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December 6, 2005
The Real Lost in Translation
What a morning. I get into work nearly forty minutes late because the subway is all fucked up and completely packed when it finally arrives. Some greasy dude coughs on me for most of the way and I have nowhere to turn my head to avoid his phlegmy wrath. And then I remember when I arrive at my office that I've lost my keys and so I am forced to ring the doorbell. The receptionist answers and rolls her eyes (note that the buzzer to let people in is maybe a foot from her desk) and then asks me if I have a set of keys. Well, yes of course I do, but I've lost them (I have a habit of leaving my keys in the bathroom but this time, unfortunately, I have no idea where they are). Although part of her job is to open the door, she acts supremely annoyed and then proceeds to talk in hushed tones about this to a co-worker sitting next to her. Normally, this would be totally inappropriate office behavior right? But I work in an office where it Japanese 24-7 unless they are speaking to an American. Often my co-workers will talk about me and think I can't understand. I can understand when every twentieth word is "Deborah" and I can understand tone and gestures, people!
Sometimes it is very frustrated working here but the good thing is they usually have no idea if I'm working or not or what exactly I'm doing. And also, while everyone eats their bento boxes in the lunch room, I'm the only one with a real lunch hour. I also get to field all sorts of interesting questions about the English language and about American life in general. And most of the time, people are very nice to me. I'm not so paranoid to think they're always talking about me, just when I hear my name dropped and/or excessive giggling and pointing in my direction. For example, when the boss brings back treats (usually a green tea cake, some sort of biscotti, strange pastry, etc.) from his business trips to Japan, I am always offered one as well, and they all watch while I eat it to see if I like it. It's like that old LIFE commercial. Once the boss handed me a slice of cake and I was busy with something else so I said "arigato" and ate the cake without looking and I had accidentally eaten the paper liner that came with it and wow, did they have a good laugh over that one. What a silly, silly American. And once, at the boss's birthday party I poured salt in my coffee instead of sugar (everything in the office is labeled in Japanese as well) and no one said anything until I had gone so far as to take a sip even though they had all noticed what I'd done.
Anyhow, these are all minor annoyances. Usually I don't get so worked up about these things. Probably one day I will explode with office rage. What did you say bitch? Say it to my face if you have something to say! And then I will take the offending person outside and we will fight until someone's hair gets ripped out and/or one of us gets fired. I'm exaggerating! I'm good natured! I can play the silly American, that's fine, I love it!
Arigato.
Posted by debbie at December 6, 2005 10:59 AM