ABSTRACT
A Japanese businesswoman wants to tell her Canadian counterpart that she is not interested a particular deal. To be polite, she says, “ is will be very di cult.” e Canadian businessman, interpreting this to mean there are still some unresolved issues-not that the deal is dead-responds by asking how he can help resolve the issues. e Japanese businesswoman, believing she has sent the message that there will be no deal, is perplexed by the response. What went wrong?
