Saw a report about Amazon yesterday. Undercover worker got scolded in front of the entire staff for coming back from lunch too minutes late. Lunch time: 30 min., way to corporate cafeteria: 10 min.
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I had a manager that would lie in wait to see if any of his supervisors left the office before the official quitting time. He took delight in giving me grief if I walked into the office even a minute late.
I fixed that problem by getting coffee and going to any kind of meeting or site check that I could dream up for 20 minutes or 1/2 hour before walking into the office. I’d respond, “I had an early meeting with ______”. I was the one that got called with any technical security problem, day or night, and never got paid extra for showing up then if required. The manager was a serious douche; I eventually got him fired for lying to me and divulging privileged information to my clerical staff.
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Don’t worry. Gaijin are given a lot more slack on certain things. You could interpret this as patience or simply low expectations. If you want to be a good guest, this infographic will help you a lot…
Have fun, Japan is a wonderful country!
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That apology video I am coughing up blood laughing so hard
I lived in Japan for three years and a lot of this is real I have seen it myself but some of it is exaggerated for comedy purposes
Now I know how to apologize if someone walks in on my orgy of evil XD that is perfect deadpan Japanese sarcasm in that video
I left work before everyone was gone and nobody gave a shit as far as I could tell and I got a degree in Japanese so I was aware of the cultural norms expected of me or as if I was Japanese but they honestly didn’t seem to mind hell I even took up Rock sculpture at my desk when I wasn’t working because they hardly needed me I was token Gaijin
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And people wonder why Japan has one of the highest suicide rates and stress-related illness in the modern world. Oh yeah, they are going to have a population crash in about twenty or so years.
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“or saying a wrong word in Japanese that is actually something crude”
One day I’ll tell the very-true story about the time that I discovered I was in an izakaya full of yakuza and the manager was trying to shoo me out … but one of the yakuza asked me to make a toast.
I had NO IDEA that the word I used in my toast literally sounded like “little boy penis”.
Somehow I survived that faux pas. Any native Japanese speakers here will probably know what my toast was.
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Well yes, hopefully the sarcasm was apparent to everyone by the begging for your life end. That said, I found it hilarious.
But they cleaned up their stadium at the World Cup
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I’m sensitive to claims of cultural inferiority too but read this post as one about an interesting and potentially humorous cultural curiosity to outsiders.
Or did I miss a suggestion of inferiority somewhere?
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Such an awesome series!
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There is also “the gaijin factor”. They don’t expect you to follow the norms because you aren’t supposed to know any better as an ignorant outsider. You will never be considered one of them, so they don’t hold you to the same standards.
My in-laws will cut me far more slack than they do their children on this sort of thing.
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Isn’t that all just common sense no matter what the country is? I suppose tipping, cabs,and smoking are country dependent.
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I’m almost out th
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Most of it isn’t exactly Japan specific but common sense: “Keep toilet clean”, “Make room for others” …
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Is there a limited supply of bento boxes such that three minutes makes the difference?
That sounds like a business opportunity for someone, or he needs to think outside the box.
In case it’s not obvious, this video (and the others in this series) are satire and not meant to be taken seriously. (And extremely well done satire at that.)
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You should see the sushi one.
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Yes, again was acutely aware of this. It’s not something you can be taught really.
I gradually came to that conclusion the first time I was there and you can notice that you get more Slack.
By the opposite token though if you are someone who holds themselves to appropriately Japanese norms consistently people do notice that and you actually get respect and more people interested in meeting you if you do. Having a degree in Japanese language and literature helped a lot with this.
By the way I really wasn’t kidding when I said I took up stone sculpture at my desk as an alt. I was in one school that just used me like a token parrot and I never got a chance to even do anything other than repeat words in English. I spent a lot of days at my desk embarrassed and doing nothing.
This is from people who knew that I had a degree in their language as well and I was still treated this way.
I have some serious contempt for certain Japanese teachers they are not like GTO let’s put it that way.
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I’d be much more sympathetic to the idea of punishing people who leave early if there were also a proportional punishment for those who make you stay late.
In a completely and utterly baffling turn of events, this rarely seems to happen.
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