Just as a short explanation, I’ve been at this company for a few years now, and we previously had this system but it then went away with corona. Since then, they’ve finally decided to bring it back, and it’s instantly become my most dreaded few minutes in the whole day.
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As a note, I do speak business-level Japanese and use it on a daily basis, but tongue twisters in Japanese are a whole other monster and I have no desire to practice or get better at it – it has absolutely no benefit to my job. I’ve complained before and they said it’s “team building” (my ass, our actual work that involves working together is team building). It feels highly insulting to be the only non-native speaker surrounded by Japanese, who are all speaking quickly and have to wait for me to do it slowly, and it makes me feel like crap.
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This is partly just a vent post, but I’m curious if anyone else has had a similar experience in their jobs? I’ve skipped the first few days simply by sitting at my desk, and no one has said anything yet but I can feel that they’re starting to get annoyed that I refuse to participate. Honestly, I’m a high enough position (senpai) where only a direct talking-to from my boss would make me change my mind.
21 comments
早く話せない、大嫌い、泣きたい、I wanna die. Maybe give them that one and see if they want you to still participate.
Doing your job isn’t team building. No one is laughing at you for taking too long on tongue twisters. Acting high & mighty because you’re expected to speak Japanese in Japan is weird. Senpai isn’t a position.
Consider playing the part of the circus panda, hamming up during your turn (making real and pretend mistakes), showing comical frustration with the language, etc. (After all, your intestines are too short to speak it properly, so it’s not really your fault.)
In other words, act.
This will show what a fun, laid-back person you are, and the “team” will have been “built”
You’re taking this waaaaay too seriously. Allow yourself to screw up. Allow yourself to laugh at yourself. It’s okay. It’s not some test you have to pass.
But if the uneven playing field still bothers you: introduce some English tongue twisters after the Japanese ones have played out to turn the tables around. Then you get to laugh. Or not. Who cares.
I’d just laugh it off honestly. Or you could suggest practising some English ones just for laughs.
Either way, I don’t think it’s worth dreading. Tongue twisters are a challenge no matter the language.
You work at a Japanese company and speak Japanese daily. Relax!
Just to add, you aren’t the boss so if everyone excluding you is participating, I why should you be exempt? Just say you’re embarrassed and don’t want to continue feeling humiliated.
Just participate and do your best, it’s not a hill I would be willing to die on. You are alienating yourself from your coworkers by refusing to participate and that is definitely bad for team building as well as your career. Participating with your coworkers is more important than how well you do the exercise. None of the Japanese people I work with expect me to be able to speak Japanese like a native speaker, so I think it’s unlikely that your coworkers do, either.
It’s hard to recommend what you should do when we don’t know the specifics of how it’s done.
ie. “After cho-rei, our bu-chou chooses a tongue twister and we have to go around in a circle and say it.” vs. “After cho-rei, we split up into small teams and one person picks a tongue twister that everyone has to say” vs. “After cho-rei, we go around and everyone says their favorite tongue twister, most people say the same one each day.”
Those 3 situations all have 3 totally different vibes that have different suggestions we all could make.
I see people here saying it’s not a big deal and just do it, but I feel you, OP.
For people who don’t care about coming off as awkward or laughable to others//don’t care about their Japanese level etc will probably see no problem here, but if you are 1) very conscious socially (kind of like social anxiety), this can be a whole level of nightmare. Even though others definitely don’t think much of it, this kind of situation can be a stress factor for you personally, so it’s natural you want to avoid it. 2) if you personally care about your own level of Japanese and how you sound and it’s a part of your personal pride (given that OP mentioned he speaks on a business level), you definitely will not want to put yourself in a situation where you are clearly inferior to everyone else, even if it’s as simple as doing tongue twisters.
The bottom line is, if it’s not a serious thing in the first place, then your co workers also shouldn’t care about you not joining it. If THIS is what team building for them is, then they clearly have a problem and not you.
If you genuinely feel super bothered by this, just don’t do it, I’m sure you can’t lose your job or something solely on this basis lol.
If it doesn’t matter who cares ? Doesn’t sound like a serious thing and is just for fun. Relax 😂
I did tongue twisters at my work with my colleagues in Japanese. I was the only English native speaker with about 6 native Japanese speakers. They were impressed I could do half of one (ブスバスガイドバスガス爆発). I taught them a couple in English. My Japanese colleagues were shocked I couldn’t say “The sixth sick sheik’s sixth sheep’s sick” either. We all had a good laugh and it was fun.
Explore why you can’t show weakness in front of your coworkers. I’m sure not everyone in your section is equally proficient in tongue twisters (or their jobs), but attitude really counts. Do you try your best, or do you give up and sulk? This goes for both the tongue twisters and the job. Figure out your real weakness, and find ways to cope.
That said, practicing tongue twisters at home could improve your performance, your Japanese and your enunciation. Get a book of them from the library, and make it part of your morning and evening warm-up routine.
Kaki kuu kyaku helped me a lot in saying summer leave, lol!
This kind of corporate mandated Fun™ isn’t enjoyable under any circumstances. Doesn’t matter what country I’m in or what language I’m speaking. It can feel tedious at best and demeaning at worst.
I think some people aren’t considering that when they say, “just have fun!” So I can sympathize with OP on that.
But, as for the language difference, I agree that nobody cares how well you can do these tounge twisters. Especially since they know it’s not your native language. And it isn’t something where your performance impacts your company or your coworkers.
I don’t think you need to worry about your language ability. But I would worry that your company is forcing you to do these kind of useless めんどくさい activities.
Yeah sorry, I would love this not just to practice or “team building” but to goof off and have a good laugh for a few minutes before work.
Wtf is everyone saying it’s not a big deal, just laugh it off, etc. lol. Jesus H., have some self-respect. Find a new job that doesn’t treat you like a fucking clown, or put your foot down and tell them to fuck off. It’s not about the act itself, it’s about the philosophy that goes into a workplace environment that places so much emphasis on this kinda bullshit.
I don’t know what position or job you’re in, but when I started treating work like Peter from Office Space, my career, salary, and job prospects went through the roof, and it’s not because I’m anything special or some genius or anything, it’s that no one treats you with respect until you start respecting yourself enough to navigate your own life and deal with situations directly. Every single person who’s like “oh haha just laugh it off,” is probably a social zombie/NPC just going through the motions to get through each day. If that’s your level of aspiration then there’s nothing wrong with that, but if you want to get ahead you need to look at the big picture and ask, “wtf am I wasting my time on such a shit workplace?”
Get one of those apps that simulates an incoming call from a very impotent customer, then make like a tree.
Either that, or if this is an international company, then the obvious thing would be to practice business English too.
Remember, the subject isn’t important, so the first presentation that everyone will need to master will be 108 slides on squirrels.
Once they can get past the fourth letter, the next presentation will be on ring tailed lemurs. Upped to 444 slides of 7pt text.
Is this another one of japanlife’s troll posts?
This is like the post where the guy complained about radio calisthenics. Just do the tongue twisters, they’ll help you get better at speaking Japanese clearly anyway.
Tell them you’ll only take part if they say “red lorry yellow lorry” 5 times fast, I’m yet to meet a Japanese person who can (most English native speakers can’t either)
eh, it’s difficult to judge. Unless they outright laugh at or lecture you on “this is Japan you should speak this kind of Japanese” then I’d suggest not to mind so much (be the bigger person).
I’ve only had to do team building at first company fresh out of uni in Japan. I hated it btw. Sometimes they used it as a chance to 説教 the hell out of me with “in japan we blah blah blah”
Been with only gaishi after I left that horrid place, no team building yet but there is some welcome session here and there. No one had ever made me do Japanese tongue twisters or anything similar, but I was mentally prepared to hit back with “well i speak 3 languages fluently what about you?” which may not be the nicest way to response honestly in such situation. Current coworkers tho, are mostly much older than me and they are somehow very impressed with everything I do.
To all the people mocking OP I would ask: what if it was somebody with a speech impediment? Should they just ‘get over themselves’ then? It is an inherently exclusionary activity; the very opposite of ‘team-building’.
I wish we could have some hima like this