2025年3月に取材した埼玉の開智中学校の取材記事がGW前にアップされていたのでご紹介させていただきます。
社会科の先生は比較的よくしゃべってくれるので、どうやって文章を削るかが編集では問われます。一応受験生の子供を持つ親なので、ある意味全部が重要に聞こえます。だから盛り込めるだけ盛り込みたいのですが、最終的には以下の内容は削る対象となります。
(1)録音の音声が聞き取りにくいもの
(2)本筋と関係ないもの(気持ちよくしゃべってはいるものの)
(3)こちら側の質問や疑問の確認内容
それでも多い時はかたまりをごっそり取ってしまうこともあります。
このシカクいアタマをマルくするの取材は、だいたい流れが決まっているので質問事項も毎回同じですが、企業取材の場合には、どの点を取り上げたいかによって編集内容が大きく変わります。
とはいえ、結局は相手の担当者がいい人か否かによるのですが。。取材に限らず、完璧主義者や自分の型にはめようとする人は苦手です。私があなたの頭の中を知るはずもないわけで、「わかりますよね？」的な発言されると「はぁ？」とカチンとくることも少なくありません。そもそも、話者が上場企業の人間だろうが東大卒だろうが、会話力、論理力がない人は多いため、取材を通じて「この人は説明が上手いな」「この人の周りの人は振り回されるだろうな」というのが透けて見えます。
それらにめげず「はいはい」とお母さんのように取材することに慣れてしまった今は、どんな人間でも「頭のいい人」に見せる記事を書けるようになっています。
An article based on an interview conducted in March 2025 at Kaichi Junior High School in Saitama was published just before Golden Week, so I’d like to share it with you.
The social studies teacher was relatively talkative, which meant the editing process mainly involved figuring out how to trim the content. As a parent of a child preparing for entrance exams, I naturally find everything they say important. So, while I want to include as much as possible, in the end, I usually end up cutting the following:
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Parts where the audio recording is hard to hear
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Tangents that, while enthusiastically delivered, are unrelated to the main topic
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Our own questions or clarification checks
Even so, sometimes entire chunks have to be cut.
With interviews for the “Sharpening Square Minds into Circles” series, the general flow is fairly fixed, and the questions are mostly the same each time. However, in interviews with companies, the editing direction can vary greatly depending on what aspects we want to highlight.
That said, it ultimately depends on whether the person in charge is easy to work with or not. This applies not just to interviews — I find it difficult dealing with perfectionists or people who try to force their own way of thinking onto others. After all, I have no way of knowing what’s going on inside someone else’s head. So when someone says, “You get what I mean, right?” it sometimes makes me want to say, “Excuse me?”
Regardless of whether the person works at a publicly listed company or graduated from the University of Tokyo, there are plenty of people who lack communication and logical thinking skills. Through interviews, you often get a glimpse of who’s articulate and who likely causes chaos for those around them.
Even so, I’ve gotten used to interviewing people with a motherly “yes, yes” attitude. At this point, I’ve developed the ability to write articles that can make just about anyone seem intelligent.
株式会社ASAP
及川知也
