USA news on Youtube Dec 1 2018

Oha-konbanwa!

It's Seigo & Bren's Seigo!

I am currently living and working in the USA.

Today I would like to talk about some things that my American coworkers have taught me!

This is what they have taught me.

I am currently working in customer service.

They taught me that if someone does something rude to me,

I can be rude right back to them!

I think this would be unimaginable in Japan.

When I was working in Japan,

well,

no matter how terribly rude a customer was to me,

I had to keep a smile on my face.

And well,

in Japan, we have a saying which is "The customer is god."

No matter how rude a customer is to you,

you are not supposed to have an angry or hurt facial expression.

You keep smiling, put yourself beneath the customer, and apologize

Well, that's how I used to work in Japan

and it was what I was used to.

Once in a while we get a rude customer.

For example,

I am still learning English, so there are times when I don't understand what someone says to me.

Sometimes if I ask them to repeat themselves,

if I say "Could you please repeat that?"

sometimes an English speaker might think that it's a pain to try to talk to me,

and say "Oh, never mind..."

"Never mind, just forget it!"

And then they just order something easy off the menu, and leave.

(This also happens to foreigners working in Japan)

That sort of thing happens sometimes.

My coworker happened to see that happen,

and they said "You know, that customer was kinda rude!"

I don't know if my senses are numb because I was working in Japan,

but I am really bad at figuring out whether the customer is being rude,

or if it is just their personality.

I didn't understand just how rude some people were being.

Sometimes,

well, I am an Asian person,

and there are sometimes some racist customers.

Often times I don't realize it by myself.

But my coworkers do, and they tell me "That person was being racist!"

Whether is was something they said, or just their attitude.

They will treat my white coworkers normally,

but they will act like jerks when they talk to the asian staff.

Or when they call me, instead of saying "Excuse me!"

I've had someone yell "Hey!!"

"Hey!! Give me chopsticks!"

That's kind of hard for me to understand.

I'm still learning English, and American culture,

so it's hard for me to know whether someone is being rude, or just acting normal when they yell "Hey!"

But according to my coworkers,

they tell me when someone is being racist, or just rude.

Whenever something like that happens.

And they say that when someone acts rude towards you,

you can give it right back to them.

For example,

when someone is at the register, and they are being rude to me,

I used to keep a smiling face,

but they told me that I don't have to smile when that happens.

When someone is rude to you,

just do the bare minimum. Hand them their stuff, and that's it.

That's what my coworkers told me.

If someone were to be racist to me,

I wouldn't hesitate to speak up.

But it's not so easy when someone just has a bad attitude.

They may be in a bad mood,

and if I were to just get mad and go off on them,

I used to think that it's going to be a problem between the restaurant and the customer,

not just between me and the customer

and it may lower the restaurants reputation.

So I never really thought that standing up for myself was an option.

I guess that's a Japanese way to think.

But, well,

through working together with my coworkers,

they have showed me that it's not all about the restaurant.

It's about me,

me and the other person.

Not even as a customer,

it's another human, and me.

So if I don't feel right about something,

I can let them know it through my attitude.

Well,

It kind of surprised me at first!

I thought "I'm allowed to show my emotions like that in front of the customers?!"

It really took me by surprise!

I watched them deal with a rude customer in a kind of rude way

and it made me feel all kinds of emotions!

I thought "That could never happen in Japan!!"

"Is that kind of thing ok to do??"

But after working here for a while,

I began to think that customers are NOT gods,

we are both just equal humans.

So why do I need to always put myself below the customers?

That's how I have come to feel now.

I think there are some customers who see themselves as invincible,

and think they can say anything they want to the staff.

There were people like that in Japan.

I think that because Japanese people say "The customer is god",

so some customers feel like they are positioned at a rank above the staff,

and they really treat the staff like servants.

I really don't think that's right.

This is something I've thought about a lot since coming to the US.

I thought it was kind of interesting.

It's something that is unthinkable in Japan.

Well, I used this video to talk about my experiences working in the US,

and how it is different from working in Japan.

What do you guys think?

Whether you are working in Japan

Or maybe you are working overseas,

What do you do when you're working and you have to deal with an unpleasent customer?

As for me,

recently, when I feel like someone is being rude to me,

I've been letting it show more than I used to, without hurting the restaurants reputation.

If I do that, I don't feel as much stress!

I learned that I don't always have to keep a smile on my face

and I feel like I can relax more now.

If you guys have any experiences,

or stories about how you dealt with an unpleasant situation,

please share you experiences with us in the moment section!

I plan on making more videos about my experiences working in the US,

or about some cultural difference between the US and Japan.

Well, that's all for this video!

It's been pretty cold out lately, so stay warm!

Bye bye!