The art to overcome rude remarks in a Japanese workplace

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Has anyone working in Japan ever encounter such situation as the title above? I have, and just had encounter one the other day in the office. The only emotion I could feel in the first place was anger, followed by sadness.

Who the f said that Japanese are polite, is just plainly ignorant. I knew I was when I came here just for the fun and travel. Not the hatred. To recap: I was on the phone, the lady over the phone without any decency to cover the end of the phone, declaring loudly to her counterpart how useless I am, bad in Japanese, could not do anything to answer anything. Oh yes, she is very right. I cannot do many things in life, and especially in mastering your mother f-ing language.

I picked up a phone call whom summons someone pretty far from where I sat. The business Japanese has gone rusty and old, and tbh I thought it was a phone call from China. (Because I was trying to phone someone in China just a couple minutes before)

I wished for many things for such situation not to happen. But since it did happened, I could only learned from the lesson.

1. Never picked up the phone call from that desk ever again (a very passive approach)
2. Learn how to tackle business Japanese phone call (a very positive and motivating approach)
3. Cry your balls out, self-wallowing how useless you are, and how bitchy a Japanese woman could be. (Depression mode is on alert)

The first that went through my mind was option 3. I am particularly emotional when it comes to such situation. I felt my dignity was shattered, followed by all the f words I could mustered to mentally cursed that b-itch. She is a typical Japanese b-itch. I do not even know her name but I really think she is one. I guess she probably felt the same way too.

After clearing my head, and venting out my emotional frustration to my counterpart, I decide to pen this down to remind myself that I need to improve on that damn Japanese. Secondly, she is just a someone I will never ever encounter again (I hope and pray).

I am not the only foreigner living in this country. Everyone (or almost everyone) probably encountered similar shit or shittier shit compared to mine. I should be counting my blessing and let us foreigner not be battered by b-itches like whom I had encountered earlier. Perhaps, I am destined to get that shit phone call for some reason.

Afterall, we are just homosapiens living in a world encompassed by human’s imagination. This is how human society works – gossip, lies, imagination, power and control.

Featured image Morgan Basham