Keigo??? 敬語 ????

I was in Yokohama all day today at a Japanese Business Manner Instructional Class. There were many people from my company there. The class was all day and it taught about all the important manners we must have to do business in Japan. We discussed everything from giving out name cards to where we should sit in a car with a customer. We also practiced speaking very polite business Japanese.

I was the only American there. The rest were Japanese. I only knew maybe 5 people out of the 25 or 30 that was there. It was really tough for me. I have studied the basic Japanese manners and culture of Japanese business. But one thing I have never been good at is speaking polite Japanese business. Everyone in Japan who really knows me will know that I do not speak polite Japanese. Actually I guess sometimes I am too casual with my language and may even be rude. I think many of my friends would agree ... right Mik??? hehe

BUT lately I have been trying to clean up my language. I have been studying and today was very good for me. I did once again realize today just how formal and different the business culture is in Japan compared to the US. The business culture in the US is so casual. Its very comfortable and classes like the one I had today are not needed. But in Japan I can understand even for Japanese how these types of classes are needed. I saw many Japanese people today make many mistakes with the language. So I didn`t feel to bad. I understand I need to be more polite and use better words and expressions..... DAMMIT!!! ... hehe. So I will just keep studying. In the end I hope the people I work with will respect me for my efforts. It was an interesting class. Tomorrow in the office I get to use and practice everything I learned today. I think everyone will think that Todd has gone crazy.