Marketing Soul In Japan

Learning English has never been as soulful as businessman Darrell Gartrell makes it. This fall he will open a third English-language school in Osaka, Japan .

An L.A. native, Gartrell founded WISDOM21 two years ago and attributes its success to a unique marketing scheme: Black culture. Students not only learn English, they are exposed to Black music, books and films. With more than 300 students, Gartrell says his monthly sales have reached $50,000.

" They need to see that there's much more to Black culture than that stuff they're

fed," he says. With his English program, and the Osaka chapter presidency of the Japan Africa America Friendship Association behind him, Gartrell hopes to dispel

western media negative images of Blacks and foster cultural understanding and trade between Black and Asian peoples.