Kaizen Mini-Story Text

Hi this is AJ. Time for the mini-story for “The Kaizen Way.” Are you smling and happy? 

You jumping around? You’re up, you’re moving. Let’s get started.

* * * * *

Jan was a very rude woman. She was always rude to everybody. She was always 

very harsh to everybody. 

How was Jan?

Jan was rude. Jan was rude and harsh to everyone.

Who was very harsh and rude to everyone?

Jan, Jan was very harsh and was very rude to everyone.

Was Jan gentle and kind?

No. She was not gentle and kind. She was harsh. She was rude.

Was she rude and harsh to some people?

Not to some people, to everyone. She was rude and harsh to everyone.

People didn’t like Jan. Nobody liked Jan.

Why not?

Well, because she was rude and harsh to everyone. 

Jan always said rude comments to her friends. She always said harsh, rude 

zingers.

Zinger? What’s a zinger?

A zinger is something that’s surprising or shocking. So a zinger of a comment means a 

surprise comment. Jan always said rude zingers. She always gave rude zingers to her 

friends. It means rude, surprising comments. So a rude zinger would be a rude, 

surprising comment.

Were her zingers rude or funny?

Her zingers were rude. Her surprising comments were always rude.

Were her zingers kind?

No, not kind. Her zingers, her surprising comments were always harsh and rude.

Who always gave harsh zingers to her friends? Who always said harsh zingers to her 

friends?

Jan, Jan always gave, Jan always said harsh zingers to her friends. 

What kind of zingers?

Harsh zingers, rude zingers.

Who gave harsh, rude zingers?

Jan, Jan always said harsh, rude zingers. Shocking, surprising, rude comments all the 

time.

How often?

All the time.

All the time she gave harsh, rude zingers to her friends and everyone else.

Were her friends happy?

No, they cried.

Jan’s so mean. Jan is so harsh. Every day Jan’s friends cried and cried. Well 

one day Jan decided to change. She decided “I’m going to be a good person. I’m 

going to be kind and gentle and sweet.” She summoned all her friends to her 

house. 

What did she do?

She summoned her friends to her house.

Did she call her friends to her house?

Yes, she did. She called them to her house. 

She said “Come to my house, please.” She said please because she’s trying to 

be nice now. So she summoned her friends.

Who did she summon?

Her friends, Jan summoned her friends. She called her friends “Come to my house. 

Come to my house.” She summoned them.

Who summoned all her friends to her house?

Jan, Jan summoned all her friends to her house.

Which friends did she summon?

Well, all of them. She summoned every friend, all of them. Jan summoned all of her 

friends to her house.

Where did she summon them to?

Her house, she summoned them to her house.

They all came to her house. They sat in the living room and then Jan coughed up 

a compliment to each one. Jan said something nice to each one. It was a little 

difficult for Jan because usually, in the past, she was always so harsh and rude 

so she had to cough it up. She had to force the compliment out. It wasn’t easy in 

the beginning. So she kind of uh, ugh “You’re a very nice person. Ugh. You’re 

really intelligent.” Right? She kind of coughed out the compliments. She forced 

them out of her body, forced them out of her mouth.

Did the compliments come out easily?

Oh, no, they didn’t. They didn’t come out easily. She had to force them out. She had 

to cough them up.

What did Jan cough up?

Compliments, a compliment is a nice statement. Something you say that’s nice to 

someone. She had to cough up compliments.

Who had to cough up compliments?

Jan, Jan coughed up compliments to her friends.

Who did she cough up the compliments to?

To her friends, she coughed up compliments to her friends or for her friends.

What did she do?

She coughed up compliments to her friends.

How did she say them?

Well, she coughed them up. She forced them out. It wasn’t easy, but she did it. 

She said “I’m very sorry. I will never be harsh to you again.” 

Was she going to be harsh to her friends again?

No, she said “I will never be harsh to you again.”

How was she going to be?

Well, she was going to be gentle and kind. She was going to be gentle and kind to all 

her friends. She was not going to be harsh every again.

And so, over the course of two years Jan became nicer and nicer and nicer. She 

was super kind. She was super friendly. She gave compliments to everybody. 

Over the course of how many years did she do this?

Well, over the course of two years, for two years, during two years, for two years. Over 

the course of two years. 

Who was nice and kind over the course of two years?

Jan, Jan was always nice and kind and friendly over the course of two years. 

For how long?

For two years, over the course of two years.

Over the course of two years, what did Jan do?

Well, Jan became very kind. Jan gave compliments every day, all the time, over the 

course of two years.

Who always gave compliments over the course of two years every day?

Jan, Jan always gave compliments every day to everybody, over the course of two 

years.

Now, of course, everybody loved Jan. After two years they loved her. They gave 

her kisses. They gave her money. They gave her love and friendship. Everybody 

in the world loved Jan. And Jan, of course, felt very fulfilled, very happy, very 

satisfied.

After two years, how did Jan feel?

She felt fulfilled. She felt satisfied and very, very happy. 

Why did she feel fulfilled after two years?

Well, because now everybody loved her. After two years everybody loved Jan. So she 

felt fulfilled.

How did she feel?

Fulfilled, she felt fulfilled. She felt satisfied and happy.

Who felt fulfilled?

Jan, Jan felt fulfilled. She felt loved. She felt appreciated. She felt fulfilled.

* * * * *

And that is the end of our mini-story for “The Kaizen Way.” I hope you enjoyed it. Listen 

to it many, many times. Remember, deep learning, deep learning, deep learning. One 

more time – deep learning. That means you listen to “The Kaizen Way” lessons, all of 

them in this set, every day for one week, seven days. Don’t go to the next lesson set. 

Keep learning this one. Keep learning the Kaizen way, every day over the course of 

one week. Or over the course of two weeks if you want to. Deep learning is very 

important. You must repeat this mini-story many, many times. 

Alright, good physiology. Smile. Shoulders back. Move your body, feel great. See you 

next time. Next lesson is the point of view lesson.

Kaizen Main Text

Hi, this is AJ with your next lesson. The rest of the lessons are going to be a little bit 

different than what you’ve had up ‘til now. In the rest of these lessons, I’m going to talk 

about some book or article or idea, I’ll probably read a little bit of it just so you can get 

the general idea of the topic, and then I’ll talk about that topic. And, of course, we’ll 

have our same mini‑stories, we’re going to have our vocabulary lessons, and we’re 

going to add one more kind of lesson, the point of view lesson. The point of view lesson 

is really great for learning grammar in an intuitive way. Alright, so let’s get started.

This lesson is called “The Kaizen Way.” So we’re going to talk about a book. The book 

is called The Kaizen Way by Robert Maurer. Now, kaizen is a Japanese word although 

we use it in English now a little bit. Especially in Business you find it a lot, kaizen. 

Kaizen, as our Japanese students already know, means small improvements over time. 

It really means constant and neverending improvement. But it has this idea of making 

little tiny improvements again and again and again and again, for one week, for one 

month, for one year, forever. So kaizen is kind of the opposite of innovation. 

Innovation means a sudden, big change, a sudden, big improvement. And that’s a great 

way to learn and improve. For example, you could study English very intensely for one 

month or two months and you would make a big, sudden improvement. That’s the 

innovation idea, but there’s another way you can improve and that is the kaizen way. 

And the kaizen way means maybe you just listen to English or read English or study 

English, maybe you just do it 20 minutes every day. And every day you improve just a 

little bit. But the key, the secret is you do it every single day. Every day you make one 

little improvement. Well after one week, one month, one year, two years, five years, you 

will make a huge change just by making little tiny improvements over time. That’s the 

idea of kaizen. 

So I’m going to read a little bit from The Kaizen Way, just a couple paragraphs, and then 

I’ll talk about it more. Okay, so here’s a section, it’s called Kaizen Tip and this is from 

Robert Maurer, M-a-u-r-e-r, that’s his last name. Okay, Kaizen Tip:

“You want to do something creative. Write a story or a song. Paint 

a picture. Dream up your perfect career. Learn something or come 

up with a zinger of a solution to an office problem. But you have no 

idea where to start. Your mind keeps coming up empty. During 

times like these, kaizen can help you summon your powers of 

inspiration. Although you can’t force your brain to cough up 

creative ideas on demand, you can program to launch the 

imaginative process simply by asking yourself a small question. 

Here are some of the most popular small questions my clients use 

for creativity. Feel free to come up with your own. Whatever 

question you use, your challenge is to ask it with a gentle and 

patient spirit. When you use harsh or urgent tones with yourself, 

fear will clog the creative process. 

So here are some questions you can ask yourself. Number 1, 

what’s one thing I wish to contribute to the world with my project or 

idea? Number 2, whom could I ask for help or inspiration? Number 

3, what is special about my creative process, about my talents, 

about my team? Number 4, what type of work would excite and 

fulfill me? Number 5, what small tiny change could I make now, 

today, to improve? 

Remember, if you repeat the question for several days or weeks, or 

however long it takes, the hippocampus, which is the part of the 

brain that stores information, will have no choice but to address it. 

And in its own way, on its own timetable, the brain will begin giving 

you answers.”

Okay, that’s the section from The Kaizen Way, so this is very interesting from Robert 

Maurer here. This technique of asking small questions to yourself is very powerful. You 

can use it for anything. You can use it for learning English, of course. You could ask 

yourself small questions every day. For example, how could I improve today just a little 

bit? Or how could I improve my pronunciation 2% this week? The important part of 

asking these questions is that they must be small questions. So don’t say how could I 

be totally perfect with English in one month? That’s a huge question and often you’ll 

feel stress or worry or fear if you ask this gigantic, huge question. You’ll think, oh my 

god, I don’t know, can I do it? 

But if you ask a very small question, it seems so small, so easy, your brain will say “Oh, 

I can do that, that’s easy.” And then you will start to take action. And, of course, action 

is the most important part. Action is what we need. So if you try to ask big questions, 

you’re trying to improve very fast and you’re feeling stress, maybe you can change your 

strategy. Try the Kaizen way. Instead, ask yourself little small questions. How could I 

improve just a little bit? How could I learn just one new word each day? How could I 

improve my pronunciation just a tiny bit each week? Ask yourself these little questions. 

And another point from this article, you need to repeat the questions again and again 

and again. You have to ask this same question or questions every day for one week or 

two weeks or maybe even a couple months. By asking yourself these questions again, 

again, every day you’re asking the same question, your brain must come up with an 

answer. Your brain must find an answer. It will find answers. Keep asking questions, 

your brain will give you answers. It will give you better and better answers the more you 

ask these small questions. So anytime you have some big goal, some big project that 

seems so difficult, try the kaizen way. Try to approach this problem with little small tiny 

improvements. Ask yourself little small easy questions every day, again and again and 

again. Your brain will get more energy. It will find the answers. You’ll get momentum. 

You’ll start to take action. And then after one month you’ll take bigger actions. After two 

to three months, bigger actions, bigger actions. Actually these improvements start to 

grow. The improvements get bigger and faster and faster. That’s the magic of the 

kaizen way. It seems so small and tiny. It seems so easy but over time it builds. It 

grows stronger and stronger.

So try this. Try this method. Try the kaizen way. And again, the book title is The Kaizen 

Way, that’s K-a-i-z-e-n, kaizen, The Kaizen Way by Robert Maurer.

Alright, and remember, of course, keep your psychology strong. Keep your physiology 

strong. I hope you’re smiling right now. I hope those shoulders are back. Chin up. 

Lots of energy. Don’t forget that every single lesson. You must be smiling. You must 

be moving. You must have energy in your body. That’s how you’re going to learn 

English much, much faster. Okay, I will see you next time.

Kaizen Vocabulary Text

Welcome to the vocabulary lesson for “The Kaizen Way.” Are you smiling? Big smile, 

remember. Body up, shoulders back. Big smile, make it bigger, come on, a huge grin. 

Look stupid. Look silly. What about your body? Start moving it. If you’re sitting in a 

car, if you’re sitting in a train, you know you can just move your legs around a little bit. 

People look at you and think you’re strange, it’s okay. Hopefully you have a chance, 

you’re out walking. Get that iPod in your ears. Move your body. Energy, get some 

energy in your body. We’re going to learn some English. Are you ready? Let’s go. 

Vocabulary for “The Kaizen Way.” 

Our first word from this article from this lesson is zinger, a zinger. Now a zinger is a 

surprise or a shock. So in the article, it came from the phrase “You want to come up 

with a zinger of a solution to an office problem.” So a zinger of a solution means a 

surprise or a shock of a solution. It means a solution that is surprising, in a good way 

here, of course, it can be negative. Zingers can sometimes be a little bit negative, but it 

has this idea of something that is surprising or something that is shocking. Something 

that is sudden, a zinger.

Alright, our next word after zinger, our next word is summon. To summon or to summon 

up, sometimes we’ll say summon up, sometimes we just say summon. And in the 

article we had the phrase “Kaizen can help you summon your powers of inspiration.” 

Summon your power, to summon means to call, call something to you, right? Like 

“Come here, come to me now.” Or to arouse, to arouse is another similar word to 

summon. Or to conjure, all of these have similar meanings. So to summon your power 

means to call your power “Power come to me now!” That’s the idea. So kaizen, this 

method, this way of thinking, this way of improving, little small improvements, asking 

little small questions, it can summon your power. It calls your power to you. It gives you 

power. So again, to summon means to call someone or something to you. It’s kind of 

like saying “Come to me. Come now.” To summon, to summon. 

Next we have the phrase to cough up, to cough up. Now cough up has a very direct 

meaning, a very physical meaning. But then it also has more of a mental idea meaning. 

And let me read the phrase, in the phrase it says “Although you can’t force your brain to 

cough up creative ideas, you can program it.” Okay, to cough up means to give or to 

produce quickly, right? To make something happen quickly, to give quickly, this idea of 

calling up actually. And it comes from, physically, it means if we cough we would say 

“cough, cough, cough”, right, so if you cough something up, imagine you eat something 

and then “cough” you cough it up, it comes from your stomach, up and out your mouth 

again. So that’s the direct physical meaning. This idea that something is inside and 

then you bleah, you cough it out. It comes out of your mouth. So if you have that idea 

in your mind you can see that picture. Well, imagine you’re doing that with an idea. You 

have an idea in your brain. If you cough it up it means, it kind of, it’s in your brain and 

bleah, it comes out, out of your mouth or out of your body or writing it. 

So it’s deep in your brain and then, bleah, you force it to come out. So that’s that idea, 

coughing up, this idea of forcing something to come out of you, come out of your brain, 

come out of your body. So if we cough up an idea it means “I need an idea, I need an 

idea,” bleah, argh, got it, right? And suddenly a great idea comes out of you. That’s this 

idea of coughing up. So in this section Robert Maurer is saying you cannot force, you 

cannot make your brain cough up ideas, right? You say “I want an idea. I want an 

idea.” Well, you can’t make it come out, right? Ideas come out when they want to it 

seems. But he says kaizen will help the ideas come out.

Alright, next we have the word harsh, harsh. In the article we had the phrase “When 

you use a harsh tone with yourself, fear will clog the entire creative process.” We’ll talk 

about clog in a minute, but let’s talk about harsh first. Harsh means very rough, too 

strong, very bitter. It’s really the opposite of gentle. So if you use a harsh tone, it’s like 

“Get me an idea now!” That’s a very harsh tone. I’m speaking in a harsh way. Now the 

opposite would be gentle. I would say “Give me an idea now please.” That’s a very 

gentle tone. So again, harsh is the opposite of gentle when we’re talking about 

speaking or emotions. Harsh, arrr, very rough. 

Alright, and in that same sentence we have the word clog, to clog. Now to clog means 

to block or to hinder, right? You stop something from happening. You block it. You 

prevent it. So fear will clog the creative process. It means fear will stop creativity. Fear 

will block it, right? If you’re harsh with yourself, if you’re too rough, then you kind of get 

afraid and then the creativity is blocked. It’s clogged.

Alright, next we have the word fulfill. One of the questions we asked, one of the small 

questions we asked was what type of work would excite and fulfill me? What would 

fulfill me? Now fulfill means to satisfy, right? To fulfill means make you feel good, make 

you feel happy, make you feel satisfied. If you fulfill someone, you satisfy them. If you 

fulfill yourself, then you satisfy yourself. 

Alright, our next phrase is over the course of, over the course of. We had the big 

sentence “If you repeat the question over the course of several days or weeks, you will 

find an answer.” Okay, if you repeat the question over the course of several days, over 

the course of several days. Well, really that just means for or during. It’s just saying a 

length of time, during the time of several days, for several days. So if you repeat the 

question for several days, if you repeat the question during the time of several days, if 

you repeated the question over the course of several days, same meaning, all of them. 

Just means during this time, over the course of. It means you’re doing this thing during 

seven days, for seven days or eight days or several days, whatever, any time period. 

Okay? So over the course of just talks about a time period that you’re doing something.

Alright, next is the word hippocampus. Now, this is not a really common word, you’re 

not going to hear it in conversation a lot. It’s a part of the brain that stores information. 

It’s kind of like your memory. In a computer, for example, you have a hard disc and a 

hard disc stores information long‑term, for a long time. Well, this part of your brain, the 

hippocampus is basically like your brain’s hard disc. So you’ve got a little hard disc in 

your brain, a little part of your brain. That’s where the information is stored. That’s 

where you remember stuff. So right now you’re putting vocabulary into that part of your 

brain. You’re storing that information. You are remembering it. You’re keeping it. 

Alright so if you’re a scientist or something, maybe you need that word but most of us 

don’t use that word a lot.

Finally, we have the verb to address, to address something. Now address is also a 

noun, it has a totally different meaning. So we’re going to talk about the verb. In the 

article it said “Your brain will have no choice but to address the question.” Now here to 

address means to concentrate on, to focus on, to think about, do something about. But 

I like this idea of to concentrate on or to focus on. So your brain must address the 

problem. It must focus on the problem. It must concentrate on the problem. To 

address, used as a verb. Now address also has other meanings, even when it’s used 

as a verb. But we’re not going to talk about all the meanings, you just need to know this 

meaning right now because that’s the meaning we find in this article. Alright, so to 

address, to focus on, to concentrate on. 

Now that is all of the vocabulary for “The Kaizen Way.” Listen to it several times and 

then go and listen to the mini‑story. As always, in every single lesson, you better be 

smiling! I’m going to come and check on you. I want to see that big smile. I want to 

see that body moving. I want to see those shoulders back, feeling strong. Strong 

physiology is so important with the Effortless English system. You’ve got to do it. It is 

the core. It is the fundamental most important part of this learning system. Use it every 

single time you listen to English. 

Alright, that is the end of “The Kaizen Way” vocabulary lesson.