Listening beats transcribing
The instinct in a second language is to write down as much as possible, because you do not trust your memory. It is the wrong trade: writing consumes the attention that comprehension needs, so extensive notes usually mean you understood less.
The better approach is to decide in advance what you are capturing and to let the rest go. For most meetings that is decisions, numbers, deadlines and anything addressed to you.
Katakana for speed
Katakana is faster to write than kanji and unambiguous to read back, which is why many Japanese note-takers use it for speed regardless of what the word would normally be written in.
For a learner this removes a real bottleneck, since you no longer have to recall or produce a kanji while also listening.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| カクニン | kakunin | Confirmation, written fast |
| シメキリ | shimekiri | Deadline |
| タントウ | tantō | Person responsible |
| ヨサン | yosan | Budget |
| ケッテイ | kettei | Decision |
| シュクダイ | shukudai | Action item |
Writing these in katakana is a recognised shorthand rather than an error. Notes are for you, and speed matters more than orthography.
Standard abbreviations
Japanese workplaces use a set of conventional abbreviations that appear on whiteboards, in notes and in internal messages. Knowing them means you can read colleagues' notes as well as write your own faster.
| Short | Full | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 打ち合わせ | 打合 | Meeting |
| よろしくお願いします | よろ | Regards, informal notes |
| 確認 | 確 | Check |
| 至急 | 至急 | Urgent |
| 以上 | 以上 | That is all, ends a list |
| 各位 | 各位 | To all concerned |
The last two appear constantly at the end and start of internal notices, and recognising them speeds up reading considerably.
Symbols instead of words
Relationships between ideas are much faster to record as symbols than as words, and they survive being read back in a way that half-finished sentences do not.
A small consistent set is better than an elaborate one you have to remember.
- An arrow for a consequence or a next step.
- A question mark for anything you did not catch, with space to fill in.
- A box or star for anything assigned to you.
- A circle around every date and number.
- A line down the margin for anything you must act on today.
What to capture verbatim
Some things must be written exactly and cannot be reconstructed later: numbers, dates, names and any figure with consequences. In a second language, memory for these is markedly worse than in your first, and confidence about them is misplaced.
Everything else can be a keyword. The distinction between what to capture exactly and what to summarise is the core of a workable system.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 三月十日まで | sangatsu tōka made | By 10 March: write exactly |
| 二十個 | nijukko | Twenty units: write exactly |
| 田中さん担当 | Tanaka-san tantō | Tanaka responsible: write exactly |
| 予算五十万 | yosan gojūman | Budget five hundred thousand: exactly |
| 方針変更 | hōshin henkō | Policy change: a keyword is enough |
| 次回検討 | jikai kentō | Consider next time: a keyword is enough |
Filling the gaps afterwards
Notes taken in a second language are always incomplete, and the difference between useful and useless notes is what happens in the ten minutes after the meeting.
Fill the question marks while the context is still in your head. An hour later you will have forgotten what the gap was about; a day later the notes are unusable.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| すみません、一点確認させてください。 | Sumimasen, itten kakunin sasete kudasai. | Sorry, may I confirm one point? |
| さきほどの数字をもう一度お願いします。 | Sakihodo no sūji o mō ichido onegai shimasu. | The figure from earlier, once more please. |
| 締め切りは来週金曜でしたか。 | Shimekiri wa raishū kin'yō deshita ka. | Was the deadline next Friday? |
| メモを取りきれませんでした。 | Memo o torikiremasen deshita. | I could not get it all down. |
| あとで議事録を確認します。 | Ato de gijiroku o kakunin shimasu. | I will check the minutes later. |
| 共有いただけると助かります。 | Kyōyū itadakeru to tasukarimasu. | It would help if you could share it. |
Asking one clarifying question immediately after a meeting is easy and normal. Asking three days later, when you cannot act, is neither.