It’s
been almost three and a half year since I came to Japan as an international
student. I can’t say I’m still the same person as I was in Indonesia three
years ago. Ya, sometimes I unconsciously
behave like Japanese: bowing when greeting people, bow & re-bow &
re-re-bow when saying goodbye to older people (lol), keeping my schedule
packed, having dreams in Japanese, etc etc… But still I’m an Indonesian!
Indonesian who likes martabak (it IS very good food) no matter how delicious
sushi really is, considers traffic jam as a normal thing, and believes being
different is not a weird thing.
Have
I ever had a really serious culture shock? Not really. Most of the cases I just
don't really care if others do things not in a way I usually do. I do respect
differences, despite it is often hard for me to understand them. Surely it’s
easier for you to socialize with Japanese if you behave the “Japanese way”. I
think I’m still in the phase “understanding the Japanese way” in spite of my
fourth year living here. Ya, to understand a culture is not as easy as I
thought before.
Oh
wait?! I think I had a culture shock. It happened when I was in Bandung,
Indonesia while buying a set menu of a burger, French fries, and a cup of coke
in a very well known restaurant. So I ordered, paid, and received my burger and
coke. The waiter said to wait the French
fries at the table because they just started to cook it. So I happily went to a
table, started eating and talking with my friend. But after my burger was
finished, the French fries hadn’t come yet. So I got suspicious about this and
asked the waiter who told me to wait earlier. And the “shock” starts here. Here
is part of dialogue between the waiter and I (in Indonesian):
Me : “ Excuse me, but I haven’t got my
French fries yet.”
(Misi mba, saya belum dapat kentang
goreng saya nih.)
Waiter : “ Ah ya, forgot.”
(Oh ya, lupa.)
Me : &%’($#&#
Okay,
let me explain this first what made me feel annoyed that time. First, I was still okay with the fact that
she forgot my French fries. BUT, I don’t feel that she needed to tell me that
she forgot to deliver my French fries and no guilty feeling was shown from her
body language. I don't know if you feel that I exaggerate this too much but I
can guarantee you 99.99%, based on my experience, this kind of thing, won’t
happen in Japan.
Have
you ever been to Japan? Regardless what your answer is, I believe that not few
of us think that Japan is a developed country, Japan is better than your own
country, Japan is a nice place to live, and so on, and so on. Is that true? I
can’t tell you. But I do want to tell you that you should not believe something
without clear proofs or reasons (including this post). Ya, to think critically
is an important thing.
Before
it gets more serious (previous story is just an intro, haha), I posted my
journey travelling around Japan quite often and want to tell you where I got
the pocket money from haha. After having that “shock” and a notion, which says
that Japan offers the best service in the world, I became very curious what
happens inside Japanese business. And the easiest way for me to taste that is
to be a waiter here. Fyi, it is very common for student of even shakaijin (it’s
the way Japanese say to a person who is not a student and is working or looking
for a job) to have part time job. I have never tried to become a waiter in
Indonesia and it was my first experience (I have already quit because of some
reasons after 2 months) and I want to share what I learned here.
There’s
a notion that says customers are king in Japan. I can say this is fairly true.
Here are the basic rules when dealing with customers in Japan.
Basic Rule 1: The “special” language
Japanese
people have honorific language (尊敬語: sonkeigo) and humble language (謙譲語: kenjougo) to deal with customers (For me it is sort of different
language to “normal” nihongo, haha sorry I’m still a foreigner). It was pretty
frustrating for me at first but because they are regularly used I got used to
the standard sonkeigo and kenjougo. This rule is very basic and you will be
considered not “really” polite if you don’t use them. Okay to make it clearer I
will explain how this works.
Let’s
say you want to say “sorry to make you wait”. This is how you say it.
Saying
to a friend with the same age or younger (not formal):
お待たせ。 Omatase.
Saying to a senior or older people (sonkeigo):
お待たせしました。Omataseshimashita.
Saying to a customer (kenjougo):
お待たせいたしました。Omataseitashimashita.
Or if you want to make it humbler:
大変お待たせいたしました。Taihen Omataseitashimashita. (It means: very
sorry to …).
Frankly speaking, it is one of a quite simple
sonkeigo and kenjougo. Sometimes it has different vocab just to say pretty
simple thing like to say (言う becomes 仰る), to
go (行くbecomes参る). It
surprised me that Japanese have special short word for saying “sorry to make
you wait” but it surprised me again when I know that they have the humble form
to say it! I often use the sonkeigo one, but never really realized that the
waiters here use kenjougo. Well, I learned a lot to use them while working
there. Hufft…
Basic
Rule 2: No tipping!
It’s a common thing in the U.S or Indonesia to
tip. But in Japan tipping is really not their culture and sometimes considered
to be rude. Japanese think they have to calculate all the services they give
and give a definite price to their customers so they think they are fair to
every customer.
I did say this based on my personal experience.
So I was the only waiter who could speak English in restaurant where I worked.
Then came tourists from the U.S so I started serving them. After they finished,
they gave me 900yen as tip for good service :p. But what happened? The owner
knew it and took it from me! My question: who is more rude? I would say the
owner HAHAHA, just kidding. But really, it was quite hard for me who had my first
tip (in my ENTIRE life) with the same amount with my hour wage to get over
this. But honestly, I prefer no tipping culture because of some reasons I
couldn’t simply explain here or it will become a very long post.
Basic
Rule 3: No drinking, no eating, no sitting in front of customer
It also comes with other basic rules like no
chatting and no touching your mobile phone rule. It seems very simple rules but
after working several hours you want to drink water or sit for a while. You can
only do these things in the staff room or place where customer can’t see you.
Those are basic rules you need to know to deal
with customers. Now let’s go to more specific rules or rules I learned during
my part-time job.
Rule
4: The way saying “Irasshaimase”
Welcoming customer with saying “Irasshaimase” (いらっしゃいませ simply means “welcome”) is a very typical way in Japan. But it couldn’t be
more crucial after my restaurant owner told me that it was possible for
Japanese to leave a restaurant if waiters didn’t say “irasshaimase” quick
enough. “Irasshaimase” is not a meaningless welcome. It gives sign to the new
customers that you are ready to show them their seats because it’s not common
in Japan for customer to come and just sit where they like. You NEED to show
them where they sit so saying “Irasshaimase” is an important thing. It also
means that you know that there are customers waiting for you at the entrance so
the customers are also willing to wait. Very crucial, isn’t it?
They way of saying it can sometimes be
bothersome too. Basically your body has to face the customer (or at least turn
your face to the customer) which means you have to stop things you are doing.
It could be troublesome when they are few waiters and you are taking orders and
have to welcome new customers. You have to stop listening and welcoming the new
customers first and ask how many people are with them. It’s a very typical way
to welcome customers in Japan or they will just leave your restaurant or shop…
Waiters are also expected to send the customers
until the entrance when they have finished and leave the restaurant, also say
thank you (ありがとうございました) and please come again (またお越しくださいませ) with smile and a bow (lol).
Rule
5: The “both hand” rule
It is considered to be rude if you serve a
plate or a glass with a single hand. I have ever been scolded for this because
I didn’t know. You are expected to put your food tray somewhere else and serve
the food one by one. This rule is also applied when you are receiving money
(when there is no change tray) or returning the change.
Rule
6: Measure,
measure, measure!
Japanese people do like measuring (hahaha). I
was once responsible for making the drink and it was hard to remember all the
procedures to make the drinks and at last I had my own note about all the
procedures.
Japanese products are well known as good
quality products. Why? Because they have a very good quality control system and
follow a lot of procedures. Believe me, it’s not an easy task. Make 3 cups of
drink could be an easy task, but making 100 cups of drink with the same quality
is surely a hard task without clear procedures. I’m a type of person who tends
to break or at least question rules and procedures, so now I know why those
troublesome rules were created.
 |
| Kirin Chuuhai Glass |
If you look carefully to kirin chuuhai glass
(commonly used glass in Japanese bars), there are dots on the body so you can
measure how much syrup or sake you put into the glass. And if you know the hot
Japanese sake can (ちろり), it is also a measuring glass with Japanese
volume unit called gou. 1 gou (一合) is equal to 180.39 mL (according to Wikipedia).
The customer will ask you for more sake if you serve less than it should be.
 |
| Hot japanese sake can: chirori |
Other
subtle rules
The choice of your words and sentences do
matter! Instead of saying “please wait a minute (少々お待ち下さい/humble
form)”, it is better to say, “I will soon come to you (すぐ参ります/humble
form)”. If you say please wait here and there the customer will think when they
will be served, but if you say “soon come to you” the customer will believe or
at least understand to wait if you are busy with something and it gives a good
impression also. It’s indeed very simple thing, but I had never thought it
deeply before worked as a waiter.
Besides those things, I also learned other
precious things such as the manner of using your time card, the technique of
distributing brochures, time management, and coping with customer complaint
(which sometimes is not because of your fault (~~”7)). I could say I had a
wonderful experience while working there.
 |
| All the staffs minus one person sleeping in the secret chamber |
To end this long post, let me say few things. I’m
not a person who likes to compare things even though sometimes it intuitively
happens in my head. I’m definitely not saying that Japan is better than
Indonesia or the opposite. It’s also hard to compare because it’s just a tip of
an iceberg called culture. I could easily write things I don’t like about Japan
with the same length to this post. But it feels nice when you know how to do
things differently and you can also improve yourself by trying them. That is
the main reason why I’m sharing these experiences to you. What do you think?
Please leave any comment! Thank you. =D
