Skip to main content

TIFU by letting my CEO believe I speak fluent Japanese for four months because I panicked in an elevator, and now I’m hosting a dinner alone with executives from Tokyo

I’m currently sitting on the floor of my home staring at a wall thinking about what df I have done.
To give a little context, I work as a low level data analyst at a mid sized logistics firm. I’ve been here about nine months. Back in late October, I ended up in the elevator alone with our CEO, I will call him Greg. Greg is one of those hyper intense, aggressive networking guys who remembers everyone's name and expects you to be a like rockstar at all times.
He tried to make small talk and mentioned he had just gotten back from a business trip to Tokyo. Now, I do not speak Japanese. I did Duolingo for like three weeks during the 2020 lockdown, and I watched a lot of anime, but that is literally the extent of it. Instead of just saying "Oh cool, I've always wanted to go," my brain shortcircuited under the pressure of talking to the big boss. I decided to drop the one full sentence I had memorized, “Nihongo wa sukoshi shika hanasemasen" (I only speak a little Japanese).
Except I guess my pronunciation was accidentally decent, or Greg just didn't listen to the actual words, because his eyes lit up. He slapped my shoulder and said, "Ah, modesty! I love it! That kind of international mindset is what we need here."
I should have corrected him right then. That was Mistake #1.
Instead, I just smiled and nodded like an idiot.
Mistake #2 happened two weeks later in an all hands meeting. Greg was doing his usual rant about global expansion, pointed directly at me across the room, and said, "And of course, we’ve got Dave here, who’s fluent in Japanese, helping us bridge the gap!" Everyone looked at me. Everyone clapped. I froze. If I corrected him in front of 60 people, I’d embarrass the CEO and look like a liar. So I just did a weird half bow/nod thing and let it happen.
For the last four months, I have been living in absolute terror. Whenever emails came in from Japanese supplier contacts, people forwarded them to me. I survived purely by running text through DeepL, rewriting it so it didn't sound translated, and sending it back. I bought textbooks. I downloaded apps. I tried so hard to actually learn the language, but turns out learning Japanese while working 50 hours a week is impossible. Although I’ve learned quite a bit.
Which brings us to today, around 2:30 PM.
Greg walks up to my cubicle, practically beaming. He tells me that Executive VP and three senior guys from our primary Tokyo partner company landed early. Then came the sledgehammer: "I know you're super modest about it, Dave, but I told the VP that our resident Japanese speaker would take them out for a nice, private dinner tomorrow night to show them around town. Just you and them. No formal translators, keep it organic and build that rapport!"
I tried to object. I stammered out that my Japanese was rusty, that maybe a professional translator would be better for business etiquette. Greg just laughed, clapped my shoulder again, and said, "Nonsense! Don't be timid. You've got this."
So tomorrow at 7 PM, I am scheduled to sit at an upscale steakhouse alone with four native Japanese executives for three hours. I cannot use DeepL in real time while staring into an VP's eyes.
My current options are:
1. Fake a catastrophic medical emergency in the next 12 hours.
2. Show up, order food, and immediately confess that I lied to my boss for four months because I was scared of him.
3. Drink four martinis in the first ten minutes, attempt to communicate entirely through aggressive bowing and smile nodding, and accept my eventual termination on Friday morning.

TL;DR: Said one memorized Japanese phrase to my CEO to make small talk, didn't correct him when he assumed I was fluent, faked my way through emails for four months, and now I'm supposed to host a 3 hour private dinner for Japanese executives tomorrow night with zero translation help

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

TIFU By Fumbling My Gym Crush

I've never posted on Reddit before so apologies if anything is off. I (F) had a crush on a man at my gym for months. We would make extended eye contact frequently, workout in proximity, the usual gym things that get over analyzed when you like someone. He's wildly handsome, but I liked his vibe. A lot. It's hard to explain when someone's energy just hits different but his did. One day he started coming in with a woman. The day I saw her with him, he and I actually stared at each other from across the room for a while, and I turned and walked away because obviously gym rules - that's his girlfriend until I'm told otherwise. The eye contact continues and so does the proximity but I've dialed back completely because in my head, he has a girl and I am no home wrecker. Well, recently, on a Sunday, I was having a real shit day. I accidentally hurt my shoulder so my back day was all off, my body wasn't cooperating, the gym was packed - all I wanted to do w...

TIFU by getting called racist for not handing cash to a customer

today I (F18) fucked up by worked a long ahh shift and got put on register. I never hand money in people’s hands as customers have yelled at me for it, and i think it’s germy so I scoot it towards them as a sign of respect. this lady came in and after i did that she goes “Imma need you to do that again and put it in my hand, you did this last time too don’t you know it’s disrespectful” (meanwhile i haven’t worked register in 2 months at said job and didn’t recognize her) so i apologize, and then cuz it’s call off time i go talk to my boss about it and they all agree with me. apparently though she told my keyholder who’s a poc i was being RACIST by not touching her. so i got told i need to do better even though i didn’t do anything. she was insinuating i was a racist. idk if i should quit or what but i fucked up. TL;DR: i’m a dumbass

TIFU by making a joke that landed horribly

I was talking to someone and thought I was being funny, but the second the words left my mouth I knew I had messed up. It was one of those jokes that sounds fine in your head and then just dies completely in real life. Nobody laughed, the mood got awkward instantly, and I could feel my face getting hot because I knew I had just made everything weird for no reason. What made it worse is that I tried to recover from it instead of just shutting up. So then I started talking more, which only made it more obvious that I was panicking. You know that feeling when you can hear yourself getting worse while it’s happening and you still can’t stop? yeah, that was me. I kept trying to act normal, but the whole thing was already gone. After that I just wanted to disappear and pretend it never happened. I’m still thinking about it way more than I should, which somehow makes it even more embarrassing. I really should have just kept my mouth shut for once. TL;DR: I tried to be funny and the joke...