21st Century Japanese Language Learning from Las Vegas

George TROMBLEY Jr., Owner of YesJapan.com.

In the Internet age, if you are running a business, you will most likely need a website. Running a website creates a whole host of issues and problems that need to be dealt with, alongside common questions that most entrepreneurs face such as - How should I advertise? How should I set my pricing? How can I make my website more effective? Hiragana Times recently caught up with an education company that offers some valuable tips - and more, on running a successful web-based business.

Las Vegas-based YesJapan.com began five years ago when their team started teaching live Japanese classes and built a website for it. "We were surprised how many people wanted to join the classes from other countries," says owner George TROMBLEY Jr. "This is how the idea of teaching Japanese over the web came to us."

Instead of the usual practice of language students attending classes, YesJapan.com offers online Japanese lessons and quizzes, an interactive Ask-a-Teacher service, Japanese culture videos, constantly updated online materials and books, and over 7,500 sound files on the site linked to each word, sentence and conversation contained in the lessons.

In addition, they have a weekly online language program - the "George and Keiko Online Japanese Topics Show" - which is filled with comedy and lots of new vocabulary words. Each show also includes a quiz at the end to review what was learned, and most shows also have segments featuring Japan. "We have released over 75 shows on various topics from Japanese riddles to Japanese Yakuza," explains George about the show.

Since the company started, YesJapan.com has attracted a very wide range of members from over 40 countries ranging in age from 10-80. "In four years, revenue has increased 1600% and our membership numbers are going up every month," George says.

One of the main difficulties they encountered when running their business was that as a company that works out of America, they do not have access to the multitudes of Japanese people in Japan. "We create our sound files using native Japanese speakers, and while it is easy to find Japanese females, Japanese male speakers are almost non-existant in Las Vegas," George says. "Also, the George and Keiko Japanese Topics Show normally includes a segment shot 100% in Japan. Since we are not based in Japan, this means I have to go to Japan for an extended period to film."

People don't appreciate something unless they pay for it
Addressing a problem that many entrepreneurs face, George describes how they handled pricing. "Initially, the biggest problem we experienced occured when we started the business in 1998. At that time, people didn't have the mindset to pay for online services and we received e-mails from upset people. Luckily, people now realize that you get what you pay for, and we get quite a few fan e-mails now." Interestingly, they discovered that offering a free service did not automatically attract members. "About a year ago, we offered free access to YesJapan.com. We were shocked that this didn't translate into a huge increase in membership," George remarks. "Six months later we tried again to offer free access for a limited time, and again, we were let down. We realized the hard way that people don't appreciate something unless they pay for it."

What does he believe are the main keys to running a successful entrepreneurial venture? "Our success is a result of keeping our service level high while keeping our prices low," George says. "But more importantly, we do what other language companies do not do - we use everyday language in our grammar explanations and we keep reinventing and improving upon our methods of teaching."

"Many people have suggested that we do other languages, but so far we have resisted," George says. "We believe that this is the mistake of other language companies. Although we plan more Japanese related shows and even some short films, we will still focus on our target market: people studying Japanese," he says about the company's future goals. "Right now, we have begun targeting home-schooled children and are planning a strategy to help military members moving to Japan. Our biggest plan is one-on-one private lessons over the internet using video and voice technology."

Back to List Page