I'm shooting for a (non-English teacher) job in Japan after I graduate this December, so I'm trying to get my keigo game on point before this summer when I hope to start interviews, and definitely before November for the Boston Career Forum. So I thought maybe a dedicated business Japanese/keigo thread might be nice in case anyone else is in the same position as me.

So, is there anyone else studying business Japanese? If so, what materials are you using? How are you studying and practicing?

As for me, for the past week or two I've been trying my best to go through にほんご敬語トレーニング. I also took my first tutoring session on italki with someone about business Japanese preparation but I'm still not entirely sure what the best way to take advantage of that particular teacher. He did send me a few materials to study, though, which included 敬語早わかり辞典―あっ便利!, 人を動かす！実践ビジネス日本語会話上級, and a few chapters from 短期集中初級日本語文法総まとめポイント20. I've also been reading through some short articles online.

I feel like I "get" the ideas, but actually putting it into practice in real time is tough since there's little opportunity for me to practice. Getting it to come out even half smoothly during an interview is probably going to be even more difficult. I might continue with either weekly or bi-weekly italki lessons if not just to have a steady, guaranteed spoken conversation with a native for an hour where I can force myself to speak more politely.

I'm hoping for this to be a general business Japanese and keigo study/trauma support thread like the JLPT ones, so feel free to ask questions or give tips or discuss your study habits or progress.

I did a 3-month business Japanese intensive at Yamasa a few years back, I wound up treating it almost like learning a new language.

There are a ton of set phrases to learn, and they're all beastly to remember at times, and sometimes they'll get you tongue-tied, but keep repeating them, keep practicing them, and you'll get better at it. After a while, those set phrases will become your friends. They'll let you know exactly what to say when you meet a client, etc. There's almost always a Socially Approved set phrase for most situations in business. (Not always, of course, but darn near close to it.)

There's a special routine you're expected to know for doing a job interview. Stuff like how many knocks on the door, waiting to open the door until you're called, which side of the chair to approach it from, not sitting all the way back in the chair, etc. etc. Lots of little details. A lot of it is considered 常識, but it's not necessarily 常識 to Westerners.

名刺交換 is an important ritual to nail, too. Who offers their card first, who receives it, how you receive it, etc. It's not quite as deep as the tea ceremony, but I remember spending a few days on it in class here and there, just to make sure we could do it right.

他社訪問 are also full of things you're "supposed to know," like how early to be (5 minutes is the appropriate amount of "earliness," 10 minutes is too early, 2 minutes isn't early enough to show what a great and punctual person you are.)

Answering the phone, taking messages, what to say when offering excuses... it's full of set phrases that, when memorized, will make your business life easier.

But yeah, it can feel a little overwhelming at first.

Reminds me, I haven't had to use much of that stuff in a while. I should go brush up on it and keep it fresh. >_>a

I'd love to be able to take an intensive course but it's not in the cards right now. Nowhere around me here on the US offers it from whhat I know, and I don't have enough money saved to be able to afford something like that unless I was guaranteed a job while still in Japan.

The little rituals actually aren't that intimidating to me. I took an interview at LINE Corp last year and was planning on going to the Boston Career Forum last November so I studied a lot of training videos aimed at Japanese people and mimicked them. I'd need to jog my memory again at this point but I had it pretty solid I think. Probably not perfect, but definitely passable. I feel like I can mimic pretty well if I see it in action a few times, so those prep videos on Youtube are a lifesaver. I definitely need to study more though, like I had never heard of the 他社訪問 thing. 

The set phrases are what I'm worried about most now. I've been trying to internalize all of the 尊敬語 and 謙譲語 forms of words that I can. I've also been using one of the books my tutor gave me with a bunch of standard conversation templates. I spent a good hour or two after I woke up until I had to leave for school repeating the same conversation as clearly as I could at full speed without tripping myself up. Repeated it a little bit in the car as well. 

If I manage to get a job in Japan then I wouldn't mind taking classes for my own sake to fill in the gaps, though.

Edit: I should also point out just so it's clear: the interview at LINE was done over Skype and I never went to tge career forum last year. So my studying ended up not being all that useful