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[–] 11 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I had a similar problem when I lived in Japan, but it manifested in sort of the opposite manner. My Japanese was shit, but my work (as an English teacher) required that I answer the phone using a long Japanese greeting.

Eventually, I could do that greeting in my sleep with very little accent. And I have a name that could be mistaken for a Japanese name.

Inevitably, I'd finish the greeting and they'd respond with a torrent of full speed Japanese that I couldn't understand at all.

I considered doing the greeting poorly, but instead, I just said "Hello" in English after finishing the greeting and people usually got the idea.

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  • [–] 4 points 7 months ago*

    Mine was in my native language, not Japanese, but I also had a job that mandated a long greeting. I also had cause to repeat it sufficiently frequently that I could have done so in my sleep. In fact ...

    Once I was at home, in bed, asleep. I had a dream that my work phone was ringing. Of course, I wasn't fully awake (or really at all) and my work phone was at work, not near my bed. In my half awake state, I picked up the nearest thing I could find - my personal cell phone - and recited the long spiel. Only after several minutes of slowly blinking myself awake did I realize my cell phone wasn't connected to anyone and, also, I wasn't at work.

    The only character I had engaged was my dog, who was staring at me in apparent confusion. Probably that was just because I had gone from dead asleep to jerking upright grabbing my cell phone, but I like to think that in his head he was thinking I was a dumbass for thinking I was at work.

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  • [–] 0 points 7 months ago

    Sorry, off topic but your comment about the Japanese phone getting reminded me of when I worked at an English school too.

    My coworker, who is 100% Japanese, was just off her game that day and instead of "お電話ありがとうございます〇〇です" she greeted a random caller with "おめでとうございます〇〇です" lol

    It was really cute. She of course committed sudoku in shame soon after.

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