One of the funny things about being Asian and non-Japanese in Tokyo is people look at me and assume I'm Japanese, of course.
So my new manager, a Caucasian guy who has been living in Japan for many years, and I went to get coffee one morning. He's fluent in Japanese and ordered two lattes for us. I stood beside him at the counter, and for some reason, the salesgirl took his order, immediately turned to me and asked, "What size?" (in Japanese). Naturally I was a bit surprised and asked my manager (in English, because it just seemed weird to speak to an Englishman in Japanese) what he'd like.
Funny girl. She probably thought I was Japanese and that it's safer to talk to me in case the white dude didn't understand -> thereby embarrassing him.
I chuckled at the irony :)
No comments:
Post a Comment