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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
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