WTF: Meet Peter

“We the Facilitators” (WTF) is a series presented by Link Global Solution (LGS) to shine the spotlight on our multilingual instructors. For those who have yet to take one of our workshops, WTF will give you the opportunity to get to know the members of our team, who deliver intercultural communication and business skills training that is educational, enlightening, entertaining, and always engaging.

In this installment of WTF, we are pleased to introduce Peter Frazer.

—— Peter, having joined LGS’s facilitator team last year, you’re the new kid on the block. How have you been settling in?

Peter: It’s been an exciting and wild ride, Richard. Before joining LGS, I worked in Australia as an editor at a publishing house. I was then an ALT (assistant language teacher) in a junior high school for five wonderful years on the JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) Program in a very small town in Gunma prefecture. So to go from working with children in a school in Gunma surrounded by rice paddies to working with global businesspeople in the middle of Ginza was certainly a shock to the system.

Going from working with children in a school in a very small town in Gunma surrounded by rice paddies to working with global businesspeople in the middle of Ginza was certainly a shock to the system.

—— Ah, the Gunma connection. With so many of our other facilitators (Nate, Brooke, Michelle) hailing from Gunma, it seems that’s become a hiring prerequisite, right?

Peter: Right. Most of our facilitators were recruited through word-of-mouth. As for the other facilitators, Nate knew Brooke, who knew Michelle, who knew me.

—— Hang on a second. I want to make sure I got the order right. Nate, Brooke, Michelle, then you, right?

Peter: Yep, you’ve got it (laughs). The year I came to Japan was the year Brooke started with LGS, but she sometimes went back to visit her friends in Gunma. Within my first few weeks in Japan, a friend invited me to a jazz performance that was being held in the small town where I was living. That’s how I met Brooke—she was one of the performers on stage!

In Michelle’s case, she was an ALT at the same time as me. We met at a JET Association social event and bonded over being two of the few Australians in a sea of American JETs.

—— My Australian geography isn’t great, but if I’m not mistaken, you and Michelle aren’t from the same part of the country, right?

Peter: Not at all. We’re basically from completely different sides of the Land Down Under. Michelle is from Melbourne, while I was living in Brisbane just before I came to Japan. But my hometown is much farther north: a small city of about 100,000 people called Mackay, which is where my interest in Japan and Japanese actually began.

At the time, I was also interested in the booming Japanese pop culture of the 90s—video games and anime—so my hobbies and learning Japanese really went hand-in-hand.

Starting from when I was 10 years old, it was compulsory for me to study a foreign language and the only available option was Japanese. Another reason I was drawn to Japanese was that it matched a lot of my hobbies at the time. For example, a karate dojo opened down the street from my house, so my brothers and I used to practice karate there together after school. We used Japanese when referencing specific punches, kicks, and kata, as well as when we counted out loud during drills. At the time, I was also interested in the booming Japanese pop culture of the 90s—video games and anime—so my hobbies and learning Japanese really went hand-in-hand.

Then, a couple of years later, my family took a trip to the Gold Coast, which was taking off as a popular destination for Japanese tourists in the 1990s. At one point, my brothers and I were making sandcastles on the beach at Surfers Paradise and a Japanese couple on their honeymoon—I even remember their name: it was Watanabe—approached us and asked to take a photo of us. When I greeted them in my very—very!—rudimentary Japanese, they were so surprised and excited that I could communicate with them. This simple exchange gave me the motivation to continue studying and I became more interested in Japan and intercultural communication.

—— So that sparked a renewed interest for you?

Peter: Yes. I continued to study Japanese through high school and university, which means I’ve been studying Japanese, on and off, for almost 20 years. Before I came here to live, I visited Japan on four separate occasions for a variety of reasons, from school trips to vacations with friends to study scholarships. These visits reinforced the idea that I would eventually like to try living in Japan.

—— One last question before I let you go. You’ve been an LGS facilitator for less than a year, but you’re working alongside guys who’ve been at it for quite a while, some for more than 10 years. Do you ever find it daunting to work with them?

Peter: Absolutely. It’s certainly a humbling experience. But I’m also very lucky. To be working with such a talented group of people with so much industry and life experience so early in my career is an incredible opportunity. I still have a lot to learn, but I plan to keep working hard.

—— Thank you, Peter, for sharing your time with me today. And good luck!