lingqi's Journal: March 18th, 2003

March 18th, 2003 (6:40pm)

This morning was extremely foggy. It gave the commute an ethereal feeling - driving through cloud covered rice-fields not yet planted, is a feeling seldomly obtained elsewhere.

Interestingly enough, IRS has a Tokyo office. Isn't that something? Unfortunately they can't do anything to your taxes, and will forward all your documents to the states (Pennsylvania, in fact) for processing. However it does save you an international phone call, and a lot of scheduling conflicts due to the time difference.

Speaking of scheduling conflicts - the US (pacific time) is right now some 14 hours behind us. It means that in 9AM here, it's 4PM in California the previous day. Another piece of important information is that this coming friday is a holiday - the vernal equinox (there is one for september, too).

Now, the scheduling conflict comes in where the US branch office decided that we should have a conference thursday afternoon US time, which directly cuts into the long-awaited three-day weekend (the phone conference starts at 8AM, no less). Granted that despite the complaining, I am glad that significant progress is being made in the progress of the current projects, I still feel a bit strange about this.

I mean, it generalizes, ya know. I understand that saying this might get a lot of people pissed, but it really seem to me that the westerners (US people, especially) have the tendency of having other people catering to them - most often unconsciously, but noticable, nontheless.

Take, for example, that we all know about the Christmas / Easter / Martin Luther Kings' day and such to know not to expect anything on those days, but I know nobody that are familiar with the Japanese holiday schedules with familiarity.

Language is similar - both China and Japan has tons of english signs. As I have mentioned much earlier, it is possible to survive in Japan without english skills (and to a lesser extent, China). Just think of all the Chinese / Japanese people you know who speaks (oftenly very fluent) English. Now count the number of westerners who are familiar with the asian languages...

Now, whoever reading this don't have to be offended, though I hope that people can see where I am coming from. I hold no hostile feelings one way or the other, but do find it to be a very interesting phenomenon.

Oh, and I have read somewhere a commentary that says "Japan is ______" (something bad - but I forgot the word) because they didn't show major league baseball until some japanese players started to play there. I thought it over and decided that such a statement is highly hypocritical. Cable companies in the US *never* showed olympics games where the US was not a participant, let along sumo matches or soccer (granted, World cup coverage was better than usual).

Yesterday I took the liberty of sending off my tax forms (for Japan). There is a post office very close to the office, some 5 minutes driving - it's on the west side of the road leading north from the Musashi bridge. I know most of y'all don't care - but I do have to look out for people who will be in my shoes later.

Oh, and last thing - there was another "feelable" earthquake yesterday night at 10:14pm or so. I think between Magnitude 2 and 3 where I was. Pretty darn common now-a-days, maybe something is going down.

Funny thing is that I have been getting dizzy the whole day yesterday (something that almost never happens) - I know animals tend to have this "early sense" system of earthquakes - Maybe I am getting it too. heh.

depends..

[molo]

I mean, it generalizes, ya know. I understand that saying this might get a lot of people pissed, but it really seem to me that the westerners (US people, especially) have the tendency of having other people catering to them - most often unconsciously, but noticable, nontheless.

I tend to agree. Most US people are arrogant and inconsiderate, and it shows through in ways like this. However, anyone doing any business in Japan should be more considerate. Not doing so is just bad business practice, especiall

Re:depends..

[moosemoose]

Most US people are arrogant and inconsiderate

i've traveled quite a bit and in fact most US people are quite kind and considerate, not to mention friendly. like all things in life, your perception is colored by the color of your glasses. most business people operate on a cost / benefit basis. is the cost of doing this worth the benefit? certainly if only a small percentage of your customers are overseas and you are already working 60 hour weeks you are probably not going to miss your child's christmas pl

Re:depends..

[molo]

you are probably not going to miss your child's christmas play to do research into your customer's holiday structure. it has nothing to do with rudeness.

Well of course. The thing is, if you are inflexible about when something has to happen and disregard other's scheduling interests, you are being rude.

Now, there has to be some give-and-take here. If the foreign people you are doing business with don't tell you that there is a scheduling conflict, it is hard to know that you are asking for something out

Re:depends..

[lingqi]

I think y'all are getting my point slighly warped. I don't think people are fundamentally rude, or (most, anyhow) intends to be.

However there is a disparity that exists. It might be the culture or whatever, but consider:

When a foreigner comes to, say, Japan - they expect, nay, DEMAND there be english signs in the airports. saying things like "why don't you learn kanji" will get you laughed at, or replies like "why should I." However, Considering chinese the *most* *widly* *spoken* *language*, expecting ch

Re:depends..

[greenwindow]

If we try to arrange a conference with US and find out it's holiday - we say "oh sorry, we'll re-schedule." In this case, we'd say "alright, we'll come in at 8AM on a holiday." To be accomodating is part of the japanese culture, and while it is part of the US culture too (or so I certainly hope!), it is not as pervalent, nor as engrained.

Everytime we have a scheduled conference call with the US (I am in Japan) and it falls on a holiday, we tell them to call us the following day, and we are the branch offi

Re:depends..

[lingqi]

let's just say "big customer we didn't want to piss off - potentially or otherwise" =)