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Dealing with Japanese men

misternada

後輩
10 Sep 2017
85
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I just called Tokyo Gas for an inquiry, usually a lady answer but today it was a man, after I gave him my name he just kept telling me "We have a English hotline, do you prefer to use it ?"
I replied "No, Japanese is fine", then he kept repeating "Do you want to ask your question in English or Korean ?" a couple of times, so at the end I said "Thank you, I will call another time".

I called the same number again and go the same guy so I just hangup, I call again Tokyo Gas, made some other choice and got a lady, asked her my question, she gave me an answer, that was it.

I've dealt with Japanese on the phone at work for many years so I think I can make myself understand.

But I have noticed that often the Japanese men freak out when they have to deal with foreigners either on the phone or in person, to the point I usually try to avoid them in shops.

Except for the guys who try to sell you something somehow they can understand you perfectly, that's quite funny, wonder if anybody else noticed that.
 
That's frustrating. That guy doesn't belong in the call center. You should have made him keep sweating and answer your question to completion.
Good point about the salesmen (and I would add NHK fee hounds).
 
The guy sounds like a real jerk, and I'm sorry you had to deal with him, but I can't say I've seen an overwhelming tendency for Japanese men to "freak out" around me or refuse to engage me as a human being, in shops, on the phone, or wherever.

That's not to say there aren't some assholes out there (I would imagine the man in question has less skill/experience communicating in general, and with foreigners in particular), but I have perfectly normal interactions with male friends and co-workers every day, and I feel very uncomfortable framing the discussion this way.

To my mind, I despise it when a Japanese person talks as if all 外人 are the same, so I try to avoid doing the same thing in reverse. (And just in general, lumping people together based upon their nationality/ethnicity/gender/age/profession/etc. is something that's very anathema to me, so I avoid doing it to the best of my ability.)
 
I have had as many women as men pull similar garbage. Its a small percentage of Japanese but those types really stick out.

I guess its a die roll.
 
So true for the NHK guys :D:D:D That's quite amazing you can have deep discussions with them about the antenna on the roof and why you cannot watch TV with it, or that the TV in your car is a old model and cannot watch 1SEG on it :D:D:D

Of course one should not generalize, and I had normal conversations with Japanese guys at work as well, still in a shop if I have a choice, based on my own experience, I would avoid male and spinster as I found out those have difficulties dealing with foreigners.
 
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