Tony in Paris

“ Excuse me, Anthony. Do you mind if we speak in French?”

It was a question I was used to hearing.

“ No, of course not. Please go ahead. “

That was my typical response.

I was sitting in a conference room in Le Plessis-Robinson, a suburb just outside of Paris, and every other person in that room was French. At the time, 80% of my clients and colleagues were French and when meetings started to get particularly heated, the conversation often shifted from English to French.

Whenever this happened, I would find myself sitting in awkward silence, pretending to scribble notes on a pad of paper, maintaining strong eye contact with everyone else in the room as my mind drifted. My body would tense up to make sure I paid attention. There was always a chance that the discussion could break with someone asking me a question in English.

That kind of meeting had become a common ritual. I was unsure what to do in moments like this, but I would look very serious. I was grateful for the unique experience in French culture. Like Netflix’s recent show Emily in Paris, I had my own real-life version as Tony in Paris.

In the summer of 2014, I was sitting at my desk in the New York office of Facebook. We had to get in touch with some colleagues across the pond at Facebook Paris and since it…