Toujin No Negoto　★　唐人の寝言

I realize it's an older drama, but Bambino is a good one, that touched close to home. The story revolves around Ban (伴), a wannabe chef who goes from a small Fukuoka Italian restaurant to a super-popular one in Roppongi, Tokyo.

The story follows his hardships, and his struggle to become a good chef. Great story, plays out like a manga, wouldn't be surprised if that's where it's from.

Anyway, it might come in handy if you want to learn some new words relating to restaurants, especially speaking to the customer.

Of course you can also refer to this page to learn a lot of other restaurant-related words, but here are a few more phrases from the show.

• ご案内いたします goannai itashimasu - I'll show you to your seats
  
• ごゆっくりどうぞ goyukkuri douzo - Take your time and relax
  
• お決まりになりましたら、お呼び下さいませ okimari ni narimashitara, oyobi kudasaimase - When you have made your decisions, please call for me
  
• ご無沙汰しております gobusata shite orimasu - Long time no sea (polite)
  
• またいらっしゃって頂けたんですね mata irassahtte itadaketan desu ne - You came again (friendly)
  
• 確か、福岡の方ですよね tashika fukuoka no kata desu yo ne - If I recall, you're from Fukuoka, right?
  
• 素敵な女性は忘れたくても、忘れることが出来ません suteki na josei wa wasuretakutemo, wasureru koto ga dekimasen - I couldn't forget a beautiful women even if I tried.
  
• ご説明いたします gosetsumei itashimasu - I will explain.
  

Just working and living in an 'international city' like Auckland can be study in itself, as far as sociology goes. With such a wealth of ethnicity and language surrounding you, you can really get a free ticket to a higher understanding of the impact and implications of culture.

Why talk about culture? Well, as I may have talked about before (or definitely should), culture and language are and intertwined interlocked; there's no separating them. The language of a group (nation, community, family) will reflect their beliefs, values and morals.

Anyway, back on track. It's the little differences that can really surprise you. One that I use as a prime example is what I call 'Korean Restaurant Culture.'

If you've ever been to a Korean restaurant (you know the ones, BBQ Pork, cheap, relatively tasty) you'll probably notice the difference between the service there and say the service at a Western restaurant. Auckland's main street must have about 20 Korean restaurants, and I've been to a few of them and the trends are there.

One thing I've noticed is rarely do the staff wear uniforms, save perhaps an apron, and most of the time you can forget the excessive politeness that you would usually get at a Western restaurant. Don't get me wrong I'm not complaining, just pointing out a few observations. Is this what restaurants are like in Korea? I really should go some time.

Working in a restaurant myself I'd have to say there are three types of customers that annoy me: Old, rich, pompous customers, the noisy young customers, and rude Koreans. Perhaps rude is not a word I should use when trying to talk about differences in culture. What I perceive as rude may be commonplace in Korean culture.

Oftentimes Korean (though of course not limited to Korean people, the majority are) customers will slide the door open, and head straight on in, ignoring the staff who wait at the entrance to greet, as about reservations etc. and go and sit down at the biggest, best positioned table. It's a lot of fun to see these customers bewildered when surrounded by 'RESERVED' signs on every table, and even more pleasurable to tell them that there is nowhere for them to sit. Evil delights.

But yes, that is just one example of how cultures can conflict when one side does something seemingly harmless. Another interesting little example is a regional culture difference that I first heard in a lecture at university. Although in my hometown (and to varying degrees, Auckland), it is normal to thank a bus driver, in the nation's capital apparently this isn't common practice. Yes, even a little thing like this can come down to a cultural question - is it necessary to thank a bus driver in your city?

There's just something about Japan that grants commercials a wackiness that most Western advertisements just don't take advantage of.

Television commercials, or CMs are a big deal in Japan; a good CM can really boost your company's popularity. Add this to a wacky catchphrase and you have yourself a seller.

I intend to collect a few of the more interesting or wacky commercials I come across on YouTube here, it will be quite long, so please click the link just below to see the videos.

Read more...

You know that a country has a strong work ethic when there's a word that means 'death from overwork' (過労死 karoushi), but is there really that big a difference between the work ethics of Japan (or Asia) and the West?

The word itself comes from the 70s, the beginning of the, now prevalent, 60 hour working week. While apparently there are laws governing overtime limits, they lack enforcement. Most overtime workers receive no extra pay nor benefits.

Sometimes death by overwork comes form heart failure, but oftentimes overwork leads to suicide. In 2007 some 600 of 2000 work-related suicides were attributed to overwork.

Some just drop dead. One man who worked for Toyota did 80 hours of overtime every month for six months, largely without pay. Another (from the same company) over 110 hours.

Well one may ask, why do overtime? Well there are a few reasons. Because loyalty to the company is harshly ingrained into the culture, it's often hard to just say no. Overtime may be technically voluntary, but if you want to be promoted, or receive a pay rise, those who work hardest are more likely to get it.

I work in a Japanese restaurant, and I can easily say that there is a difference between the quantity and quality of work done. I pride myself on being a relatively active worker (when I'm in the mood), but it still can't compare to the zippy Japanese staff who take their job so seriously.

Don't get me wrong, I've seen lazy Japanese people come and go, but the majority are fine workers, at least above the New Zealand average in my view.

Is this strong work ethic a good thing? Should the West adopt similar takes on work and overtime?

You'll find you'll get to a point in any language learning where vocabulary begins to take precedence over grammar.

So here we go. I'll start these little segments that give ya grammar based on certain situations or environs. You may wanna look at the list of words I collected for working at a Japanese Restaurant. This time we have words relating to banking!

• 銀行 ginkou bank
  
• 口座 kouza bank account
  
• 振り込み・振り込む furikomi/furikomu deposit/to deposit
  
• 引き出し・引き出す hikidashi/hikidasu withdrawl/to withdraw
  
• チェッキング口座 or 当座預金口座 chekkingu kouza or touza yokin kouza checking/current account (Japanese rarely use checks/cheques apparently).
  
• 普通預金口座 futsuu yokin kouza savings account (as commented on below, this seems similar in its use to a US/UK Checking acount.
  
• 法人口座 houjin kouza corporate account
  
• 個人口座 kojinkouza personal account
  
• 利率 riritsu interest rate
  
• 自動振込み jidou furikomi automatic payments [lit. automatic deposit]
  
• 残高照会 zandaka shoukai balance inquiry
  

I'll be sure to update this, and make a .jis file for DSLearnJ