if i don’t know whether it’s good:
i will just pass by.

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.

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.

This sign is not hateful, you are hateful paranoid person who sees racism anywhere and every Japanese person as a racist.

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.

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.

“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.

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.

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.

But I am sure some of them, and so does the business owners.

Yeah, and that sort of petulant attitude is also part of the reason that we’re considered arrogant.

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.

Get over it people, the world still turns, noone died, your house is not on fire… Life moves on.

I would doubt that – she must be expecting that sort of thing. Though perhaps Disney-style minders would come in useful.

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.

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.

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.

Think about it a little – isn’t it rather dubious to be interested in somebody merely because they are a different race ?

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.

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 ?

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”.

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.

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!

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.

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 ?

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.