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**ralerin** · 08-08-2010, 11:36 AM

Quoth Fleur View Post

----
this happens depressingly often. the customer will slide their credit card in our ancient machines, the machine won't pick it up, and so will display the message "Please slide card again". guess how many freaking people STARE AT IT or ASK ME if they have to slide it again. gee, i don't know, what does the machine say?

"Um...."

"...."

"...So I slide it again?"

"Jesus Tapdancing Christ, YES!!!"

one of the supervisors got sick of all our pens disappearing and so brought in a few huge (like, footlong) pens covered in store stickers to put at the registers for customer use.
at least every other customer will say something along the lines of "wow, that's a big pen, hurr durr."

>:| NO SHIT?! I HADN'T NOTICED. jackasses.

How many of those have wandered off because people went "Ooooh, huge pen, shiny, must keep?"

(yes, politeness goes out the window at times. it's a bad habit that i'm not working on.)

...no. no, i don't. i know japanese. yes, i realise that this is rare and almost incomprehensible to you. but allow me to assure you, it's not a big deal. i still know english.

Sometimes when a customer of mine comes in we engage in French. I get variations of "In America we speak ENGLISH!!!" all the time.

lady, always rude and annoying, comes into my lane and i sigh. she's on her cellphone. of course. i don't say hi, how are you or anything when you're on your cellphone. you don't get a choice between paper or plastic bags. put that shit away, for fuck's sake.
she goes through the entire transaction talking about things that shouldn't be talked about in public, and as she hands me her cash she starts winding down. she finally ends the phone call as i give her her change -- only to press a button and start a conversation on the other line.
i walked away at that point and ranted to a coworker for about five minutes.

I would either: Sigh loud enough to be audible over the phone and if she says "Sorry babe this cashier is being a bitch" I would then go, still loudly, "This cashier is tired of being treated like a schmuck."

Or I would ignore her, lean forward and if she says something, I would say, "Oh! I'm sorry! I've eavesdropping! I didn't know your public conversation was supposed to be private!"

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i really hate my job.[/QUOTE]

**Shalom** · 08-08-2010, 01:48 PM

Quoth Fleur View Post

when the cool manager is working and it's late at night and there's nothing else to do, i bring out my notebook and start scribbling away in japanese. sometimes it's song lyrics, sometimes it's one of the stories that i'm working on, sometimes it's "I WANT TO GO HOME" over and over. sometimes i even have a dictionary out as well.
it's got to the point where i hide it when customers come up. because they all take one look and go "YOU KNOW CHINESE?!"
...no. no, i don't. i know japanese. yes, i realise that this is rare and almost incomprehensible to you. but allow me to assure you, it's not a big deal. i still know english.

I remember years ago, so long ago in fact that VHS wasn't yet obsolete, I was watching UY, which of course was never dubbed, and my mother walks in. She watches over my shoulder for a few minutes, and finally says "How come they're talking Chinese? They don't look Chinese..."

**~~PepperElf~~** · 08-08-2010, 02:24 PM

Cool, Japanese is not an easy language to learn. Which version are you writing in? Hiragana, Katakana, or Kanji?

**SailorMan** · 08-08-2010, 03:50 PM

Since February, the ship I'm currently on has been shuttling between Japan and Korea (except for the last week -- we just left Darwin, Australia, which was fun

).

I've bought a Japanese phrase book, a really nice one: a column each for the Japanese Kanja & kana; phonological transcription; and English translation. Just wish I had more time to study it.

**ExRetailDrone** · 08-08-2010, 05:22 PM

Quoth ralerin View Post

Sometimes when a customer of mine comes in we engage in French. I get variations of "In America we speak ENGLISH!!!" all the time.

This really annoys me. Although I honestly don't remember ever hearing it in person, I've seen enough stuff online to make me cringe. Don't these people realize that the United States has no official language? Oh, wait, of course they don't, because that would mean they had to be knowledgeable about something other than pop culture. Silly me

And to the OP, I would love to learn Japanese! My husband and I are hoping to teach overseas sometime soon, either in Japan or South Korea. He actually applied to teach in Japan last year, and we prepared by purchasing Rosetta Stone, but he sadly didn't get the position. I really should actually use that program instead of being lazy

**Magpie** · 08-08-2010, 06:36 PM

I know it's stupid, but if we're talking strictly about bags which are supplied by the store, plastic bags are bags, and paper ones are paper bags. Interesting that that woman sees it as the opposite. (And why would you want to put something which will gather condensation in a bag that doesn't like water?)

**Fleur** · 08-08-2010, 06:46 PM

Quoth ralerin View Post

How many of those have wandered off because people went "Ooooh, huge pen, shiny, must keep?"

i think they've all disappeared, but more due to the cashiers getting fed up with the asinine comments and hiding them, rather than customers not knowing the difference between theirs and not-theirs.

Sometimes when a customer of mine comes in we engage in French. I get variations of "In America we speak ENGLISH!!!" all the time.

i actually haven't had any ignorant "SPEAK ENGLISH" comments (yet). my store's customers are stupid, not assholes. most of them, at least.
japanese is kind of hard as shit, but i have a talent for languages and decided to use it.

I know it's stupid, but if we're talking strictly about bags which are supplied by the store, plastic bags are bags, and paper ones are paper bags. Interesting that that woman sees it as the opposite. (And why would you want to put something which will gather condensation in a bag that doesn't like water?)

different people will request their cold stuff in either bag. i have no idea which is actually better for keeping cold in; i would assume plastic, but our plastic bags are awful. i just play along, no questions asked. i'm too apathetic for anything else XD

**EvilEmpryss** · 08-08-2010, 07:07 PM

One of these days, when someone is gabbing (loudly) on a cellphone about stuff that really shouldn't be talked about in public, I'm going to butt in.

"Oh my GOD! You have that too?!?!? Oh, don't you just hate it when you get that rash on your coochie, and then the smell starts... it could gag a maggot! Have your pubes started falling out yet?"

Shame really needs to be reinstilled in the culture.

**ExRetailDrone** · 08-08-2010, 07:20 PM

Quoth EvilEmpryss View Post

One of these days, when someone is gabbing (loudly) on a cellphone about stuff that really shouldn't be talked about in public, I'm going to butt in.

"Oh my GOD! You have that too?!?!? Oh, don't you just hate it when you get that rash on your coochie, and then the smell starts... it could gag a maggot! Have your pubes started falling out yet?"

Shame really needs to be reinstilled in the culture.

BAHAHAHAHA!!

**~~PepperElf~~** · 08-08-2010, 10:53 PM

Since February, the ship I'm currently on has been shuttling between Japan and Korea (except for the last week -- we just left Darwin, Australia, which was fun).

OOOO i've been to Darwin too!

they have a really nice tour company that does a biking waterfall tour.
i don't remember the company name though

but i do remember how great the water looked. i wasn't use to seeing rivers where the water was clear all the way to the bottom.

**Chromatix** · 08-09-2010, 12:06 AM

That really is unusual. Most rivers, even if not polluted, have a lot of sediment suspended in them which makes them fairly opaque unless they're very shallow.

Meanwhile, I don't get much stick for speaking English in Finland. At worst I'll come across someone who doesn't speak enough English to understand me or make themselves understood, but usually they can find someone who does. But then, here it's accepted that there are a lot of foreign tourists, students and business travellers - some of whom speak Russian more easily than anything else.

**Green_Fairy** · 08-09-2010, 03:31 AM

Quoth Fleur View Post

ypsilanti

...pray tell, how is that pronounced?

**Wenchie** · 08-09-2010, 03:50 AM

Quoth Green_Fairy View Post

...pray tell, how is that pronounced?

Ypsilanti = Ip-sa-lan-tee

I used to live in Ypsi (Ip-see) but now I live about a half hour away in Farmington.

I don't know what it is... Ann Arbor is just next to Ypsi and there are a lot of rich (and snooty) people there... and Ypsi is like the trailer park next door. It's kinda scary how people seem to lose IQ points when they cross from A2 to Ypsi.

**Fleur** · 08-09-2010, 03:56 AM

Quoth bardicwench View Post

I don't know what it is... Ann Arbor is just next to Ypsi and there are a lot of rich (and snooty) people there... and Ypsi is like the trailer park next door. It's kinda scary how people seem to lose IQ points when they cross from A2 to Ypsi.

bahaha, so true

i actually live on the border of ypsi and saline, only a few miles from the outskirts of ann arbor, and in any given week i will be all over the place. it's fascinating to see the differences within like a ten square mile area, from built-up ann arbor to slummy downtown ypsi, and then small-town saline to BFE milan.

Announcement

cellphones, douchebags, and yes i know a foreign language

cellphones, douchebags, and yes i know a foreign language

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