Job Discussion Forums

Inflames · Joined: 02 Apr 2006 Posts: 486

I still can't handle all the meetings and sheer inflexibility some places have about rules.

For example, I go to graduate school in another city (takes me about an hour each way). They sent an e-mail saying we needed something for the first day of a class (which was the first day I had class) - I e-mailed the office staff asking them to send it and was flat out told it was impossible. I simply e-mailed a friendly professor and it was on my way in an hour. The program is trying to attract foreign students, but stuff like this nearly kills the chance I'll recommend it to any foreigner.

I went to pay my tuition at the bank (because the banks any my university are so awesome you can't actually send the money online). The first time I had to fill out a form and they told me to put the money in my account. The second time they had me take the money out and fill out a different form. The third time was the same as the first time. I'm still amazed (actually not, as it would involve coming up with new ideas) that they haven't discovered that giving people the option to send money online (sending a furikomi by online banking) and having them add their student number would save a lot of time and effort.

steki47 · Joined: 20 Apr 2008 Posts: 1029 Location: BFE Inaka

rxk22 · Joined: 19 May 2010 Posts: 1629

Le Sigh, those examples are all poor. Keigo does not exist in English, and making making an example and applying it to English just simply doesn't work.

A professor corrects one, Utada did nothing that needed correcting, she simply didn't fall in line.
Simplifying your English, as I have learned, only handicaps your students.
As for grad school, again you were using incorrect grammar, not using keigo is not the same situation. You are across the board, making false analogies.

Changing English tenses would radically change the language, and require a massive amount of effort. While keigo would be pretty easy to eliminate, as it has to be actively taught to be used.

There are many criticisms of English that I too agree with, and being a foreigner does not make holding those opinions any more nor less correct. I find it silly that you think only the Japanese can know what is best for Japan. In fact that is what one would call pretentious

Either way, you're both trying to be cute or contrived.

rxk22 · Joined: 19 May 2010 Posts: 1629

Vince · Joined: 05 May 2003 Posts: 559 Location: U.S.

ssjup81 · Posted: Sat May 03, 2014 12:18 am Post subject:

ZennoSaji · Joined: 02 Feb 2010 Posts: 87 Location: Mito, Ibaraki

Black_Beer_Man · Joined: 26 Mar 2013 Posts: 453 Location: Yokohama

Black_Beer_Man · Joined: 26 Mar 2013 Posts: 453 Location: Yokohama

fat_chris · Joined: 10 Sep 2003 Posts: 3198 Location: Beijing

Black_Beer_Man · Joined: 26 Mar 2013 Posts: 453 Location: Yokohama

Someone who wrote that Brits and Canadians say Thank You to cashiers and bus drivers got me thinking.

In Canada, this is true of the majority of people, BUT there are what we call white trash (and other colors of it) that actually abuse public bus drivers verbally and physically. I heard this story on Canadian public radio. In Toronto and Vancouver, bus drivers are sworn at several times a week, spit on at least once a month, and even punched occasionally by passengers who try not to pay their fares or cut in lines. These drivers are pushing for enclosures to be installed on buses, so that crazy passengers can't take a swing at the driver.

As far as I know, there aren't Japanese trash people doing these kinds of things. Maybe because people are afraid of going to jail here.

ZennoSaji · Joined: 02 Feb 2010 Posts: 87 Location: Mito, Ibaraki

Reputation's a big part of it, too. Also rudeness here seems to stem more from wanting to not engage with other humans, rather than from a sense of entitlement such as that found in the US, for example, and I imagine the UK from what I hear. Can't say much for Canada on that front, other than, "Sorry!" ;D

Black_Beer_Man · Joined: 26 Mar 2013 Posts: 453 Location: Yokohama

I don't get the music in the supermarkets here. I don't know what it is. Is it something resembling music. It sounds like the electronic sounds that you hear in a video game arcade - maybe the UFO Catcher music.

Do Japanese customers really want to hear that music - even if they're aren't concentrating on listening to it? What benefit does it provide to the stores? Does it affect the customers subliminally and make them want to buy chocolate?

Personally, I'd rather have silence in stead of that. I'd rather listen to squeaky wheels on shopping carts.

steki47 · Joined: 20 Apr 2008 Posts: 1029 Location: BFE Inaka

Sometimes supermarkets play muzak versions of older Morning Musume songs. Love that!

rxk22 · Joined: 19 May 2010 Posts: 1629

HAHAHA, I bowed and did the Domo Arigato to the clerks too when I first got here.

Beer and coffee. Japan is a food country that does making good domestic food, as well as copying foreign foods and making them delicious as well.
BUT Japanese coffee and beer are still pretty bad. They have more selections now, but are still lagging, even the US. They are in the late 90's, where there are some options, but not a whole lot yet.

And yes, the US still has to catch up to Europe beer and coffee wise