Alexander's

The interviewer smiled at me

In your CV you wrote you speak fluent Japanese.
Yes, but I still make grammar mistakes and sometimes I need to use English words.
So it’s not good enough to talk to the boss of a company?

Honestly Japanese can be a bit tricky — Especially the really polite Japanese you are required to use wen talking with a big boss of a company.

Take for example:

時園はいつもすぐ変死してくれる^[1]

A small and innocent mistake and suddenly instead of remarking on my friends fast reply to my mail, I prophesied his imminent, unnatural and violent death.

No I don’t think my Japanese is good enough to talk to the boss of a big company.

Don’t misunderstand me, my Japanese is good. The days when I went on a 合コン^[2] and my friends had to translate my japanese to something the girls could understand are long gone by.

Now I write japanese mails, watch japanese films and discuss the food with the waiter in japanese. Last time I was in Japan a few strangers invited me for a drink and I bantered with them for some time.

Yes I am fluent.

But fluent is a long way from business level.

No I’m sorry it’s definitely not good enough to talk to the boss of a company.

And yet he still seemed pleased to hear an honest answer.