And this rant is a double-edged...No, no, a Multi-faceted* one! It involves Japan and mother ranting, along with a few other husband and random whining... Aren't you lucky for clicking on here today!
OK, let's get the Japan rant out of the way, or at least the 20 something-year-old twat who works part time at the Indian place at the outlet centre in Kobe rant, anyway.
Went outlet shopping yesterday and went for lunch in the food court thingy, should have known that Indian food from a food court would be shit house but the crap food was actually beside the point in the end...
Fair enough, I understand that 2 blond women must be very threatening in the sea of black hair, one of them a sixty something woman in heels and the other in her 20's with a slightly over sized halfu baby on her hip, scary, I know, I know.
But this giggling little dickhead actually backed away from me as I went to order my curry, like she physically moved steps back, giggled, and said "I'm scared I can't talk to her!!" Now this was before I'd started ordering so fair enough, she thought I was going to start barking at her in English, but even after I started speaking in Japanese, this is how it went:
Me: (Slightly amused at her sheer terror at this point so smiling) errr.... 2 curry nan sets and some samosas please.
Giggling twat girl: No, hee hee I hehe can't hee do hehe it!
Me: .................. (pointing and repeating my order)
GTG: Ok, wait, ummm say it again!
Me: (Repeating the order yet again) So what curry can we choose from for the set?
GTG: Oh god, what is she asking??? Say it again???
Me: (Pointing and rephrasing) WHICH. CURRY. DO. I. CHOOOOOOOSSSSEEEEEEE?????
You get the point.
Now again, I don't claim to speak Japanese perfectly, but I either say it when I know it's right, or I get someone to help me. I don't just fumble with no idea of what I'm saying. And I'm not a bad mimic, so I don't think my accent could really be that bad, I've never broken out any "Yeh, Arree giiito mate!" or anything like that.
When I worked in a clothes shop in Aussie, we used to get old ladies who spoke 0 English all the time, but you don't fucking panic and run away, you just guess what they're saying and wing it! It still annoys the shit out of me that no matter how much I study and practice and try, there are always people who make me feel like I should just not bother at all and yell at them in English.
OK, next. I can't write too much because she's sitting right next to me, but my mum is soooooo closed minded? rigid?? I don't know the right word, but she won't try anything and is acting like a big fucking baby!
At the food court yesterday, she doesn't like Indian and was all like "I just want a sandwich and some chips!" Ummm helllllooooooooooooo you can have that shite any day in "The Fat factory," as Ryota calls Australia, you're in Japan, go nuts and have some fucking noodles, it won't kill you!!!
She was the same with the sushi party, prawn and tuna only. It just pisses me off that she won't even try.
The stress of an extra person is getting to all of us I think, I can't clean so I get stroppy (never thought I'd be saying that but it's true!) Ryota can't fart in the open and is watching what he does so it's just extra tension in general...
OK, better stop moaning before I get all worked up again. I'm loving the rain and colder weather, sleeping so well! Apart from screaming 9 month old attached to boob....
*Multi-faceted has been stolen from a hair dye packet, so sue me loreal!
that girl sounds like a right twat..it really does leave you with such a bad taste in your mouth (sorry bad pun) when stuff like that happens..
ReplyDeleteAs for mothers, my mum was a bit the same when she first arrived, used to her own way of doing things and actually was being babyish in not trying new things. She said she would but in the end she would hide it under other food on her plate and by the end we had changed our daily diet to suit her so much it was ridicilous.
Hope things get a bit better-how much longer is she here for?
oops ridiculous..
ReplyDeleteman oh man. i hate when people won't try new things. I seriously think it's one of my pet peeves. so i feel you there.
ReplyDeletei totally understand getting thrown out of your normal schedule but i do want to say, especially since we live so far from our families back home, that no matter how much you hope she would leave you should also cherish the relatively short time with her you have! I do tstuff like that all the time. Including times when I'm on vacation (on beautiful islands) and I want to be back home to get back into routine... then I get back and I'm like &%*#(%&* I was on a f*cking island! Just enjoy the moment I suppose. ;)
Gosh, I would expect something like that around here when seriously seeing a gaijn (well blonde haired gaijin) is a rarity, but down there!?!? How bloody rude!!
ReplyDeleteMy mum sounds very similiar to yours - although is willing to try new stuff. What annoyed me was that she would copy what I ordered every single time!!
I wish I could say it surprised me that a person who was offering you service treated you so disrespectfully but I've seen it and experienced it too much to be surprised. During my second or third year in Japan, a similar thing happened to a middle-eastern man at an electronics shop that I was waiting in line at. The silly young woman at the counter kept giggling and laughing rather than serving him (he also spoke Japanese). He became so angry and frustrating that he started shouting irately at her and she just giggled and laughed at him. He got so mad that he slapped her on the cheek and she finally stopped carrying on like a twit and started to cry. He stormed out and a male clerk stalled for time and made an overly animated response to the situation by asking her if she was okay. After he was sure the foreign man was long gone, he "ran out after him."
ReplyDeleteI don't believe people should be hit for bad behavior, but her actions toward a customer were outrageous. A Japanese customer would never be treated so rudely no matter how hard they were to understand. The customer is supposed to be king here and there's usually a lot of bowing and scraping to please the customer. Laughing at you and refusing to give you service because she may not understand is very, very wrong.
I've given up on speaking Japanese because I don't see the point. I get made fun of by neighbors when I simply say "konnichiwa" in an effort to be polite, and people seem more interested in not understanding me than understanding me. It's just not worth the effort anymore.
'ey, Lurker making a comment again!
ReplyDeleteRegarding the cashier, i don't know what it is, but some Japanese for one reason or another just refuse to (or simply can't??) understand Japanese spoken by foreigners. We discussed it in my linguistics class, and apparently a lot of people have had issues with it. It wasn't that their pronunciation was bad, and while their grammar may have been off they were still understandable.. but there's some weird mentality some Japanese have that they think of the Japanese language as something that only Japanese born-and-raised people can learn, and therefor seem to have issues when non-Japanese speak it. It all seems really weird to me though.
And i totally laughed at the not being able to fart in the open bit.. When my mum was up visiting me and my boy, she and he would complain to me when the other was out of ear-shot about having to fart really bad and not being able to in front of the other. i got off easy cuz i was the only one who was comfortable enough to do it in front of either, haha!
WTF...she's working at an Indian place in a food court! It's not like she'd have to prepare a gourmet meal to your specifications.
ReplyDeleteDo they even have Japanese names for the food or is it just some weird katakanaised version of like Rogan Josh?
Ooh... many annoying experiences. I can't even order a coffee without getting the big eyes,open-mouth treatment. I try everything: katakana-style, then native pronounciation, miming, pointing, the lot.
ReplyDeleteThey could never get "L" for the size. "M?" they would invariably reply. SoI asked my Japanese teacher and she said "Oh no, you got it wrong. Try "Elle-euh"." So I did. And they said "M?". Even if I say "Large" they say "M?".
I feel like crying just thinking about it!
I hate it when you speak in Japanese and then the staff try to reply back in broken English. Not quite as rude as giggling and refusing to serve you, but another level of rudeness I feel.
ReplyDeleteMy folks have never been to Japan and when I last asked them when are you coming, my mum replied, "Oh, but the food!" What the hell does she think I eat? What does she think I cook in my own home!?
Anyway, another funny post that we can all relate to.