Coffee Shop Sign: Speak Japanese, Not English
JD sends us this image of a coffee shop in Tokyo’s Chiyoda-ku:
He considers the sign, which appears to be informing foreigners to use Japanese because its staff cannot understand English, as a “xeno-phobic” and “racist:”
I think it is rude and pretty stupid for a place like Tokyo who wants the olympics in 2016 to allow this type of hate to be displayed.
Obviously some one who understands English wrote the sign. Also I have written Chiyoda-ku Ward office about this sign and it was promptly ignored.
Can you post this and see what your site readers think?
Is a sign that asks customers to speak the language of that country racist, hateful, or xenophobic? Is it rude or stupid?
My opinion: They aren’t rejecting all foreign customers, they’re just warning English speakers that their staff can’t speak English and asking that customers order in the only language their staff comprehends. I can understand that some people might be offended by such a sign, but I doubt it was put up with hateful or xenophobic intentions. It might be a good idea to inform the store’s owner that many foreigners would equate their sign with the message “NO FOREIGNERS,” and the sign should probably be changed.
Update: After a majority of votes and comments have found the sign not to be offensive, JD has responded with additional details about his experience.
A quote from the comments section of this post:
I took the picture and sent it in. I am not thin-skinned at all and I speak Japanese perfectly. I still thought that it was a silly thing to put on your shop window. Also after I took the photo some old guys came out and started giving me the Yakuza treatment.
I agree with the person who said that he doesn’t need to see the ‘Don’t Speak German’ signs. Of course in Japan you should try to speak Japanese as much as you can. My point was that the sign is not really friendly to foreigners. It is kind of cold and rude. But everyone is entitled to their opinion.
More on the men who came out of the coffee shop:
They got pretty agro on me. Cussed me out and tried to circle around me. I just walked away.
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Uh, I think the sign is perfectly acceptable. They even apologize “We are sorry” I think they’re just warning any non-japanese speaking customers that they’re SOL.
It’s not like the sign is saying “Pgo back to your own country”
Some people are really sensitive. wow
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I agree with you fully, it has nothing to do with xenophobia it is merely another extension of political correctness surpassing common sense.
I am English and am hoping to visit Japan soon and I think that the request to speak the language of the country your in is something that should be expected. “When in Rome…”. Expecting everyone to speak English is something the British Empire did during the 1800’s we are now in the 21st Century.
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What about Gebo’s in the US? That is English only. I see nothing wrong with a place of business specifying that the language of the nation be used.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,198757,00.html
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It is perfectly acceptable. I can’t believe so far 8 people have voted “not acceptable.” Do they think they have a god-given right to speak English and be understood, in a foreign country no less?
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What’s up with the non-Japanese living in Japan who haven’t even bothered to learn how to order a coffee in Japanese ? It’s not that hard to order drinks and food.
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I’m sure his staff doesn’t speak MANY languages – so why doesn’t the sign on the door list ALL of the languages it doesn’t speak, instead of just English?
I grew up in Germany, but currently live in America. I don’t need a sign on every shop’s door telling me they don’t speak German – I pretty much assume that whatever Country I’m in, the staff will use it’s default language – spelling it out on the door is just stupid.
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English is the default Non-Japanese language in Japan. Considering how many signs are in English and how many people speak it, singling English out is not a surprise.
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The point taken. But Asian people don’t speak their language in Japan when they try to speak to Japanese people. I have never heard German speak German to Japanese staffs in Japanese shops. Most of the times, foreigners who speak to Japanese staffs in their language is English speaking people.
(That said, of course there are foreigners who speak to the Japanese in Japanese, though.)
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Perhaps these are just foreigners from, say, Germany, who think that English is a sort of “international language” and likely to be more understood than German. In other words, people speaking English are not necessarily “English speakers”.
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Maybe they put up the sign because they had many foreign customers who tried to speak in English. Don’t just assume they did it out of stupidity.
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It’s the “try Japanese” at the end that comes across as snarky. If they’d left that off it would be viewed as honestly apologetic and just stating a fact.
Looks like someone was trying to use hip, cynical modern North American humor and failed.
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“Try Japanese”, I like that part the best. All this post shows is that foreigners in Japan arent as postmodern cyncial and cool as I wanted to believe they are.
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Maybe it’s just “Engrish” — they’re probably trying to say that you’ll have better luck if you spoke Japanese
None of their staff are fluent in English, remember?
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Personally, it’s not the sign or even the wording that I find obnoxious, it’s the size. The “Try Japanese” comment is a bit insensitive, but I don’t think it was meant to be, however the sign looks like it’s quite large, therefore a bit overbearing. If it was a normal sheet of paper size, or even a bit bigger, I don’t think anyone would care and I certainly wouldn’t, but something that size is a bit too much.
However, I think no offense was intended.
And as far as Geno’s is concerned, I heard about that when it happened, and I found it to be quite xenophobic and obnoxious.
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What the store owner probably means is that he welcom anybody, but since the shop has Japanese speaking staffs, please order in Japanese.
I guess the owner has had a lot customers who ordered coffee in English .
It is possbile that Japanphobia guys nitpick the sign, which
makes some Japanese real xenophobia
The due course to take, as James suggests, is to let the owner know that some foreigners would equate their sign with
rejecting English speaking people.
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I think the sign is acceptable but it sure is huge.
This is the second time this weekend that I’ve come across an argument that connects Tokyo’s interest in hosting the 2016 Olympics to a sort of admonishment against the assumption of a bigoted attitude. The first time was in the news article about the dismissed lawsuit originally filed by French language advocates against the governor. In both cases, the reference is made by some awfully thin-skinned people.
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I don’t think this is a xenophobic sign at all, it’s simply saying that the staff doesn’t speak English. I don’t really consider that a problem.
For all I know they could have gotten somebody to proofread the sign before they put it up. The “try Japanese” part may seem rude, but again I doubt it was intended that way and if the staff’s English is truly doinky, I don’t think they would know that that could be taken in a rude way.
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At first glance it would be a little intimidating. I mean we are here in Japan of course we don’t expect anyone to speak English. So by see it in big letters on the door it almost feels like you are not welcome if you cannot converse in Japanese.
However if you read it the sign does not say don’t come in it simply says they won’t understand English. So I would just get by using broken Japanese and pointing like I do in every other business I go into.
Gotta give them the benefit of the doubt and say they are simply warning people ahead of time and did not intend it to be xenophobic or racist.
Being from the US it kind of strikes me as similar to racists comments I have heard there like “you wanna live in the US then learn to speak English”. So Like I said I can see how people might have taken it that way but it probably just an innocent sign.
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I don’t understand why people are using the word “racism”? We are talking about LANGUAGE. What does color have to do with language? Ethnicity and race are two different things people.
I’ll give some examples for slow learners
Same Race
Caucasian
Irish
Swedish
Different Ethnicities
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My thoughts exactly.
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Because there are quite a few people out there who would argue that the Irish and the Swedes are in fact different races. Not an argument I agree with, but far from rare.
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“Try Japanese”, By it, I guess he wanted to say “日本語でお願いします。
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That’s my guess too. It’s not a big deal.
“Hate”? “Xenophobic”? “Racist”? Seriously? This, amigos, is very likely none of the above. Most likely, it’s a sign saying “We apologize, but we can only speak Japanese” that was written in a country that isn’t very renowned for slapping perfect English together. Personally, I think that getting so riled up over it (not to mention filing complaints with the local government!) would probably just exacerbate the situation, more than anything.
Has anyone that’s complaining actually tried to just politely and delicately explain to the owner that the sign could be misleading to some?
And, you know, if one doesn’t like it, just don’t go there. Don’t give them your money. Give your business to someone else. That’s how it works. I think the shopowner has a right to have that sign present, though it, obviously, could be written a bit better. (Even if you interpret it as hostile, isn’t it better to know that you’re not welcome upfront instead of, say, going in, spending money, and being treated badly or whatnot?)
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Hi guys,
I took the picture and sent it in. I am not thin-skinned at all and I speak Japanese perfectly. I still thought that it was a silly thing to put on your shop window. Also after I took the photo some old guys came out and started giving me the Yakuza treatment.
I agree with the person who said that he doesn’t need to see the ‘Don’t Speak German’ signs. Of course in Japan you should try to speak Japanese as much as you can. My point was that the sign is not really friendly to foreigners. It is kind of cold and rude. But everyone is entitled to their opinion.
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Yazuka treatment? What did they do?
They got pretty agro on me. Cussed me out and tried to circle around me. I just walked away.
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Email me a map, I’ll try to visit it when I’m in Tokyo soon!
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“the sign is not really friendly to foreigners. ”
Might be true for some native English speakers. But it is too quick to call the owner racist. It is written by the Japanese who only know Engrish.
“Also after I took the photo some old guys came out and started giving me the Yakuza treatment.”
Maybe they were Yakuza, and they didn’t like to have the picture taken. But does it have something to do with the sign?
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You obviously have a lot of spare time on your hands. Have you thought about taking up a hobby or a sport ? Or do you prefer taking photos of insignificant signs ?
To me your behaviour is rather strange. No wonder somebody got angry with you. Did you do this sort of thing back in your own country ?
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It certainly isn’t “no wonder” for me. It’s anyone’s right to take pictures of “insignificant signs” as you so eloquently put it, but it’s no one’s right to harass them for it.
Maybe something that hasn’t occurred to you is that he thought the sign WAS significant. What I find “rather strange” is you thinking his behavior is strange.
I don’t see a problem with the sign because it was worded politely enough and I think tourists should learn at least a little of the language of countries they go to.
The sign was obviously targeted at foreigners though – how many Japanese would speak English to other Japanese? I don’t think there’s anything wrong with making a connection between this and 2016. When Japan wants to host the Olympics, an international event, you’d think they’d do what the Chinese are doing and try to make their citizens more…international.
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There’s nothing wrong with that sign. I know plenty of Americans who don’t bother to learn the languages of places that they visit, then get all pissy when the native folk don’t speak English! Ummm…DUH, you’re in a foreign country! Whether they speak English a lot or not, is not the issue, IMO. Japan…Japanase; Spain…Spanish…France…French. Get it?
The owner is just letting people know, we don’t speak English, we speak Japanese, that’s all. Geez.
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I think every country in the world besides america should just put every book, piece of art and document of any medium related to it’s culture, history, heritage, customs and languages in a big pile and burn it, so when I visit with my foreign friends and family, we can drink our starbucks, overeat, and spread our propaganda without having to actually think outside of our ebonics based vocabulary. That might take some effort, can’t have that!
Then we can all come together and build a big machine that eats, drinks, poops, and breathes for us, so all we have to do is sit there and get fat while playing our Xbox. Yeah baby! That’s what I call foreign policy!
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I’m sorry but this sign isn’t racist at all. I can’t believe the guy who took the picture wrote the ward office. Thats taking it a little too far. It just plainly says that the staff can’t speak English and don’t want to deal with sticky situations in which they don’t understand you. Most places in Japan the staff probably don’t understand English but maybe this place has had some problems with people coming in only speaking English or something. You are in Japan…not everyone in the world speaks and understands English. Try learning the official language of the country you’re in.
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I doubt the sign was intended to be insulting but it definitely is. Partly it’s how the sign is written – giant letters over an already tiny window – which scream “Go Away” despite the reasonably polite English they use. The tag “Try Japanese” probably sounded polite when the author thought it up but in English, that sounds extremely rude.
The key insult here is that the sign exists at all, though. It’s a Japanese business in Japan which means that they should already expect customers to come in and speak Japanese on some level. To create this sign is an aggressive move to pointedly correct the (potential) behavior of tourists or non-native speakers. That is what offends me.
If I ran a business in New York City and put out a sign that said (in Spanish) “We only speak English” there would be an uproar in a heartbeat.
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“To create this sign is an aggressive move to pointedly correct the (potential) behavior of tourists or non-native speakers. That is what offends me.”
Good god! If I don’t like Chocolate flavored cake I don’t go whining and crying like a little bitch to the makers of chocolate cake, I choose a different flavor. If you don’t like the sign, don’t eat there.
I hope this owner just tells all the foreigners to stay out. You self righteous, politically correct robots. You are the enemies of freedom. You are the true enemies of Japan. If you don’t like it then fucking leave.
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Then again there are some ignorant statements that you just cannot ignore (look above).
Was it really that big of a problem to have to post red-lettered stickers? That must’ve taken a good deal of time and work (aligning them, even spacing) just to remark of an obvious issue.
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i think everyone agrees the sign is an eyesore.
so think about it in a business sense. why would you put a big ugly sign like that up when you could simply provide a translation of the menu for the same effort/cost and not lose potential customers by doing so?
back off a bit, yes people living here should learn japanese. that doesn’t mean those who have every intention to and are in the process of learning can read a menu written in kanji (but it doesn’t mean they should try speaking english either)
that said, if i was walking down the street and saw the sign, it wouldn’t bother me.
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This sign wouldn’t bother me. If I see this sign I go to other restaurant. It save my time to get in and get out because nobody there speak a common language like English.
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‘Most places in Japan the staff probably don’t understand English but maybe this place has had some problems with people coming in only speaking English or something. You are in Japan…not everyone in the world speaks and understands English. Try learning the official language of the country you’re in.’
Exactly Kenji!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Don’t see anything wrong with the sign. It’s not refusing foreigners and if a foreigner who knew absolutely no Japanese did go in and speak in English, I’m sure the staff would do their best to accommodate. It’s just reminding foreigners to give Japanese a go. I doubt very much that the ‘try Japanese’ bit was intending to be rude as ones English would have to be pretty sophisticated for that.
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The self-esteem generation strikes again. Don’t like the fact that you must speak Japanese in just about every place besides Roppongi while in Japan? Then maybe you should go back to where you came from.
“Try Japanese.” Seriously, try it. Maybe you’d stop being so critical of the supposed racist nature of Japanese people at large if you could communicate with them.
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While I agree with the concepts your trying to convey, once again it’s your attitude shazzb0t that ultimately makes anything you say hard to agree with.
“Try Japanese”. Yah, I’m sure most people try it when they know they’re heading to Japan (trying to learn some common/needed phrases/words), but to expect someone to learn an entire language to a conversational level before heading to a country for 2 or so weeks is not only ridiculous, but undermines just how difficult it is to learn a foreign language (particularly one so very different from English).
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Attitude is everything dun.
I don’t think that the sign is meant for those people who are just taking a little trip to Japan. Who the hell goes to some tiny place Chiyoda-ku to get a haircut while they are on a week long trip to Tokyo? Not exactly apart of the tour homes.
Besides that I stayed in Japan with about 1 year of study under my belt and I did fine. It isn’t ridiculous to expect someone to learn at least a bit of the language of the country they are going to. Conversational Japanese isn’t that hard to acquire, besides it takes a bit more than conversational Japanese to let them know how you want your cut. If I were them I’d say nani mo ii if I didn’t know for sure how to give them instructions.
In conclusion, lern2japanese or don’t get a fucking haircut.
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I was under the impression that it was a coffee shop, something I wouldn’t find too hard for the occasional tourist to stumble into.
I’ve been off and on teaching myself the language for perhaps the past 8 months now, and I can tell you, I’m nowhere near the level of conversational understanding. Being self taught is pretty hard to do (particularly since you don’t have another human being to who already knows the language to ask questions, practice conversing).
I think I know enough to get by if I had too, but my memory has never been the best, s trying to essential near double my vocabulary and learning all the rules of grammar (particles kill me) are not very easy for me.
I’m not sure how you were able to go about learning the language, but not everyone has the same environment/ability to learn a second language so easily.
Plus, if everyone that visited Japan needed to know the language you’d find Japan’s tourism industry plummet, and I don’t think that would be the smartest move for anyone involved.
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Yeah, I don’t know where I got the barber shop thing. I think something in my mind got mixed up when I wrote that post.
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What we need is for someone to go in and see if that sign really is about speaking the language, or if you would get tossed out despite being fluent. Until then, we can not say anything definite about this sign.
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Well yes we could do that, OR we could stop acting like the american self righteous uptight [sand in my vagina] types and realize that we are not perfect. Just like them. *cough*
Get over it people, the world still turns, noone died, your house is not on fire… Life moves on.
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How can anyone get offended by such a sign? I can’t fathom it. Relax ffs.
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I’m offended by their lack of punctuation marks at the end of the two sentences as well as the failure to capitalize the ‘t’ in try!
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YOU RACIST! /sarcasm
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Yeah, I agree with most people on this post that there really doesn’t seem to be anything deliberately rude or racist about the sign. I highly doubt whoever wrote the sign knew enough about English to realize that “try Japanese” has a sarcastic connotation, so the owners of the shop can’t really be blamed for that. As for the size of the sign, for all we know the sign was originally smaller but tourists, not noticing it, continued to come in speaking English so they decided to enlarge it. Understandable. As for the old men who roughed JD up, they probably did think he was taking their picture, as the sign is on a window into the shop after all, in which case it can’t be seen as a reflection of the attitudes of the staff, but only a reflection on two aggressive old men.
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I don’t see the sign as racist or xenophobic or “snarky”. The barber shop I go to has a much ruder sign that says explicitly (in English) that they will refuse customers who don’t speak Japanese well enough to instruct the barbers about the details of their haircuts. When I first went there, I was kind of angry at the sign, but the barbers themselves are very nice; I asked one of them about the sign and he said they did actually have some gaikokujin customers who were speaking nothing but English to the barbers and became obnoxious when they didn’t understand.
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I’m not Japanese, and I don’t speak the language.
But I’m proud of the old folk showing ‘agro’ hehe
Yes, English is the default nonJapanese langauge out there probably and there’s nothing wrong with the sign
I’m an internationalist, globalized person, but I love to see such national pride in people. As long as they don’t kick my ass or shoot me.
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They’ve probably had problems with customers coming in, only speaking English, and yelling at the staff when they don’t understand. I’ve seen that in plenty of places in China. Annoying! It’s astonishing how dumb and rude some people can be. I even went to this German culture festival concert in Shanghai, and when the orchestra conductor started introducing a piece in German, some dork in the audience (American, to my embarrassment) shouted “Speak English!”
The sign does come off as rude, but I bet it was put there when the owner got so pissed off he couldn’t take it anymore.
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That’s awful D: Makes me rather sad to be from the US…
Xenophobes shouldn’t be allowed to travel. Ugh.
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How about someone go and EAT there? Maybe talk with the staff instead of taking photos of the window outside?
“Try Japanese” might mean exactly what it says… try Japanese, folks.
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Yea exactly…
Depending on the tone “Try Japanese” could be meant in a mocking condescending way or as an invitation to learn the native language with them.
It’s hard to tell.
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I am not familiar with the location of this shop but I find it hard to believe that any English speaker would encounter this shop as their first coffee buying experience in Japan. I seriously doubt that any English speaker ever showed up and made a fuss because the staff did not speak English. After you are here for more than a day you realize that you don’t even need to know Japanese at all to order coffee. If you walk in and ask for coffee in English you can bet they know what you want since the Japanese word is just a derivative of “coffee”. Honestly the sign would make more sense in a store that required a complex understanding of the Japanese language. For example I have a very difficult time telling the barber what I want. I’d say in a business like that they would have a very legitimate right to say they cannot serve you unless you can speak Japanese a little.
Seriously though how much of a difference is there between “coffee” and “koh-hee”? I’d honestly love to know the reasoning behind the sign whether it’s innocent or malicious.
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I speak Japanese with very little problem. However, if I saw a sign like this I would avoid the establishment. I don’t really care whether or not it’s racist, etc. but my money isn’t going to any establishment that enforces rules that are total crap.
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As an American who has been to Japan and doesn’t know a single word of Japanese, I don’t find anything offensive or unreasonable about the sign.
Obviously it’s useful for me if the staff of an establishment speaks English, ’cause otherwise I’m screwed, but I don’t expect them to, and I’d rather know BEFORE I enter a shop that nobody speaks English, it saves me time and embarrassment.
I found the snarky “try Japanese” line the best part. Even if they were being smartasses about it, that doesn’t make it “racist” or “hateful.” I can’t believe someone actually bothered to take the time to write a letter of complaint.
Call the Waaaaahmbulance.
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Without reading any of the above comments, the only time I’ve ever personally run across anything like this was down in Naha, Okinawa.
A friend and I went up to a bar that plainly said “Japanese Only” on the door, and I led the way in asking if it was cool if we had a drink. The guy said he couldn’t speak English, but if that was ok with me then he didn’t mind at all- turned out to be a really cool guy, actually, and very helpful. The “Japanese Only” was indeed referring to his language ability and not referring to race at all.
I don’t see how this could be considered racist when there are places in the world where knowing the local language is the only real option in so many places around the world, especially in the English-speaking countries. See how fast you get turned down trying to order in Japanese pretty much anywhere in the US.
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I have a feeling that many people are getting the wrong impression about all the Japanese people who are oh-so xenophobic and insular, when they see the lazy and misleading “Japanese only” signs that abound on stores and webpages.
I’ve tried telling people I know personally that that statement comes across as racist and offensive, and most are shocked and say they only thought it meant they could only understand the Japanese language.
Also, though I see comments saying how “coffee” isn’t all that hard to understand, instead of a seemingly rude single-word utterance of “coffee”, saying something like “Yes, I’d like to order one coffee please” alone is likely enough to confuse and intimidate non-English speakers.
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So in other words, tourists to Japan, stay away because you can’t speak in Japanese so you can’t order anything. Makes sense.
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I voted ‘not acceptable’, not because I think it’s xenophobic, but just because I think it’s pretty shoddy PR for the sort of social atmosphere that a cafe is supposed to have. I speak Japanese very well, but I’d still like to walk in and speak English just to see what their reactions are like.
By the way, this sort of reminds me of how the French understand English but choose not to respond to it. It’s just f’ing rude. (And please don’t read into this as, “English should be spoken everywhere,” because that’s a statement that every bone in my body disagrees with)
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Yes, just like “THE FRENCH”
Your comment is as acceptable as it is accurate.
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I voted that the sign is acceptable. Whatever happeened to “When in Rome, do as the Romans do?” When I was studying abroad I knew far too many people who tried to get by only in English, not using Japanese and expecting the Japanese to understand, and willing enough to bend over for them all because they were too lazy to speak a foreign language. Instead of complaining, why doesn’t somebody actually try to go into the shop and order some coffee to see what will happen?
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See, this is why we’re called ‘Arrogant Americans’. We’ll go halfway or all the way around the world to experience, the culture and then expect people to speak English everywhere we go, then when they don’t speak English (suprise suprise), then we wanna throw a self-righteous pissy fit. It’s totally ridiculous thinking. The owner probably had a influx of people just coming in speaking English and then throwing a piss fit when they couldn’t understand, so to avoid all of that, they’re letting you know upfront, that in that establishment, they speak they’re native language, which happens NOT to be English (suprise suprise)
…and after all of that, here comes someone, thinking they’re back in America and not in a foreign country, throwing a piss fit because these Japanese people don’t speak English. *smh*
Looks like the owner can’t win for losing.
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You’re an Arrogant American because you think the sign only refers to people from America. It could be possible that they have more problems with Australians doing this than Americans….
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No, because then the sign would read “try Japanese, mate”….
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Awww…..I hit a nerve! Cool!
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“Awww…..I hit a nerve! Cool!”
Yeah, and that sort of petulant attitude is also part of the reason that we’re considered arrogant.
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If the store employees don’t speak English then they probably got someone to write the sign for them and so have no idea that it may sound rude to Western ears. But even assuming that they understood what it meant, at worst it expresses some impatience with people coming into their store and expecting them to be able to communicate in English.
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If I owned a shop – I wouldn’t care what language the customer wanted to speak in, as long as he/she/it had cash money in their hand/paw/tentacle/robotic appendage.
Rude, racist, or stupid – whatever the reason for the sign just shows that the shop owner doesn’t understand what it takes to be a SUCCESSFUL merchant.
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how is it racist? Basically the sign warns foreigners that their staff can not speak English. It’s not like they are banning foreigners from their coffee shop. You should come and try to walk in some American coffee shops and speak Japanese (or other foreign languages), they will look at you if you are from another planet.
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P.S the owner is a loser for being rude to your friend
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Was it said that it was the owner? JD just said that they were “old guys.”
As for this “yakuza treatment,” JD also said that he speaks “Japanese perfectly,” which is almost certainly (and at the least) exaggeration, so I’m not going to just believe that. Given how he apparently tends to see things, it might have been pretty different.
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It’s perfectly acceptable! Just like some American restaraunts who require people ordering to speak English (re:Gino’s in Philly), you should be able to order in the language of the country you’re in, at least as well as you can. I don’t have a problem with that requirement in the U.S. and I don’t have a problem with it in Japan.
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I totally agree — I don’t believe the US should have an official language, but if individual establishments require the customer to speak a certain language, I respect their rights to do that.
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And why exactly should the U.S. not have an official language? Fellow countrymen not being able to converse with one another, I don’t believe is a very good thing.
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I think it is perfectly acceptable. I am sure the shop is privately owned and they can do what they like to their business. I am sure they will lose out on some business, but if that becomes a problem, they can change it.
I have never understood people who get so upset by something like this. You are not forced to go to that particular store. Why does it hurt you at all? Maybe they did want to be rude. Let them.
If anything, I think it is rude to visit a foreign country and not know, or not try, to speak the language at all. You are there as a visitor, a guest. Sure, they are the ones who are supposed to be practicing customer service, but that doesn’t mean you have to make it hard on them.
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One time I had to transfer at Frankfurt airport and the German security guys spoke to me in German which I don’t understand. I replied in English “Sorry I can’t speak German” to which they said in English “Yes we know” and then explained what they wanted in perfect English.
For some reason I didn’t complain or feel offended. Maybe it was their sub-machine guns
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Well, maybe they knew that only after speaking to you….
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I dont think it is offensive. The fact is that nobody has to learn english in his own country. If you think it is offensive just leave the place or learn japanese. That’s politeness.
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the part that is bad is the “try Japanese” that is just being a smart ass, it is understood that Japanese is what should be used by being in Japan. With the try Japanese in the sign it tells me that foreigners are not welcomed here, even if you know Japanese. Which might not be the case but you can tell with a smart ass sign in the window before you get into the store.
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Way, way, too sensitive. I would be astounded if the proprietors thought that saying “try Japanese” meant anything snarky or smart-arse. Maybe when most Japanese (and most Japanese signwriters) are known for being fluent in colloquial English nuances, you might have a point.
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“When in Rome…”
How hard is it to learn ‘1 coffee please’. I hate people who go to another Country and just expect everyone to speak their own language.
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You are so right. Even the first day I bought a coffe for the bus ride [jet lag, Yuck!] and guess how hard it was? I put up one finger in the air, then pointed at what I wanted. Yay! I graduated from dumbass to ordering coffee.
Someone really taking the time to complain about this, instead of doing the honorable and truly human thing and creating a correct sign just shows what sort of person they are inside. Shows us all how ugly they really are.
If it really hurt your feelings and you wanted it fixed, you would have taken the time to make a sign that doesn’t offend your girly ways and then given it to them, maybe even using a friend who speaks Japanese to exlpain it to them. Makes me embarrased to say I served 8 years in the mmilitary to defend a bunch of whiny children.
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Makes me embarrassed you served in the military.
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Well, as long as I have done my part. *cough*
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I commented on this yesterday but it didn’t seem to get through…
The coffee shop is in Kudanshita and I walked past it almost daily when I worked in an office there. There are a lot of kids in the area including what appeared to be a vast number of French-speaking teens and pre-teens from schools located in an area behind the shop. It’s possible that kids went in (I believe the shop specializes in pancakes, but my recollection is foggy) and tried to speak English (or they spoke French and the staff couldn’t tell the difference).
Regardless, I don’t think the sign is “racist” but it is off-putting because it reflects a defensive posture before the customer even comes in and tries to communicate. In the U.S. (which I see many took the opportunity to bash in this thread because that seems to be what happens in every controversial comments thread), if signs are put up which say “English only” or “must speak English”, people are offended, particularly if the signs are in Texas or California.
The situation in the U.S. is so not what people seem to believe it is in terms of language. Multi-lingual establishments are all over the place when there are mixed communities and some places actually have a primary non-English business base in areas of cities with heavy concentrations of certain ethnicities. When I applied for a job in California, I nearly didn’t get it because the place was located in a community center which catered about 50% to the Hispanic community (my job didn’t cater to any particular group though and didn’t require Spanish) and the community center didn’t want someone occupying space in it who did not speak Spanish (whether it was necessary for the job or not). In my home country, I was nearly denied a job for not being fluent in a language which wasn’t native to my country. (I do speak a bit of Spanish but am not fluent.)
One thing that is clear is that ignorance runs rampant when it comes to understanding America and that it’s the favored whipping boy any time a Japan-critical thread comes up.
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Well, assuming a majority of the posters are American, which is a fair assumption based on the general demographics of English speakers, perhaps they are just contrasting it with what they know, and/or suffering from cultural cringe.
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The ignorance reflected in most of the comments here and the anti-American sentiments would seem to indicate that the commenters are applying as many stereotypes as possible and have little real experience living in America. Few Americans are that self-hating or naive.
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Am I the only one that found this sign to be highly amusing? The honesty and straightforwardness of this message makes me laugh. I also love that it’s to some extent stating the obvious. They’re asking people to try japanese like people would actually consider trying to communicate in other random languages now that they know english wont work.
I read the sign this way: We don’t know english and you dont know japanese but we hired someone who knows both to place a sign at our door that we don’t know what it means and you won’t know what we mean by. Have a good day!
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i agree that it is 100% acceptable. i’d like to point out that a japanese person with BASIC knowledge in the english language most likely put that sign together. so the chances of them nkowing how to write a sign like that as profesional and un-offensive as possible as they are here in the very diverse U.S. are low. many big japanese companies fall victim to that “ENGRISH” shit (go to engrish.com). ask any foreinger living in japan about that. and also what kinda of jackass lives life in a foreign country with out knowing how to communicate with the its nation’s lingua franca???????? thats like dropping off a chinese kid in germany to fend for himself. quit thinking that other country’s standards should follow those of the america/europe. so you people that feel offended by that sign seriously need to get slapped.
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I feel offended by your composition skills and overuse of the interrogative mark.
From my point of view as a small business owner doing business in a foreign country, I find the sign simply daft. Why would you alienate any potential customers with big red letters? To make money you have to go the extra yard, and if that means translating and learning how to understand the items on the menu, then why haven’t you done it yet? There is obviously enough foreign business to warrent this, considering they spent their precious time and money having the letters printed and aligned on the window.
Instead, what they should have written was something like, “We do not speak English well, but we will try our best to communicate with you!” That’s a lot more inviting, isn’t it? After all, in Japan, “お客さんは神様”.
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Why should they ? If you don’t understand that most gaijin really are boring and/or annoying twerps then you just don’t get it. Very very very few gaijin are interesting. And most are at least slightly annoying.
May I ask you – When you are back in your own country do you find foreigners to be especially interesting or worthy of dealing with ?
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Enough to major in Japanese Language and Culture, and take classes in Korean and Chinese as well to deal with customers that came into the Tapioca Express tea shop that I had a part-time job at as a university student. So, yeah – I was so interested in the rest of the world that I “got the hell out of Dodge,” and moved to an entirely new continent.
The way I read into your comment, though, is that you think you are more interesting than the rest of the world. Also, you’re comparing apples to gorillas here – From a business point of view, the store owner is an idiot. This isn’t even about some foreigner’s feelings.
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What I was trying to point out is that even those few non-Japanese who speak Japanese extremely fluently are genuinely *interesting* conversationalists in Japanese from the perspective of the normal Japanese person. Normal Japanese people are not interested in gaijin – but most of us gaijin remain blissfully unaware of this fact because we tend to attract the minority of Japanese who are interested in gaijin.
Think about it a little – isn’t it rather dubious to be interested in somebody merely because they are a different race ?
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Oops.
What I was trying to point out is that even those few non-Japanese who speak Japanese extremely fluently are NOT genuinely *interesting* conversationalists in Japanese from the perspective of the normal Japanese person.
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Alex, I like what you’re trying to say. When I was walking down a busy food street in Hong Kong last night, every few feet I heard a “Hello sir, good food!” and English/Chinese bilingual menus being shoved in my face. A business’ primary concern should be its bottom line and how to make as much money as possible, not alienating potential customers.
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羽之助 – Remember Hong Kong’s history… it might explain why English is common ?
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Also, many Japanese folks have a significant fear of communication breakdown with non-English-speakers, and all it might take is one or two bad experiences with a foreigner (or even the fear of having one) to lead some folks to give up a bit of profit for the peace of mind of only dealing in their language.
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I confess I’ve walked by this coffee shop in Kudanshita before, but it never really occurred to me it the intent might be discriminatory in nature. And, I probably still wouldn’t if it weren’t for the additional report from the photographer that he was beset upon by a few angry Japanese men simply for taking the photo. Hell, with the coffee shop only being a few hundred meters from Yasukuni Shrine, maybe he actually stumbled upon the uyoku’s answer to Starbucks
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Well.
If you take a close look at the sign… this sign never rejects English speaking customers.
This sign simply tells that the store does not have English speaking staff.
Also adding to the facts that the morality of foreign tourist is getting worse and worse year after year.
I saw German, British and American tourists kept rushing around like paparazzi to take a photograph in Kyoto.
E.g., one Maiko san stopped for one tourist to take picture with, and other foreign tourists saw, and rushed after her… one after another…. If she keep taking pictures, she would be late for the work, so she ran away.
I’m sure that Maiko-san would never want to do business with foreign tourists by now. I almost want to ask the city of Kyoto to put up some sign not to take pictures with Maiko-san.
I assume that the coffee shop owner had a bad experience dealing with foreign tourists who only speak in English.
But unlike any other signs, again… this sign itself never reject English speaking customers.
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I don’t think anybody ever said that it denied service to English-speaking customers. That would be overt racism. It’s just not a very inviting message to slap on the front of your business in the supposedly international hub of Tokyo. It’s bad business sense.
And for the record, all of you who cite Gino’s in the US as an excuse – I think the owner of Gino’s is an idiot, too! I saw him appear on one of the late night talk shows. Talk about a narrow, close-minded person.
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I just had a impression that this article took the sign as racist sign. So I wanted to comment based on my impression.
It’s all up to the business owner as long as it’s not racism.
He just lose the business. And if he won’t listen to us, I would say to just leave him alone.
Since I have lived in Japan and the US long enough and speak both languages, I can see both sides’ perspective.
And I just only go to the coffee shop where the manager welcome foreign customers even they cannot speak English well.
—
From my personal experience…,
“We reserve the rights refuse to serve any customers” or something-like-that sign in the US as well.
When I first saw it, I got a little offended. “Customer is God” in Japan. But after a while, I started accepting that sign as well.
In a way, I feel the same way from this sign.
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“I’m sure that Maiko-san would never want to do business with foreign tourists by now.”
I would doubt that – she must be expecting that sort of thing. Though perhaps Disney-style minders would come in useful.
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Of course, not all of the Maiko-san would not think that way…
But I am sure some of them, and so does the business owners.
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The problem I have with the sign in the shop window is mirrored in Katz’ statement here:
“the facts that the morality of foreign tourist is getting worse and worse year after year.”
Both point to the erroneous supposition that NJ are somehow automatically awkward and/or criminal. When I lived in Chiba 5 years ago there was none of this feeling about, but it seems increasingly the case now.
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I think that someone who goes to Japan and hasn’t put in the minimal effort to learn the language well enough to order coffee or a meal deserves to be treated rudely. People in other countries outside the USA have Americans who come to visit and expect the locals to speak English.
On the flipside, places that want tourist money should have an effort to learn the tourists’ language. I think the sign is fine, if a little offputting. As someone else pointed out, it does have a built-in apology.
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I think this sign is ok. Saying that it’s not ok would be the same as saying that it should be banned not to be able to speak English well enough to deal with customers. Sometimes you have to request a bit from tourists and they should expect that. People should always be able to speak the language of the country they live in.
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There are not so many Japanese who can speak English fluently, and such people usually do not end up in coffee shop employees.
If someone wants to order a cup of coffee in English language in Japan, he can go to coffee shops in luxurious hotels, where employees are paid much better. Even in such places, though, the English level is far from fluent.
The coffee shop owner may want to attract foreign tourists, but, to do so, he has to spend more money for the employees, which may make his business unsustainable.
How often do you come across a Japanese who can speak English fluently?
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I’m not offended by this sign. There are those places where gaijin are definitely not welcome and there is no sign.
In my travels, I am often embarrassed by fellow American tourists because of their rudeness and stupidity but those traits are considered assets in American culture (just look at your typical American celebrity) so it is not unexpected. There are usually some American restaurants in major Japanese cities with familiar “point and order” menus if one is too lazy to learn a couple of phrases before traveling.
The sign would be less controversial if it simply said, “We regret our staff only understands Japanese.” Also, provide a one sheet menu with pictures of types of coffee and translations in a couple of major languages so a tourist can point to what they want.
Just like anywhere else, there is discrimination in Japan. I was kicked out of my reserved seat on a train to Tokyo by a salary man who did not have a reserved seat and all the other passengers defended him so I had to ride in between cars for the rest of the trip. I haven’t been back since.
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I am sad hearing that you had an unpleasant experience in the JR train. Is there no possibility that you took a wrong train or a wrong car of the train? I think it is impossible for anyone to take a reserved seat of a train that has already been researved by another person. After the train’s departure, conductors check all the passangers on the reserved seats whether they have proper tickets with proper seat numbers printed on them. If one does not have a proper ticket, he/she will be rejected by the conductor to have the seat.
I sometimes see similar situations as you in JR trains in which only Japanese are involved. In those cases, a person take a seat in a reserved car. Then another person comes and shows the ticket to the former person. The former person checks his/her ticket, and noticing that he/she took a wrong seat he/she leave the seat. In many cases, the former person is so confident about that he/she took a proper seat, he/she looks embarrassed or angry. In the case, other passengers check the tickets of both persons to find out and to advise them which ticket is a proper one.
As for the coffee shop sign, I second helical (2007-12-18 01:58:40). For the Japanese who don’t speak English, it is very difficult to understand the meaning of “I’d like to have a coffee, please.” Most Japanese can understand “coffee”, but if other words are added to the “coffee”, they cannot understand the meaning. Even “a cup of coffee” is difficult for them to understand. Even if they can understand that the costumer is asking something related to coffee, they don’t have any way to confirm whether the costomer ordered coffee or he/she asked something related to coffee. That causes great embarrassment to them.
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Sorry Mr./Mrs. JD but this sign is not racist…
Racist is discrimination based on so called racial superiority…
Nowhere is there written ‘forbidden to non member of glorious Japanese race’… If there was such a suign then it would be racist… But since people of various origins can and DO speak Japanese, it’s not racist, so please shut up and learn Japanese, there are places in the US with same kind of signs saying no Spanish’.
This sign is not hateful, you are hateful paranoid person who sees racism anywhere and every Japanese person as a racist.
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The sign is fine. A similar sign was put up in the US, except that the difficulty was people ordering in Spanish holding up the line in a fast-paced sub shop. The cries of racism and American arrogance were deafening. In both cases, people are claiming that Americans are arrogant for insisting on English, whether it is in Japan or the US.
I think both business owners are in the right. English should be spoken in the sub shop, and patrons of the Japanese shop should at least try Japanese.
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Well that was not a good idea because people can’t learn a language just on a week or a month they need time so i don’t think that was a good idea and the person who put that in the door he might be racist
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if the coffee inside is so good:
i will go in and speak “kohi” with index finger pointing up.
if i don’t know whether it’s good:
i will just pass by.
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I think it’s acceptable (the sign). I leave for Japan 1DEC2008. I speak a little Japanese. I have been trying to learn the language for some time. I think it’s sort of ridiculous that you think you can go into their country and demand they follow your customs and speak your language. Because you’re in their country not yours so you need to follow their customs and leanr their langauge. Whoever thinks this is racist is just a first class fool. You’re not Commadore Matthew Perry ass hole, so quit trying to force your customs on another culture. If you’re English and go to Japan, learn their customs and language because you’re in their country. If you go to someone’s house you follow their rules, right? You speak politely if they so choose it. Well look at it as though you’re going to someone else’s house. It’s the same concept. It’s ridiculious that you think you’re so much better than other people. I can’t believe you would complain about the sign (whoever you are). Japan is a great nation and the culture is beautiful. Even if you’re not going there it would still be a good thing to learn their culture….it’s so amazing.
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