The art to overcome rude remarks in a Japanese workplace
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.
- Never picked up the phone call from that desk ever again (a very passive approach)
- Learn how to tackle business Japanese phone call (a very positive and motivating approach)
- 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
