanese don’t ask questions at the end. Often, nobody wants to be the first in anything, so they are waiting for someone else to go first. Also, there is a complex calculation going on in their minds about how they will be perceived by this question. Is it a veiled insult to the speaker, implying that they were not clear enough in their talk? Will others think they are stupid for asking this basic question? Shouldn’t they defer to others who are maybe older or more senior or with women, defer to men to ask the questions. If there are foreigners in the room, there is usually no shortage of people wanting to ask questions, but we should specifically encourage the Japanese to speak up.

We can say, “In my culture, asking questions is never seen negatively, it just shows an interest in the topic. I know Japan is different, but let me encourage our Japanese guests to ask questions they may have. If you would like to ask me questions after the talk, I will be here for about fifteen minutes and would welcome questions you may have”. This shows a great deal of sensitivity to those Japanese in the audience and they will feel much closer to you as the speaker.