Hello, everyone. Today, we have the pleasure of welcoming Mr. Kenji Nagoshi, who has actually adopted LingoMii, as our guest for an interview. We would like to thank you for using LingoMii.
Without further ado, could you please introduce yourself, share your profile, and tell us about your main students or any relevant information?
K.NagoshiHello. I am Kenji Nagoshi, the coach for the "8-Week English Pronunciation Masterclass."
First, let me introduce myself. I have been living in London since 1998 and have worked as a simultaneous interpreter for the BBC, the UK's public broadcaster. I also have approximately nine years of experience working in international business in Japan. Drawing from these experiences, I provide pronunciation coaching to those who want to enhance their English communication skills.
My main clients at the moment are Japanese individuals who want to expand their horizons in business and lifestyle through the use of English. This includes corporate executives, self-employed individuals, and those residing in English-speaking countries.
Thank you for the kind introduction. Indeed, living in London for over 20 years is quite a long time! I assume you've been able to integrate into the local native community during your time there.
I'm curious to know how you came to know about Lingo Mii and what led you to adopt it for your coaching. Could you share that with us?
K.NagoshiSure! You came to know about Lingo Mii through a chance encounter with the founder, Kyo, on LinkedIn.
It seems like his vision aligns with mine, which is to maximize individual potential by improving the English communication skills of Japanese individuals, and enhancing their work and lifestyle. Since I had a lot in common with Kyo and felt a strong connection, I decided to give Lingo Mii a try at their recommendation.
Thank you.
I believe you are currently using our service, but after using Lingo Mii, are there any specific parts or features that you particularly like?
K.NagoshiBeing able to create teaching materials that align with the course content is a valuable feature. With the use of AI, tasks that would typically take several hours can be completed in about 10 minutes.
I'm pleased to hear that!
In surveys with other individuals, the task of "document creation, such as curricula" was mentioned as one of the areas where they want to streamline and reduce workloads. It's great to know that Lingo Mii's AI generation is proving to be helpful in this regard.
Are there any other challenges or concerns that Lingo Mii has helped you address?
K.NagoshiFrom a learner's perspective, one significant concern is the inability to self-check whether their pronunciation is correct. With Lingo Mii, it seems that many of these issues can be resolved to a considerable extent.
I have also used it in the role of a learner, and there have been times when I got really determined to improve my scores. Gamifying learning is quite effective, isn't it?
Yes, the pronunciation scoring feature is indeed one of the core functions of Lingo Mii. Seeing your own score can certainly be motivating, I understand that!
There are a lot of training apps for students and professionals now, but was this something that other apps couldn't solve?
K.NagoshiI haven't researched every tool out there, but I believe it's unique to be able to customize learning materials to align with the course content. We've received positive feedback from learners regarding this aspect.
Yes! That's right!
I've had discussions with various teachers, and what I've come to realize is that the course content varies significantly depending on the teacher's preferences and strengths. Teachers focus on different aspects, making it impossible to conform to the typical standardized curriculum with a predefined process that many other English conversation apps offer. As a result, we realized Lingo Mii should tailor its training and course content to align with these preferences.
This also means that schools can't have their unique teaching methods if they're constrained by such standardized processes. That's why the current Lingo Mii allows teachers the freedom to register, add, and edit content according to their styles.
Lingo Mii is primarily a support service for teachers' courses, and when it comes to creating individualized curriculums for students, we believe that teachers are in the best position to assess students' personalities, environments, and learning levels. We aim to avoid training in a "leave it alone" environment approach that relies solely on the system.
K.NagoshiThe pronunciation scores may not be perfect, but it's like karaoke scoring – as long as you understand how to use it, it should be fine.
If I had to mention something, perhaps the user interface could be a bit more refined. However, it's not necessarily difficult to use.
Thank you for your valuable feedback. Indeed, we've been gradually upgrading Lingo Mii from its early development stages, and there are some retrofitted components. We are currently thoroughly reviewing the consistency of the user interface internally, including addressing those concerns.
In addition to user interface improvements, we're actively developing the requested additional features. Please look forward to them!
Finally, do you have any classrooms or facilities that you would recommend Lingo Mii's implementation to?
K.NagoshiI decided to implement it because I believe it pairs well with self-paced online video courses.
I appreciate your time and thank you for your cooperation.
Your valuable advice is noted, and we will certainly work on incorporating it into our ongoing improvements. Learning about the practical use of LingoMii in the field has been very insightful. I encourage other teachers to try LingoMii for efficient pronunciation testing and English pronunciation enhancement. With that, we will conclude this interview.
