Chiba University of Commerce
Course TitleBusiness English (Thursday Class) / InstructorMichael LACKTORINCourse Description We will study and discuss contemporary topics from the worlds of business and economics to improve our English listening, speaking, reading, writing, and presentation skills. The target of our studies will be articles from Nikkei Weekly (English version), Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, McKinsey Quarterly, Economist, BusinessWeek, Fast Company, Bloomberg, PBS Newshour, TED, and other English-language media. Useful academic concepts and theories will be introduced to help us understand topics at a deeper level than reported in the media
Course ObjectivesThe first objective is to learn to actually use the concepts and theories that are typically in an MBA program to understand developments in the business world at a deeper level than reported in the media. The second objective is to further develop our English listening, speaking, reading, writing, and presentation skills.
Study Preparation The course will be taught mostly in English. Before enrollment students should already possess fairly good English listening skillsand be able to coherently express themselves in English. Classes will be interactive.Students are expected to keep abreast of major economic and business developments through regular reading of newspapers, magazines, and Internet websites.
Themes / Contents
1.Self-introductions, decision about content of the course, introduction and discussion of first themes / Themes: (1) Japanese Double-Asset Bubble, (2) Market Capitalization
2. Macro Economic Indicators, Meaning of Stock Prices, Industry Structure / Article: “What really ails corporate Japan?” The Nikkei Weekly, July 9, 2012.Other activities: Introduction to data sources/tools to analyze companies and economies
3. 20 Years of Recessionary Economy (1) / Analyze Japanese economic macro indicators
4. 20 Years of Recessionary Economy (2) / Analyze Japanese economic macro indicators
5. Europe’s Sovereign Debt Crisis (1) / Analyze articles, statistics, graphs, diagrams, and charts that I emailed to you
6. Europe’s Sovereign Debt Crisis (2) / Analyze articles, statistics, graphs, diagrams, and charts that I emailed to you
7. Europe’s Sovereign Debt Crisis (3), Deflation / Analyze articles, statistics, graphs, diagrams, and charts that I emailed to you
8. Analyzing Markets and Companies / Using Bloomberg data to analyze markets and companies
9. Globalization / Article: To be assigned at previous class
News Brief Analysis (NBA) #6
10. Lehman Shock / Article: To be assigned at previous class
News Brief Analysis (NBA) #7
11. Corporate Strategy / Article: To be assigned at previous class
News Brief Analysis (NBA) #8
12. China / Article: To be assigned at previous class
News Brief Analysis (NBA) #9
13. America / Article: To be assigned at previous class
News Brief Analysis (NBA) #10
14. Concluding remarks / Q&A for study contents
15. Final exam / Paper test based on entire semester
16. Review
Study Materials:
<Website reading for this course>
Students are required to read daily the online version of the Nikkei website: and
<Website general reading about business and economy
Students are encouraged to follow regularly articles that appear in business and economics media, including the Nikkei newspaper, Economist, BusinessWeek, Fortune, Fast Company, Inc., and Entrepreneur. Publications from Harvard Business School (HBS), Wharton business school, INSEAD business school, McKinsey & Company are also highly recommended. Some of these can be accessed from the ‘Business Knowledge’ section at ‘CEO Express’ website at which is a convenient, one-stop source of online information for the busy executive.
Assessment: Students will be assessed in four areas:
(1) Class participation (15%)
(2) Projects and Homework Assignments (20%)
(3) Midterm exam (25%)
(4) Final exam (40%)