Cross-cultural communication （43）　

43）The Benefits of French
There are several foreign-affiliated pharmaceutical companies in Japan, and there are quite a few foreign nationals among the executives and representatives of these companies. On several occasions, Kido Clinic has been chosen as the place for these people (I have yet to meet any women...) to visit when they are inspecting the medical scene in Kansai.

One time, the sales manager of a certain company who came to visit was a Japanese-Canadian. According to the information I had in advance, he was Japanese-Canadian, but he didn't use any Japanese at work, and he was a very capable person. When I went to greet him at the entrance to the clinic, he was much smaller than I had expected, and he looked completely Japanese. I thought that if he was such a brilliant person, I would try to be a little more attentive in my response, so I greeted him in French with the standard greeting: Bienvenue a Osaka! Je suis tres heureux de vous voir. (Welcome to Osaka. I am very happy to see you.) I tried to speak in natural French, and we carried on the conversation in French for a while after that.

The official languages of Canada are English and French, and both are officially treated as equal. However, in reality, English is overwhelmingly strong, and most English-speaking Canadians can only speak a few words of French, while conversely, most French-speaking Canadians speak English fluently due to the need for it in their work. In fact, I knew this when I said hello in French. Perhaps I was a little mean.

The Japanese-Canadian then said, with a slightly embarrassed expression and a slight blush on his face, that he was a Canadian, but that his French was only good enough to understand the gist of your greeting, and that if it was all right with you, he would like to speak in English.

Of course, after that, we got into a lively conversation about topics such as the concept behind the new Kido Clinic building and the problems with medical practice in Japan. Obviously, he was more fluent in English than I was, and there was no doubt that he had a wider vocabulary. However, I think I was in the driving seat for the whole 30-minute conversation.

Japanese people who are not confident in their English tend to let the English-speaking person take the lead in the conversation when they are interacting with someone from an English-speaking country. However, as in this example, if you can throw in a French word or two, the situation can completely reverse itself. I have had this kind of experience a few times, so it seems to be a fairly universal phenomenon. However, if you use it too much, you may come across as a smug Japanese person, so only use it when you think it's appropriate.

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