Eltbooks Japan < Works 100% >

"No. A workbook that links to a server. We write the core grammar—the skeleton. But the vocabulary, the names, the cultural references? They are modules. The teacher in Osaka downloads the ‘Kansai Dialect’ pack. The teacher in Tokyo downloads the ‘Business Etiquette’ pack. We don't sell a textbook, Kenji-san. We sell a platform ."

Kenji nodded slowly. He ran his finger over the old shipbuilders' book. "You know, Dave. My father didn't know English. He used a dictionary for every sentence. He was wrong half the time. But he believed that if a Japanese person could read one English sign at the airport, their life was bigger."

Kenji’s star employee was a 34-year-old Canadian named Dave McGregor. Dave had come to Japan fifteen years ago to "find himself" and had ended up finding a career in copy-editing. Dave was the ghostwriter. He was the one who turned Kenji’s rigid, Japanese-style grammar explanations into natural, conversational English. He was the one who wrote the listening scripts, always ensuring that the Australian character said "G’day" and the American said "Howdy."

That evening, after the fair closed, Kenji took Dave to a izakaya (pub) in Omoide Yokocho. They sat under the smoke of a yakitori grill.