19 years ago I moved from West Virginia to Tamano,…

19 years ago I moved from West Virginia to Tamano, Japan for a year-long high school exchange program through the Rotary club. It was one of the most impactful, perplexing, and exciting experiences of my life. I wrote a blog called Thousands of Miles from Home about my time spent in the country and also published selected writings into a book.

Last month, I re-visited my family, friends, and teachers in Japan. My host sister has kids now! My friends from high school are just as funny and cool as I remember, and some of them also have kids. At a Rotary club meeting in Tamano, at the same venue where I first met my host family, I gave this speech. I’m proud of the evolution of my Japanese ability over the years, and I am looking forward to continuing my studies to be able to share new experiences with old (and new) friends in Japan.

みなさん、こんにちは。ベンジャミンと申します。初めまして。19年前に玉野に留学生として来たことは、私の人生にとって非常に大切な経験でした。その時、ロータリーのプログラムを通じて、多くのことを学び、感銘を受けました。

その頃、私は日本語がほとんど話せませんでした。しかし、渡辺先生、しょうこさん、そして木村という日本語の先生のおかげで、日本語を話せるようになり、日本文化への理解も深まりました。

私はアメリカのウェストバージニア州で生まれました。ペンシルベニア州ピッツバーグに近いところです。最近、日本製鉄がUS Steelを買収したため、ピッツバーグをご存知かもしれません。子供の頃から、私はロボット工学にとても興味を持っていました。日本に1年間住んでいるうちに、ロボットに対する愛情がさらに深まりました。北九州で、道路を歩いているロボットを見たのは本当に驚きでした。

留学の後、私はマサチューセッツ工科大学でロボット工学と人工知能を勉強しました。京都府精華町のATRに就職しました。その会社では、人間と見間違えるほどのロボットがありました。本物の人間のような、なめらかな肌と自然な髪の毛を持っていました。しかし、音声合成の面ではまだ改善の余地がありました。

7年前、私は Replicant という会社を設立しました。私はその会社のCTOを務めています。Replicant の目標は、電話で顧客サービスを支援できる会話型ロボットを作成することでした。設立以来、会社の従業員数は200人に増えました。ロボットは30以上の言語に対応していますが、英語に次いで教えた2番目の言語はやっぱり日本語でした。

ロータリーのプログラムや渡辺家族のおかげで、今の私の成功があります。日本は常に私にインスピレーションを与えてくれ、その影響は計り知れません。今週、東京で多くのAI研究者との有意義な出会いがありました。

このような素晴らしい機会を与えてくださり、心から感謝しています。本当にありがとうございます！

My name is Benjamin. It’s nice to meet you. 19 years ago I was an exchange student in Tamano. That time has had a major impact on my life.

First of all, I want to thank all of you for supporting the rotary exchange program. 19 years ago I did not know any Japanese. Thanks to teacher Watanabe, Mrs. Shoko, teacher Kimura, and others, I have become a little better at speaking Japanese and understanding the culture of Japan.

I grew up in West Virginia, close to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Actually, Nippon Steel just bough US Steel, which is also located in Pittsburgh. When I was a kid I really liked robotics. During my year living in Japan, my love of robotics grew. I visited Kita-kyuushu where they had robots walking on the street. It was amazing!

After my exchange year, I studied robotics and artificial intelligence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I also studied Japanese. I got a job at ATR in Keihanna Science City. At that company, they had a robot that looked like a real person. It had real looking skin and hair. However, when it opened its mouth, the voice synthesis was not very good. At that time, I wondered how many years it would take for AI voice synthesis to improve.

Over the years I kept up with friends and family in Japan, and made many trips back to Japan with my friends and family from America.

Seven years ago I started a company called Replicant. I am currently the CTO. The goal of Replicant was to make a talking robot that could help with customer service over the phone. Today, that company is more than 200 people and the robot speaks more than 30 languages. However, the first language I taught the robot to speak after English was Japanese.

Without the Rotary exchange program, without teacher Watanabe, I would not be as successful as I am today. Japan inspired me, and continues to inspire me. This week I visited with many AI researchers in Tokyo working on LLMs (large language models), and I am helping contribute to LLMs that are getting better at speaking in Japanese.

Thank you again for giving me this gift. I am very grateful. Thank you very much!