Business Japanese · Day 2 of 20
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Introductions and the business card
Say who you are, and handle 名刺交換
First meetings in Japanese business follow a script, and the script includes an object. The card is not a memory aid, it stands in for the person, which is why the handling of it is choreographed and why getting it slightly wrong is noticed. The language part is short. The mechanics are the lesson.
Naming yourself
Company first, then your name. Always that order:
と もうします rather than と いいます is the first real keigo you will use, and it is humble rather than polite: it lowers you rather than raising them. That is why it can only ever be used about yourself. Saying it about someone else is a mistake you will hear foreign staff make for years.
The same three things, three ways
Notice that the meaning does not change. Only the distance does:
The keigo line is what you use with anyone from outside your company, every time.
でございます is the formal です. わたくし is the formal わたし, and worth using in a first meeting.
You rarely need to ask. Cards are exchanged as a matter of course.
This is the shape of the whole course: one idea, three heights, and the job is choosing the height rather than learning three unrelated phrases. In a first business meeting, take the bottom row. Nobody has ever been thought strange for being a step too polite with a stranger, and the reverse is not true.
The exchange itself
Cards out before you sit down, held in both hands:
The exchange is simultaneous and slightly awkward for everyone, so nobody is watching your grammar. What is noticed is whether you look at the card. Taking a second to read the name and the title before setting it down is the single easiest way to come across well, and rushing it is the easiest way not to.
Carry over, from earlier days
Check yourself
8 questions. Nothing is saved unless you finish.