Cross-cultural communication （25）　

25）Training to be a conference MC in English
In 2005, WONCA (the World Organization of Family Doctors) was held in Kyoto. It was the first time that WONCA had been held in Japan. At the time, I was also a director of the Japan Primary Care Association (now the Japan Primary Care Association), which was the host of the event, so I was quite enthusiastic about the preparations for the event. At the conference, I represented Japan and gave a presentation in English as one of the symposium speakers on the current state and future of primary care in Japan. In connection with this, I also got involved in the preparations for other special lectures.

One of the special lectures was to be given by Dr. Kiyoshi Kurokawa, who was at the time serving as the President of the Science Council of Japan. I was asked to attend a meeting to prepare for this lecture. The chairperson for Dr. Kurokawa's lecture was to be a British person who was one of the WONCA directors. This British director looked at Dr. Kurokawa's curriculum vitae and asked him various questions to confirm things. He had a great ability to make the atmosphere of the meeting pleasant, with a touch of British humor. The questions turned to hobbies. Dr. Kurokawa seemed to not place much importance on such things, and answered them in a casual manner. Then, after asking a few other questions, the chairperson, a board member, asked a question about hobbies again, this time using different words. Dr. Kurokawa, with a slight wry smile, answered quite specifically about his own hobbies this time.

The special lecture was a great success, with Dr. Kurokawa giving a long-winded talk in English about the historical and social trends in modern medicine and medical care. However, what I was really paying attention to was the way the British director of the meeting was moderating the proceedings. He was able to weave together the information he had gathered at the meeting and give a very attractive introduction to Dr. Kurokawa. Of course, the hobby information he had obtained with such tenacity was also skillfully incorporated into the introduction.

After this, I was asked to moderate or chair several English-language lectures, and based on my experience at WONCA, I try to have meetings with the speakers, even if it's only for a short time.

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