More accent nonsense

[sjcarpediem]

Partly sunny, 8C (6C)

So I'm on the phone with NTT-west in Japanese because I have to cancel my contract with NTT-west to open a new contract with NTT-east in February (thereby having to pay a truly horrendous cancellation fee because I've only had service for 2months, not 2years!!!), and the operator's like, "we must get into your apartment" (that is, to remove the wire--WTF!--which I just don't want to deal with having no Internet for the last week I'm here and the only free day before leaving I have to deal with their shit other than the 9th is the 3rd and the 3rd is a national holiday, kthnx, and if I have to pay this godawful fee, they should do it on my schedule, anyway) and I'm like, I have to be at work in the afternoon all week so I can't be here to let your person in and I can't just leave the key out for you guys to come in whenever on the 11th (apparently the 8th, 9th, and 10th are totally booked already and they only send ppl out in the afternoon--not the morning-- which is completely not possible for me) and since I'm paying you anyway I don't see why I should have to spend my last two weeks here without service because you don't have enough staff, blahblahblah and we reach an impasse so she decides this is a communication problem and says I should have someone who speaks Japanese call (I get this *whenever* I have some problem that prevents me from doing what they want--what language have we been freaking speaking, it's not a language issue, it's that I cannot do what you're asking and I've even explained three different ways in your language why I can't and what I can do ; changing languages doesn't change the problem...). I explain that this is problematic, she'll have to deal with me.

Which she seemed unwilling to do ; so this brought us to her trying to refer me to the proper foreign language assistance number (because language is the problem, ppl! *rolling of eyes*) and the following conversation :

(In Japanese)
NTT : Madam, we have Chinese language assistance available.
Me : Why? I don't speak Chinese.
NTT : Korean, then? We have Korean language assistance available.
Me : Um.... I'm an American. (My name could not possibly be mistaken for Chinese or Korean...)
NTT : So you can speak English? Fantastic! We have English language assistance available.
Me : Great! What's that number and can I dial it from my cell? (many free-dial/toll-free numbers in Japan are not available from cellphones)

So my Japanese accent is Chinese? Korean? At least it's not British... :-P

Or maybe my approach to this bit of bureaocracy was more Chinese or Korean in her experience? That's better than Israeli, maybe?

Solution : my manager (as a rep of the company) will just have to deal with it. I've done my piece. Tomorrow at work I'll talk with her ; hopefully she'll step up, otherwise I'll just give NTT the Leo Palace agent information and they can work on it together and leave me completely out of the loop.

Comments

[either-or.livejournal.com]

someone once asked me IN PERSON if i was half-korean. go fig.

anyway, it sounds like it's time for you to do a voice or video post so we can weigh in.

[sjcarpediem.livejournal.com]

Yeah, LJ's voicepost system doesn't work on Japan's cell-lines. At least not the last time I tried it, which was about eight months ago...

I duno... maybe ppl are just not even trying to make sense and instead are making wild guesses and I'm just taking them too seriously.

[either-or.livejournal.com]

do you have a webcam dealie? make a video of yourself speaking in your most american of ways.

it could be wild guessing. maybe you should try speaking with a canadian accent and see what happens. and then australian, followed by south african. try out all the different english accents and see how people respond.

[either-or.livejournal.com]

oh, i forgot you were speaking japanese (with a chinese or korean accent) on the call. okay, next time try speaking japanese with an intentional accent and see if it comes through.

[sjcarpediem.livejournal.com]

The only Japanese intentional accent I can do is random-foreigner-who-doesn't-actually-speak-Japanese (which is actually a really hard accent and is painful to use! I only just got it in the last six months or so!)... :-P

[bowtomecha.livejournal.com]

your dabbles with issues like these really excite me.

[sjcarpediem.livejournal.com]

You have a thing for telecom bureaucracy and cancellation fees? Kinky... ;-P

[bowtomecha.livejournal.com]

haha. the idea of communicating with people and understanding one another. or at least the best attempts possible. heh.

[sjcarpediem.livejournal.com]

Ah, yeah.... that is pretty hawt, actually. :-D

[bowtomecha.livejournal.com]

and my apparent japanese fetish. and maybe how youre the slightly ostracized foreign girl in fetish land, struggling to find where you fit in. yes, hot. haha.

[sjcarpediem.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow! I didn't even realize I was still struggling to find where I fit in... I thought I gave up on that ages ago! :-P But I do struggle for literacy (and have made absolutely zero progress while in Shiga!)

But if that's what you're into, hang on to your panties--I'm sure my life in Tokyo will be a real... riot.

[bowtomecha.livejournal.com]

you need a video feed or something. post something online. like your almost soon to be new apartment.

[sjcarpediem.livejournal.com]

I don't know my new apartment, yet! I'll live on the third floor of the company building for a month and have that time to save up/find a new place.

I am a little excited to live in a proper apartment rather than a row-house, though... god willing, it'll all work out swimmingly!

I'll try to work out video feeds--but I duno that they'd be any more interesting. :-P

[bowtomecha.livejournal.com]

maybe youll run into the japanese guy of your dreams in the same building.

[sjcarpediem.livejournal.com]

Yeah, right. Hard to run into the "guy of your dreams" when you don't have a "dream" guy. ;-)

[bowtomecha.livejournal.com]

you wont know until he enters your thoughts. heh.

[sjcarpediem.livejournal.com]

HeH... a covert op, eh?

[tsubasa-en11.livejournal.com]

*facepalm* Seriously, I think those Japanese really hold the biased thought that "Foreigners don't understand Japanese and that's why they're troublesome and that's why we don't have to serve them accordingly". WTF seriously. Pity you. The more I read about Japanese horrendous stories, the more detestation grows in me. Not to mention I had a couple of parties with Japanese OLD FOLKS and their conversation was disturbing...

[sjcarpediem.livejournal.com]

Yeah, in the middle of a bunch of old, drunk Japanese talking is not a happy place to be [as a foreigner]...