Japanese Supremacy 人の振り見て我が振り直せ No.2

Japanese follows English.　英語の後に日本語が続きます。

I often go to a casual Italian restaurant at Ginza, central Tokyo, to lunch alone when taking a half day off from work. Restaurants in the area are mostly fancy, but this place isn't and its food and drink is good and reasonable.

Last week when having lunch there, I saw a Chinese family, a mother and two daughters, entering the restaurant. They just walked through the entrance toward a table next to mine despite being stopped by the manager saying in Japanese, "待ってください (please wait)" a couple of times. The three kept talking in Chinese ignoring him and were seated on the table. The manager gave up stopping them, left the table and came back with menus and three glasses of water. The three, taking the menus from him again without thanking him in Chinese, Japanese or English, kept loudly discussing something on the menu. The manager belatedly said again only in Japanese, "これがフードメニューで、そっちがドリンクメニューです。(This is a food menu and that is a drink menu)" to the three. Again no response. I got interested in where this dysfunctional communication between the Chinese customers only speaking Chinese and the Japanese manager, who also only spoke Japanese, would go.

Then suddenly after the heated debate in Chinese for another couple of minutes, they just stood up and left the restaurant again without saying anything in Japanese or English, or even in Chinese, leaving the manager and us appalled.

The atmosphere of the restaurant was first awkward and everyone was quiet, but a few minutes later, a group of middle-aged Japanese ladies said one after another, "That's terrible!," criticizing the Chinese family and mentioning recent troublesome incidents across Japan involving tourists from Asian countries.

I also felt sorry for the manager, who, although only in Japanese, tried to politely communicate with foreign customers until he came to my table and apologized saying "せわしない人種ですからね (They are a race of busy people)." I sensed a hint of contempt in how he had said. So although I knew that he wanted to please me by insinuating that "we are Japanese and different from them," I just said, "グローバル化ですね (It's been globalized everywhere!)." There is no difference between the Chinese family and Japanese people travelling to Europe and the U.S. during the years of the bubble economy.

The Chinese family's behaviors are rude. They could have said something in Japanese or English using a dictionary, or at least in Chinese. Most Japanese know that "xie xie (I'm not sure if this spelling is correct)" means thank you. But the manager has also a problem. Why doesn't or won't the manager of a store at Ginza, central Tokyo, speak even one word in English? If he had said "Hello," "Please wait," or "This is a menu," they may have responded and things would have gone differently. I had an impression that he decided to speak only Japanese. Besides, his remark "せわしない人種ですからね (They are a race of busy people)" is very discriminatory.

I learned a few days ago that a Japanese interpreter for an international marathon race held in southern Japan wrote in her blog that "speaking to participants from African countries was like speaking to primitive people, but these chimpanzees began to open their minds."

If an interpreter, who is supposed to have a global, open and non-discriminatory mindset, thinks that way and posts such an appalling comment, how come we can expect other people to have an open, global, inclusive mindset?

Or is this our or my intelligence level? I wrote this in the previous post, but need to write it again: "Wise men learn by other men's mistakes..."

仕事で半休取ったらよく銀座のイタリアンバルでランチします。銀座ですが値段はとっても良心的。食事もドリンクもおいしいです。

先日ランチしていたら、中国人のお母さんと娘二人が入ってきました。店長さんが「待ってください」と何度か止めたのですが、それを無視して私の隣のテーブルに座ってしまい、店長さんもあきらめてメニューと水を持ってきました。すると黙ってメニューを見始め今度は中国語で喧々諤々の議論。店長さん、一応「こっちがフードメニューで、そっちがドリンクメニューです」と日本語で言ったのですがそれも無視。数分議論が続いた後、今度はいきなり席を立って出ていってしまいました。

店内はみな唖然。最初は静かだったのですが少しするとあちこちで話が始まり、向こうのテーブルの女性4人が「あれはひどい！」と店長さんを慰めました。しばらくして店長さん、私のところにも来て「すみませんでした」と謝りました。そこまではまあよかったのですが「せわしない人種ですからね」と私に笑いかけてきたのです。その言い方に明らかな悪意とおもねるような響きを感じました。何かとっても嫌な気分になり、「どこもグローバル化ですね」と返しました。

人を人と思わない態度のその中国人家族にも腹が立ちましたが、銀座のレストランの店長さんが英語を全く使わない（使えない？）のもどうなのでしょう。「Hello」、「Please wait」、「This is a menu」ぐらい言えると思うのは私だけでしょうか。なんか日本語しか使わないぞ、という頑なな「信念」をお持ちのような印象を受けました。

ちなみに、大分別府マラソンの通訳者の方がアフリカからの参加者の方を原始人、チンパンジー呼ばわりしたらしいですね。グローバル人であるはずの通訳者がそのレベルですから後は推して知るべしですね。前回に続いて「人の振り見て我が振り直せ」の話でした｡｡｡