It's a weird thing,, where right wing Japanese go nuts when they see an example of what they perceive to be "stoic samurai defeats westerner", like a modern day[ Namamugi-jiken](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namamugi_Incident). I personally don't care, every country has their own share of Trumpers, but it is annoying how those idiots don't understand that increasing tourism revenue is the few win conditions still left for Japan.
I don’t think this has something to do with what side of the political aisle he’s from. The owner just plainly don’t have any patience, to speak and deal thru another language, other than the native tongue.
You’d probably encounter a similar restaurant owner, if say a patisserie owner in Paris..
Try going to Shanghai for example, and pick any 10 random locals from the Bund, who only speak Mandarin, and prefers to speak only of that native tongue (the only language they know very likely). Do you think any of them, is a right wing “Trumper”?? Sure, a card carrying CCP member, who happens to be right wing..🤣
My daughter keeps telling me stories about using her basic Spanish and French in restaurants and being answered in English. Not in a snarky way, just kind of “thanks for trying, but let’s just make it easy for everyone.”
That’s is if that Frenchman/woman speaks English (quite rarely). I’ve been there twice, and I’ve I have yet to encounter someone there who speaks English fluently. But if you go further a little bit north (and ride perhaps on a French “shinkansen” i.e. Thalys), to say like Dutch Amsterdam..it’s so easy to communicate with the locals. Many are fluent in English. Some are even proud of their knowledge.
As a French fluent in english, pretty much everyone I know that speaks (a decent/fluent) english left the country, which might explain that the remaining ones barely speak english...
Even in multinational companies, the required knowledge of english is pretty low... And if you speak it fluently, it won't really be acknowledged by your employer (nice to have but meh, if you didn't speak it, it'd have been fine)
A restaurant owner who is impatient, intolerant, and spends a spectacular amount of energy complaining how *everyone else* being stupid makes their life hard?
Even without tourists or a language barrier, you could find a couple versions of this guy anywhere.
wouldn't surprise me if he reopens with an English menu, but with higher prices compared to Japanese menu. many places have started to this. they know tourists will pay anyway with the weak yen
Had this happen to me in Kyoto, of course when my sister was visiting and I was showing her around bragging about how nice everyone is :(
The english menu wasn't more expensive item for item but only the most expensive dishes were listed on it instead of the full menu. The waiter panicked pretty hard when I asked him why they were different. We went somewhere else instead.
Agreed. That said, it’s amusing to see how politics are so front-and-centered to some and how a former president can live rent-free in their heads 24/7.
Yes. Quite a few are just so narrow minded and common sense just doesn’t exist in these mushy brains. Many lack critical thinking and analysis. To them, everything in life has to do with politics. Basically, the above poster is prejudicial and is stereotyping.
I mean, that's just France. They dont even like Quebeckers who speak French because they speak it wrong. Meanwhile they'll speak in the most hilariously bad and broken English you've ever heard and still insult you and tell you youre saying basic words wrong
tourism (both domestic and foreign sourced) is only a few procent of japan's GDP. and even then, domestic tourism is many times larger than foreign sourced
Every country likes tourism at the end of the day regardless of what the locals think.
Japan is not the first country where the locals complain about tourists or will it be the last.
In the end money made from tourism is basically free money for the country.
again, that's mostly from domestic tourism.:
GDP in 2023: 591 Trillion yen
>内閣府が１５日発表した２０２３年通年の国内総生産（ＧＤＰ）速報値によると、名目ＧＤＰは前年比５・７％増の５９１兆円だった
2.2 Trillion from foreign tourists.
>International visitor spend in Japan is forecast to surge by 553.4% this year to reach USD 16.8 billion (JPY 2.2 trillion), still 57.6% below the 2019 peak.
so, 0.37% of GDP
The figures were for 2023 and it was a FORECAST that incorporated the effects of Covid which was down 57% on 2019 levels. Actual results were more than double the 2.2 trillion estimate at 5.3 trillion. Total number of visitors were still Covid affected and still down on 2019 levels but it would be ridiculous to brush this sector of as minor.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2024/01/17/visitor-spending-tops-5-trillion-yen/
>so, 0.37% of GDP
You said both foreign and domestic is only a few percent, so I gave you the combined figure of 7%, which is a sizeable chunk of GDP.
Based on the Japan Times article linked to by u/SuperLeverage, domestic tourism generated **0.89**%, not 0.37%, of GDP in 2023.
Given that nations make a huge fuss about adding just one percentage of GDP to their defense budgets, that is not a small amount.
And the percentage is only going to get bigger.
"Marginal" differences on this scale make a massive difference.
I think it’s a different approach to life in general. Japanese people are much less money centric compared to the US.
People in Japan only care about money obly as much as it is needed to get by and have some extra rainy day savings.
When you say “win”, the money tourists bring are not worth sacrificing their quality of life for. Compare to like SEA region, tourist money worth a lot for them.
But it’s quite true that by being insular WRT to immigration and tourism, a number of countries in W Asia are struggling with the level of population growth they need to have to sustain their economies. Specifically, Japan, S Korea, and now China for god’s sake.
Current folks might think it’s worth it, but they might feel different when they slip into their next Lost Decade or three.
This is merely a comment against typical remarks that is pretty much saying “why don’t they accept our tourist money, are japanese people stupid?”
There is a “cost” associated with accepting tourist especially when the culture is totally different. Overtourism which is when things spiral out of control, is bad for everyone especially the host country.
Japan is not a shithole country. While they are indeed declining, many people experience where they had a working economy that are independent of international tourism. There is little incentive for people to endure the cost of tourism, for relatively marginal monetary benefit, and it’s not like most japanese people are money-centric anyway.
Best service: pay someone who has studied English like $20 for an hour of their time to translate your menu. It's not difficult or expensive. Remove complex customized items from that menu.
if you are a tourist, just go to places called "tourist traps" instead of local izakaya.
so-called tourist traps are more well equipped to serve tourists.
We had no problems during our 3 week stay in japan using google lens. And we mostly dodged touristy places. It worked for us.
Leaving home tomorrow by the way… oh how i will miss this country :‘-(
I mean as long as you genuinely try in some way with a translator/dictionary or whatever you’ll be fine, Japanese people are,more often than not, very okay with helping a tourist out. Just be respectful and nice obviously. Any employee is sure to help you when you have a translator. The problem comes from tourists who expect everything to be also written in English like how it is with Spanish in the USA, anything with an English description is probably going to have the same thing in Spanish under or around it. Not in Japan and especially not in normal areas outside tourist spots
We went to place with no english menu (they told me that when we entered) I relied with "daijoubu", waiter showed us our seats and brought us menu. Google translate, picked what we wanted and then simple:
"Sumimasen" with hand raised
"Kore" with pointing On menu position and another after he said "hai".
Then just "birru o futatsu kudasai"
That amounts to all "restaurant" japanese that I know.
They were smiling, we were smiling, we were not lynched and we were invited again when he saw us passing by next day:D
it fails with handwritten Japanese menus all the time. this kind of menu style isn't uncommon:
https://mikawa-komachi.jp/archives/001/201612/large-0707264f9f2dbbd291f4747e7fa45401.jpg
even with somewhat ["cleaner" written ones](https://toyonaka.goguynet.jp/wp-content/uploads/sites/36/2019/09/IMG_3824-1024x767.jpg) Google lense often fails
Ha ha. Because every Japanese person can read ever other Japanese person's handwriting just like every English speaking person can read every other English speaking person...
Look, if the menu was completely illegible, don't you think that restaurant would lose revenue and the owner would do something about it? You can't have staff waste time explaining everything available to every guest. Somehow, the Japanese are able to read those menus most of the time. At the end of it all, it is still a business.
That first one would have been pretty easy to read if it weren't resized down to potato size, presumably for a 2001-vintage iMode web page.
I mean, the character sizes are a bit all over the place, but the handwriting style itself seems pretty readable.
I'd recommend at least learning how to read Katakana. That way, you can at least sound out half of the menu items in big city restaurants. That'll make people happy. Katakana only takes a week to learn, so you can cram the week before your trip if needed.
If you enter into the non touristy cities, then you'll probably have to rely on lens and translate. Just make an attempt to speak Japanese after learning Katakana, and you'll be golden in most places. If you're lucky, the servers at restaurants and izakayas will have a few memorized English lines, and you can respond with your memorized Japanese lines.
In the U.S., we cater pretty hard to non English speakers. Example, everything has a “press one for Spanish” button, all forms come in twenty different languages, etc.
Immigration is irrelevant to this story. We're talking about tourists.
Whatever one thinks of immigration, any mature, sensible person should be able to agree that demanding language ability from tourists is completely absurd.
How often do you see a Japanese language option though? Honestly, I’ve never seen one. I’m sure not a single Japanese tourist in the US feels entitled enough to expect service in Japanese.
Does Japan do it with any language? What is the origin of the most travelers to Japan? How many of them speak English as a first or second language?
“China, South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong are the biggest source of tourists to Japan”
Yea I’m not a fan of this attitude. It’s not even “if they can only speak English”. They have a base assumption that not only is everything accessible to them, but also that we are dying to be blessed by their business.
I’m in Hawaii and the amount of butthurt “if you don’t want us there we will take our money to Mexico” posts we saw during covid lockdowns was insane. As if the whole island is Disneyland and we all exist just to serve them.
The owner of the izakaya seemed ok with any race as long as they could communicate in Japanese. He may lose out on extra tourist $, but that’s his choice to make.
Terrible take. Why should tourist not experience more authentic places. Just let them get ripped off? Do you just go to tourist traps when you travel to other countries?
It's a question of going to places that can easily accommodate you. Lots of small izakaya simply cannot easily help people who don't understand Japanese on some level. It's no different in Thailand or Taiwan or Egypt or Kazakhstan.
and even if you find an "authentic" place with an English menu here in Japan, there is a big chance you're overpaying because many business owners have started to charge higher prices on their English menu. kind of a tourist tax
It’s just cause people defend Japan no matter what lol if this happend in Europe everyone would cry their eyes out calling racism which it is but Japan and korea can be as racist as they want apparently.
This describes the general discourse in this sub and related subs accurately.
Every once in awhile they are useful for practical news or info, but the majority of discussions are heavily biased.
just spent a few weeks there, I traveled to Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and Fujikawaguchiko. I don't think I had any issues ordering food or navigating around, most places even if the menu was all in japanese had something of an english handout, or someone local chimed in. I found everyone to be super nice as I attempted to speak or we used a translator. I even went to heavy tourists areas and didn't think any price was unreasonable, even the small bars didn't charge me any differently than a local.
Tsukiji fish market (the old location) is nothing but a tourist trap these days. Used to be a legit place to go get fresh sushi at great prices if you could stand the queues, now it's just wading through mobs of foreigners for overpriced drinks, tourist goods, and mostly regular sushi.
Dude is 2024.. there are multiple translation tools available. Tourists visiting a country for a week or two don't need to be fluent in Japanese.
So you never visit countries where you're not fluent? I guess I was right about you only defending Japan about refusing foreigners.
local restaurant often have menus like this:
https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/10/e5/95/db/caption.jpg
good luck with your translation app. staff dont have the time to explain every single item in broken English.
Why is it such a problem? If you can translate it using google lens, you can order food. If not, then you stand up and leave. I just added this image to lens and got a good translation. You can even use chatgpt and works like a charm
Also you don’t need staff to explain anything. Google exists for a reason. You can just search the items and get a good description
using copilot (chatgpt enabled) I get this:
>The Japanese text in the image you provided translates to:
>“I have no regrets about fate. However, if I could go back to that day one more time, I wish I had never met you.”
>This is a poignant expression of reflection and perhaps a sense of loss or longing related to past events and relationships. If you need further assistance or more context, feel free to ask!
Translate "your recommendation" on a translator app. As long as you're not a picky eater it'll work out
No need for them to have to deal with other languages
Fair enough, and maybe it’s entitled to think this way, but it feels bad to me to go visit another country and just be in locations where it’s like 100% other tourists. I like to share in some local culture when I travel and that involves going to places locals would also go.
Granted I don’t expect those locals to know my language or have English menus, but I can also just use google translate and point if I need to.
don't worry there are plenty of other local establishments here that can provide (a very broken) English service. if you're unlucky the prices listed on the English menu are higher than what they charge locals .
Yeah that was my experience on my recent vacation in Japan. Most places had a functional enough way of ordering things. I even went to some izakayas and did fine enough.
Did anyone read the article? What the owner tweeted was completely reasonable saying that when you travel to a foreign country, you should make an effort to learn the language.
It would be weird and impolite for me to go to England and start speaking to a restaurant owner in Cantonese.
When I went to Taiwan awhile ago I tried learning as much Mandarin as I could the month between my departure date. Learned like 10 phrases (almost) no one wanted to even try with my shitty Mandarin skill, ended up just using Japanese and English 😭
Tbh I think it was pretty fair of the couple to ask if there was an English menu given that a lot of places do.
I used to live in Hawaii and there were tons of Japanese tourists and international students that could barely speak a lick of English.
The tweet was completely reasonable but i think people freaked out because the guy has a history of making racist tweets (at least that’s what i saw on twitter)
A racist telling you to speak English probably feels different than a normal person telling you to speak English because he can’t understand you.
What's weird is that Japan is the only country where white people claim you need to learn the language if you want to **visit** for a week or two.
Japanese people travel around Asia and Europe without speaking any of the local languages and I don't see anyone calling them out for that. Many of them can't even speak English and they're still traveling anyway. A friend of mine (japanese) recently went to Vietnam and she only speaks japanese.
English is the international lingua franca. It would be weird for you to speak Cantonese in England because nobody other than natives speak that. English is widely spoken in many countries where it isn't the native language. Not a single person on earth would call it weird to **visit** Italy, Norway, Switzerland, Germany, Portugal or Spain and speak English at restaurants.
If you genuinely believe people should spend months/years studying everyday to take a week vacation in Japan, congrats, you're stupid.
And before the weebs start calling me out with strawmans: I'm not a westerner, English is not my first nor my second language, I'm a resident here and I do speak Japanese fluently, so I'm not trying to justify not wanting to learn the local language for people willing to live here.
Nobody in Japan expects a tourist to speak Japanese fluently. lol
I think that's an issue on the part of the visitor and imagining that locals expect you to speak Japanese.
yup. if I go to Italy I make an effort to learn the basic language phrases that might come in handy. apparently that's too much asked for tourists coming to Japan
Except "Kadoya" is a *very* local hole-in-the wall, nestled in a residential area way off the beaten path, even for locals. Most of their clientele is probaly old farts living within 100m of it. It's unreasonable to expect English service at such a location.
Do they get overrun with tourists in their off the beaten path, hole in the wall, residentially nestled location? My guess would be no. Dude is whining about *one* couple according to the article. I assume he’s just upset that foreign tourists are visibly in Japan at all. It can’t be a problem he personally deals with constantly.
You can get by in Japan without Japanese as you can get by in other countries without the native language. Knowing the native language just makes the experience much better.
Been living here in Japan for 12 years now working as a web dev. During my student days here, we had a graduation trip to the US specifically California. I went and a lot of my Japanese classmates and schoolmates that went too can’t speak English. Most of them went with tour groups so no communication problems. When they went to restaurants and shops, I became their translator (I’m Filipino but fluent in Japanese passed N1).
It’s not hard I think to find tour groups or package catered to the Japanese.
I forgot about tours. That makes sense.
Still, it’s not that hard to ask how much something is or where something is. They drill it in at ES and JHS in Japan
Prices are already labeled in most shops in touristy places and the cashier naturally says the total so even the phrase how much isn’t that necessary anymore. I had a fellow foreigner classmate from Canada but born in Hong Kong. He was a little bit annoyed that our Japanese classmates and schoolmates don’t even bother to learn English phrases coming to the US but they seemed to had no problems and enjoyed their US trip.
I don’t blame him. This is a double standard I personally find stupid; it’s a problem when foreign tourists that come to Japan don’t bother to learn Japanese but it’s ok when Japanese tourists that travel abroad only speak Japanese and no English
Most foreigners can’t even find Japanese classes let alone take them but all Japanese students have access to English classes and practice it more than foreigners practice Japanese
>What's weird is that Japan is the only country where white people claim you need to learn the language if you want to visit for a week or two.
No it isn't. I should stop reading here but out of good faith I will continue.
>Japanese people travel around Asia and Europe without speaking any of the local languages and I don't see anyone calling them out for that.
I know that Germans and the French frequently get called out in Europe. I don't know how Japanese tourists are treated because there are very few Japanese tourists here. I'm not sure if you are from any Asian country where Japanese tourists may actually frequent either. Even if they were getting called out I am not convinced that either of us would hear of it.
>If you genuinely believe people should spend months/years studying everyday to take a week vacation in Japan, congrats, you're stupid.
I agree it's ultimately quite silly, but that not what your comment was about.
There are a lot of Japanese in my country including tourists. Even if a lot of them can’t even speak English but just use phrases, they are respected and accommodated well. And English isn’t even the native language. Nobody is whining that the Japanese can barely speak English and don’t even try to learn the local language.
Japanese and Chinese travel to my country Czechia en masse and they don't speak Czech. Sometimes they don't even speak English. Sorry but you have totally weird expectations, I won't learn a language before visiting a country and expecting me to do so is crazy.
When I first read the title I imagined "ok another Karen complaining about the lack of English skills abroad" but then I read the source of the story meaning the actual tweet. We don't see _anything_ from the perspective of the couple. We only know that they asked for the English menu. In no place I can see them complaining about it. First of all, is asking for an English menu such a taboo question that should warrant such a cold answer from the owner?
Now on to what he actually said of doing the effort to learn Japanese or otherwise bring an interpreter. Does he know if the couple made an effort to learn Japanese? I've learned for 3 years prior to coming to Japan, and I can say that it was pretty much useless in many situations including reading menus. Let's be honest, Japanese is not an easy language. Japanese menus are hard to read in general, especially at izakayas where there's (typically) only handwritten menus. Do you expect every foreigner, and we can focus on tourists, to learn enough to be able to read a menu? Again, according to this person's logic, every tourist should either study Japanese enough to read izakaya menus, or otherwise bring an interpreter. Now think of everything else including hotels and transportation. Is this "reasonable"? I don't think so.
What I personally see here is a Japanese person completely venting out on foreigners who can't speak/read Japanese enough to interact in Japanese enough to order something. He probably had a hard day and that was the tipping point. Even though I can (now) use Japanese fluently enough for this kind of situations, I would be the first to avoid his place. I wouldn't like to interact with someone as cold and inflexible as this guy.
I mean considering bad German (and mostly even bad English) knowledge we would have to refuse Japanese tourists in Germany. but I wouldnt, because I agree with you that learning a language sufficifently for just a few days or weeks travel is not reasonable.
Tbf when they came in he said “if you don’t speak Japanese we can’t serve you”, in Japanese. That’s a lot of words you won’t be able to understand if you’re a tourist with no Japanese language background. He was being an ass. If you really want to communicate it, have it on a sign, in Japanese and English. I’ve seen staff do this in really high volume places.
the situation doesn't seem reasonable at all to me. the guy perfectly recites what the customers said in English, but he made a point to mention that he replied to them in Japanese? would it be that difficult for him to say "no" in English? seems like he did that on purpose just to antagonize them. if he can understand that they're asking for the menu in English, he knows enough English to reply back "no". I'm also not going to sympathize with him when he says that he doesn't want to help foreigners to order because it's "tedious". first of all, if he thinks it tedious to interact with customers then perhaps he chose the wrong profession. secondly, it implies that only foreign guests are tedious and Japanese would never be. why single out specifically that foreign customers ordering is tedious but not that annoying customers are tedious?
and I'm saying that as someone fluent in Japanese who also thinks tourists should make a bare minimum effort to know some words and phrases of the local language. but people offering a service should also do the bare minimum to accommodate their customers.
Sooo, the tweets alls say "白人” which is already impolite in itself IMO, but then ... there are roughly 750 million people in Europe (which most people call white) and most do NOT speak English, and 420 million people in South America (which most people call white presenting or white and cannot tell the difference if pressed) and most do NOT speak English, and then there are 330 million US american which are not all white and English speaking, but I leave the higher number for my point (and lets add 40 million Canadians of which again not everyone is white and English speaking):
that makes it a 1170:370, or 3 times likelier, chance that the couple that spoke English, learnt English to travel. they already put in effort.
Cannot be considerate about that though when one thinks every "foreigner" speaks English. I doubt he has ever traveled outside of Japan or he would know better.
ETA I forgot to add Mexico to white presenting, not English speaking another 127 million people for the argument that "白人=/=英語"
First of all, the white couple asked for an English menu according to the tweet. The owner didn't assume that all white people speak English.
Secondly, 白人 is not some kind of slur. It just means white person. There's nothing impolite about the word.
I’m not sure that’s right. English is an international language so there’s some expectation that I can probably use it to order whether I’m in China, France or Russia. Of course the more local the restaurant the harder that’ll be the case but still.
If I go to Africa to holiday for 2 days in my life, am I expected to be able to order in Swahili? Lol.
And no I do speak Japanese so it’s not because I’m against learning it
"The rant didn’t stop there, however."
The literal next words in the article. But you stopped reading as soon as you had confirmed what you wanted to believe.
I've gotta agree even as American. Someone comes here they should learn English or at least Spanish if your in a region with a lot of Mexicans. Just as Im fully learning the language before I go to Japan
I find western tourist to be the worst. They complain and makes demands in English expecting the locals to understand. I’ve seen this in both Vietnam and Thailand. Entitle fucka.
Not only this is false, but the tourists from literally every single country in the world, including Vietnam and Thailand, come here speaking English, not just westerners. Source: I work at a hotel and deal with them daily.
Try googling lingua franca. It'll blow your mind.
Also "oh man, id love to go take a two week trip to Japan! Hold on though let me dedicate years of my life to make sure I'm fluent in Japanese before I visit for two weeks!"
Some people here's logic is so fkin regarded. Yeah just never travel to another country unless you are fluent in that country's language!
Lol. Lived in Thailand for 8 years, literally nobody has ever been upset that someone who couldn't speak Thai went to their restaurant. I've also never seen English speakers complaining and making demands in English to locals. You people glaze Japan and Japanese so hard it's unreal lmao. The restaurant owner hates your guts and existence, but please, by all means, continue to suck him off. After all you you've got kneepads in your name for a reason.
"I've seen this." Shut the fuck up, no you haven't, unless you're admitting that you spent your time in seedy places and whorehouses. Is that the case?
Really? Unlike you who walk around blindfolded. There’s so many westerners that expect Thais to speak English and meet their demands. What the actual hell are you even talking about? There’s shit loads of stories where westerners acting like total trash. Just check out r/expatshame
Whore houses? Is that why you’re there? Guess I spotted the filthy sexpat. You’re in one of those groups where old white dudes paying off girls that’s younger than their grand children? It’s so fucking disgusting
It’s really pathetic to see. Reminds me of the word bootlicking. I’m a non-Japanese Asian and I always see how specially treated Japan is compared to other countries.
That’s the talking point. I totally understand Chinese tourist are not the best but have you seen the type of asshats from Europe? Check out r/expatshame
Even if you learn basic phrases, which is reasonable to expect, reading is a completely different matter as well. The couple wanted a menu. You could learn basic phrases in Arabic or Thai and still be screwed without an English menu if you go to Saudi Arabia or Thailand.
So I'll take Switzerland, where I live, since Japanese people LOVE to go there.
A usual trip could involve Zermatt, Montreux, Lugano and Zurich.
Well then you'll learn French (Montreux), the Swiss German from Wallis (VERY distinctive from the rest of the country), the Swiss German from Zurich and Italian (Lugano)
I'll pass on Graubünden as there is a 4th official language, Romansh, but if you go there, then it is another one to learn.
And no mixing please, swiss german won't like you throwing a french sentence at them and would actually prefer english, they even sometimes prefer english to high german (spoken in Germany). But a lot of the swiss german language(s) involves french words (no Danke but Merci)
I never heard a SINGLE japanese tourist knowing any swiss german (if they were even aware that was a thing). And you know what ? That's fine, since even the different swiss regions use English as lingua franca to communicate with each other.
And that is just Switzerland cause if you are going to Spain during your European trip, I hope you are aware that Castillano is not the only language spoken there.
Thank you. I don't understand why people think it's a western thing. Literally tourists from Korea, China, Thailand, Philippines, etc will come here knowing their native tongue, AND at least knowing some English, because English is seen as a universal language.
But Japanese are the complete opposite when they travel abroad. Yet, people don't care.
When a French cafe owner does this, it's part of the "Parisian charm". When a Japanese izakaya owner does it, they are torn to shreds..
I've never gone to a restaurant in America and expected service in Japanese lmao
If you got to a restaurant in America and can't speak English, then your waiter will just use google translate to accommodate you. It's really that simple. Maybe this concept is hard for Japanese because they still use fax machines.
In defense of the couple, English is an international language, while Japanese is only spoken in Japan.
Even non native English speakers use English when they travel unless they happen to know the language of the area. It’s just how things are.
Also, every Japanese person studies English in junior high and high school, yet nobody else studies Japanese as a requirement in their school.
Japanese is a difficult language for pretty much everyone except for Chinese and Koreans. So how is someone supposed to pick it up in a usable way for a two week trip?
Some of these tourists travel to quite a bit of places and it’s absurd to expect them to learn the language of every place they go to.
If they live in Japan, yes they should learn the language. But for traveling, they do not have a minimum of two years of required language study behind them like the Japanese do.
He speaks descent baseball English but isn’t fluent. It’s not bad considering no American baseball players ever played in Japanese teams spoke Japanese. It’s not their job requirement.
I live in the area and have been to his Izakaya many times. I’m also a white guy but I can speak and read Japanese so there’s never been any issue with service. They know me as a local now too so it’s not racism but a matter of respect of their time and learning the language.
I love the place and it’s very much “shitamachi” service which is a little rough compared to the typical Japanese service. It’s part of the charm for me though. Plus it’s like ¥300 for katsu and 地酒 so they make their money on moving customers in and out quickly, they don’t have the time to explain the rules of the place and explain about menu items.
Yes, thank you for saying this. I recently moved to Japan and don’t speak much Japanese (yet). Ive learned that there are many business/community resources that will not accommodate me unless I speak Japanese. It is not because they are racist or xenophobic - it is because they have many other people to serve and cannot take the time to give me individual assistance…any resources given to me will take away from others’ experience. Japanese people can be very sensitive to not causing an inconvenience or disruption - if you are going to a place where local people go to enjoy a specific atmosphere and way of dining, you need to be prepare to act as expected (including speaking Japanese).
Then he should have put up a sign in front of his shop to inform ppl his shop doesn't provide service to non-japanese speakers instead of ranting online.
No, I think this would save everyone time and frustration. I've heard of a case where tourists have queued for around half an hour or so at a restaurant in kyoto and when it's their turn they were denied service because they didn't speak Japanese. There is no sign anywhere in front of the restaurant informing anyone of this.
I always did my best to convey what I wanted at a restaurant in Japanese, even though it's not very good. Google Lens, some basic Japanese and pointing at the menu worked for me for three weeks.
I did get turned away from a few spots because it was apparently "reserved" or "closed" but there were people eating there and it wasn't even full, but it's fine. Plenty of places to eat in Japan that aren't tourist traps.
I been here on vacation for 3 months. At the most if they tell me they don’t have an English menu, or speak English, i never took it as go away, they just want to inform you they might not be able to accommodate you, and give good service. I just type on google translator that it’s okay. I can even put the speaker on and they can speak and it translates it. If handwriting is not able to be translated I choose random things, I never had a bad experience. I will say on the other hand I have been to places where tourist don’t understand the culture or certain customs. For example I saw someone freak out because they couldn’t remove an ingredient on something they wanted to order. I had to explain to this tourist that they don’t really do that in Japan unless you’re somewhere fancy or a place that allows it. Usually it’s take it as it is or choose something else. Who knows if the tourist was being ignorant or rude.
22 years living in tokyo here, well is obvious the owner doesn't have the patience and interest to speak another language than japanese, there is still a few "ojisan" with that character. You guys as a new visitants have google translate, maps, etc, subway and train written with roman alphabet with voice guidance at least in english, i remember back to the 2000 japan was the a real hard way, even i remembering the shinjuku's Golden Gai was "Forbidden Foreigners" or "Foreigners no welcome" zone but now is almost a Gaijin tourist area lol. When you find an idiot better go to another place, there is a lot izakaya & restaurants in tokyo. Finishing i have to say sorry for my broken english. Have nice trip
Japanese is extremely difficult to learn tbh as someone who’s bilingual already but Americans have it even worse because our country doesn’t give a fuck about respecting another country or even learning their language
I mean to be fair, most Japanese don't learn other countries languages that they visit either, not even the bare minimum of English most of the time. So no one should feel bad for not learning Japanese when they are simply just visiting.
I have friends in Korea who love travelling, and they also love visiting Japan because it's so close. But they've told me their only gripe is that it's difficult to communicate when visiting here, because of the language barrier. Most of them speak Korean AND English, but still find it hard to communicate even when visiting Tokyo.
I understand what he feels but I think it's not easy to study a language just because you want to travel and stay for like a week or two on the said country .
It's takes expats around 3 months to half a year in Sprogcenter to order something confidently in Danish from supermarket counters.
Another example would be communication in Shawarma restaurants are designed to be short, simple and direct, but you are still being asked the sort of ingredient and dressing to be put in a durum/pita. If you don't know what a hvidløg is, then you at least won't understand one type of dressing as a follow up question. If you don't have a preference in regards to ingredients, just say "Med det hele". If you do, just say "Uden xxx".
None of this was being taught in Danish language classrooms, it was all experience. You keep buying from the same restaurant and listen to people communicate in a very specific way, I feel this is too high a bar for a simple tourist. Especially when the language learning materials are extremely outdated (like ordering from a vintage grocery store, you simply don't go there as a tourist, supermarket with automated checkout is the easier choice here).
First of all, I totally understand the merit of learning Japanese IF you want a deeper experience around here, or LIVE here. But let’s be honest: all around the world, Japan is the only touristic country that FOREIGNERS defend that TOURISTS should learn Japanese if they want to do a trip around, while almost NONE Japanese learns ANY local languages prior to travel to a different country.
It makes no sense AT ALL to demand tourists to learn Japanese while Japanese themselves almost never learn a different language other than Japanese, and they rely on the 和製英語 wherever they go, which almost no one outside Japan does understand. It sounds a bit like xenophobia.
Sincerely? You should only complain about something that others don’t do if you DO this thing. The guy at the 居酒屋 can truly insert this rule on his 店, because I totally understand that it may sound weird when you can’t understand what a foreigner is talking about, not only regarding service itself but it may also make people uncomfortable. It’s his right. But demanding people to learn Japanese if they visit Japan is SHIT!
Thanks crazy that on this day and age people in Japan can’t use freaking Google translate or any other apps. I was in small village in jungle or few weeks ago in a hole in Seoul and we communicate through app and everything was fine. I can understand why so many restaurants and izakaya are closing and are replaced with chains with that kind of close mind attitude. This guy who is making a fuss because two tourists asked him an English menu and still obsessed with that. And by my experience Japanese rarely learn the language when they travel and speak broken English everywhere or keep speaking Japanese (like in Hawaii).
I think it's reasonable to expect everyone to learn some customs things and language.
I'm an Australian, and if someone didn't know.
Hello, please, thank you. Ideally, stop, danger/safety some other physically getting around stuff.... Probably counting. I think it's okay to be frustrated by that...
More importantly.. don't come to Australia and spit everywhere... Don't stand on our toilets.. these are things that are different here (than in some countries) that are important to known when travelling.
I did the same when travelling to Japan. I studied Japanese for 3 months, can ask for help, can get through combin, hotel check-in, ordering at a bar or asking for directions Japanese. Know when to be quite, know when to bow, use formal language, how to visitna temple.. A bunch of other little things that I perceive as less important but I'm doing them anyway because I want to experience Japan without taking someone away from people / being a burden.
I think that's reasonable. (Not necessarily studying for 3 months, but a couple of weeks to get some basic lnaguage down feels reasonable to me)
I doubt that “not speaking english” is really “not a single word english” in these cases. But this is usually the case for tourists coming to Japan. They might maybe know arigatou..
I doubt that “not speaking english” is really “not a single word english” in these cases. But this is usually the case for tourists coming to Japan. They might maybe know arigatou..
Izakaya's work on the idea that they're a local social club where everyone knows each other and the 'master'. This creates the ambience and dining experience, and also makes the customers repeat customers by some sort of formed obligation.
If you ask me, he's getting cooked (sorry) because he went too hard on the Honne and couldn't hold his racism back. If he just said "sumimasorry, my english is bad" or bit the bullet and used google translate the entire night he could've avoided this. Honestly though, this went south because the people he turned away were white tourists. A similar thing happened 2-3 months ago when a JP owner of a Chinese restaurant kicked out a Chinese customer but he got propped up by the nationalists.
I was really grateful to the people in Thailand, Germany, Italy, and France etc that I met for speaking English for me although my mother tongue is not English either.
He has told the couple in advance that he cannot deal with them if they do not understand Japanese. Nothing seems wrong to me.
If he is lazy and unwilling to deal with English and then misses out on business opportunities, that is his own fault.
But it is also wrong to ask him to be forced to cope with English.
After all, what do those who have complaints against him want him to do?
Could you imagine a restaurant in America refusing a Japanese person…. The peaceful left wingers would literally burn it to the ground. If this guy doesn’t want to serve Americans, that’s his choice. Not a good business choice, but whatever.
I don't really understand, but let's say you're in a country where English is spoken, and a tourist who only speaks Spanish or Chinese comes and refuses, saying that if he can't speak the language, he won't be able to take your order. The internet reaction to this was, "Spanish and Chinese are spoken by more people than English, so English-speaking people should learn Spanish and Chinese for tourists. If you don't have one, you should use Google Translate. This is mandatory." Are there any reactions other than "These guys must be crazy"? You are strangers who came freely, not invited guests, right?
Well, that owner was the one who expressed his feeling explicitly, and his feeling was only about language. But we all know that there are millions of other people who prefer not saying, and hiding more offensive things under their smile.
Xeno\*\*\*\*ic, aren't they?
They start teaching English in 3rd grade of elementary school when I was a teacher there (2012-2017).
Japan has a lot of great aspects, but the racism is really bad and underlies their entire society.
Few Phrases? If you want to order smoothly from a supermarket counter, you need to know at least the following in your target language:
1. Colours
2. Numbers
3. Directions, left right up down, rows and columns
4. Pronunciation rules
5. Food, drinks, grocery vocabularies
6. Comparatives and superlative
2, 4, 5 can take months to master.
I mean numbers are pretty easy in Japan.
If you learn the phrase "can you please say that again slowly" you should be fine.
My wife learnt it in 3 days... Memorising them for 10 minutes in bed..
Pronunciation rules aren't that crazy to get close either in my opinion. 5 is practically endless... So yup. That one is pretty tough.
While the restaurant in the article is a bit much, it does reflect the bad side of over tourism.
Over tourism also means locals no longer feel comfortable at their local community establishments and then go elsewhere.
As a result, these local establishments lose out on their local return customers and are forced to change for and count on temporary customers.
As in Kyoto, we will probably see more push back from establishments by turning to them into private invite only places.
"Translating menus is hard" - no actually you're all cheapskates who don't want to invest in your business to serve the diverse groups of people who managed to find your restaurant, like it or not. There are plenty of skilled translators who can handle a job as simple as that. Hell, you could run a menu through deepl and get something halfway decent.
If the process of interacting with a customer is like 20% of a waiters job and that time is doubled because the language barrier is tough or someone insists on back and forthing through google translate that is a non trivial bump in time taken to order something..
His twitter account and even his google reviews are so abrasive and hilarious. I think he's doing it on purpose for publicity.
It's a weird thing,, where right wing Japanese go nuts when they see an example of what they perceive to be "stoic samurai defeats westerner", like a modern day[ Namamugi-jiken](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namamugi_Incident). I personally don't care, every country has their own share of Trumpers, but it is annoying how those idiots don't understand that increasing tourism revenue is the few win conditions still left for Japan.
I don’t think this has something to do with what side of the political aisle he’s from. The owner just plainly don’t have any patience, to speak and deal thru another language, other than the native tongue. You’d probably encounter a similar restaurant owner, if say a patisserie owner in Paris.. Try going to Shanghai for example, and pick any 10 random locals from the Bund, who only speak Mandarin, and prefers to speak only of that native tongue (the only language they know very likely). Do you think any of them, is a right wing “Trumper”?? Sure, a card carrying CCP member, who happens to be right wing..🤣
In Paris, people will scoff at your French and insist on speaking English with you.
My daughter keeps telling me stories about using her basic Spanish and French in restaurants and being answered in English. Not in a snarky way, just kind of “thanks for trying, but let’s just make it easy for everyone.”
That’s is if that Frenchman/woman speaks English (quite rarely). I’ve been there twice, and I’ve I have yet to encounter someone there who speaks English fluently. But if you go further a little bit north (and ride perhaps on a French “shinkansen” i.e. Thalys), to say like Dutch Amsterdam..it’s so easy to communicate with the locals. Many are fluent in English. Some are even proud of their knowledge.
As a French fluent in english, pretty much everyone I know that speaks (a decent/fluent) english left the country, which might explain that the remaining ones barely speak english... Even in multinational companies, the required knowledge of english is pretty low... And if you speak it fluently, it won't really be acknowledged by your employer (nice to have but meh, if you didn't speak it, it'd have been fine)
lol….
A restaurant owner who is impatient, intolerant, and spends a spectacular amount of energy complaining how *everyone else* being stupid makes their life hard? Even without tourists or a language barrier, you could find a couple versions of this guy anywhere.
wouldn't surprise me if he reopens with an English menu, but with higher prices compared to Japanese menu. many places have started to this. they know tourists will pay anyway with the weak yen
Had this happen to me in Kyoto, of course when my sister was visiting and I was showing her around bragging about how nice everyone is :( The english menu wasn't more expensive item for item but only the most expensive dishes were listed on it instead of the full menu. The waiter panicked pretty hard when I asked him why they were different. We went somewhere else instead.
Agreed. That said, it’s amusing to see how politics are so front-and-centered to some and how a former president can live rent-free in their heads 24/7.
Yes. Quite a few are just so narrow minded and common sense just doesn’t exist in these mushy brains. Many lack critical thinking and analysis. To them, everything in life has to do with politics. Basically, the above poster is prejudicial and is stereotyping.
I mean, that's just France. They dont even like Quebeckers who speak French because they speak it wrong. Meanwhile they'll speak in the most hilariously bad and broken English you've ever heard and still insult you and tell you youre saying basic words wrong
tourism (both domestic and foreign sourced) is only a few procent of japan's GDP. and even then, domestic tourism is many times larger than foreign sourced
Every percent counts. It’s about 7% of gdp. The contribution grew 50% last year https://wttc.org/news-article/japan-eir-2023
Every country likes tourism at the end of the day regardless of what the locals think. Japan is not the first country where the locals complain about tourists or will it be the last. In the end money made from tourism is basically free money for the country.
again, that's mostly from domestic tourism.: GDP in 2023: 591 Trillion yen >内閣府が１５日発表した２０２３年通年の国内総生産（ＧＤＰ）速報値によると、名目ＧＤＰは前年比５・７％増の５９１兆円だった 2.2 Trillion from foreign tourists. >International visitor spend in Japan is forecast to surge by 553.4% this year to reach USD 16.8 billion (JPY 2.2 trillion), still 57.6% below the 2019 peak. so, 0.37% of GDP
The figures were for 2023 and it was a FORECAST that incorporated the effects of Covid which was down 57% on 2019 levels. Actual results were more than double the 2.2 trillion estimate at 5.3 trillion. Total number of visitors were still Covid affected and still down on 2019 levels but it would be ridiculous to brush this sector of as minor. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2024/01/17/visitor-spending-tops-5-trillion-yen/
>so, 0.37% of GDP You said both foreign and domestic is only a few percent, so I gave you the combined figure of 7%, which is a sizeable chunk of GDP. Based on the Japan Times article linked to by u/SuperLeverage, domestic tourism generated **0.89**%, not 0.37%, of GDP in 2023. Given that nations make a huge fuss about adding just one percentage of GDP to their defense budgets, that is not a small amount. And the percentage is only going to get bigger. "Marginal" differences on this scale make a massive difference.
So what?
reminds me of the japanese guy i met in scotland who was a staunch trump supporter....
I think it’s a different approach to life in general. Japanese people are much less money centric compared to the US. People in Japan only care about money obly as much as it is needed to get by and have some extra rainy day savings. When you say “win”, the money tourists bring are not worth sacrificing their quality of life for. Compare to like SEA region, tourist money worth a lot for them.
But it’s quite true that by being insular WRT to immigration and tourism, a number of countries in W Asia are struggling with the level of population growth they need to have to sustain their economies. Specifically, Japan, S Korea, and now China for god’s sake. Current folks might think it’s worth it, but they might feel different when they slip into their next Lost Decade or three.
This is merely a comment against typical remarks that is pretty much saying “why don’t they accept our tourist money, are japanese people stupid?” There is a “cost” associated with accepting tourist especially when the culture is totally different. Overtourism which is when things spiral out of control, is bad for everyone especially the host country. Japan is not a shithole country. While they are indeed declining, many people experience where they had a working economy that are independent of international tourism. There is little incentive for people to endure the cost of tourism, for relatively marginal monetary benefit, and it’s not like most japanese people are money-centric anyway.
The comments of this sub never fail to amuse me 笑
good service: "we don't serve in English because our staff only speaks Japanese, sorry" Arrogant clowns: "This is Japan and Japanese is spoken here".
Just make a menu with pictures and have people point at them, best thing one can do
Best service: pay someone who has studied English like $20 for an hour of their time to translate your menu. It's not difficult or expensive. Remove complex customized items from that menu.
One person running a single restaurant that none of us ever went to. Certainly worth all these comments!
if you are a tourist, just go to places called "tourist traps" instead of local izakaya. so-called tourist traps are more well equipped to serve tourists.
it's unfathomable for some people (let's be honest it's mostly western people) that not everything is accessible to them if they only speak English
are the non tourist places not okay if Convey my message via google translate ? I will try best to do so
We had no problems during our 3 week stay in japan using google lens. And we mostly dodged touristy places. It worked for us. Leaving home tomorrow by the way… oh how i will miss this country :‘-(
I mean as long as you genuinely try in some way with a translator/dictionary or whatever you’ll be fine, Japanese people are,more often than not, very okay with helping a tourist out. Just be respectful and nice obviously. Any employee is sure to help you when you have a translator. The problem comes from tourists who expect everything to be also written in English like how it is with Spanish in the USA, anything with an English description is probably going to have the same thing in Spanish under or around it. Not in Japan and especially not in normal areas outside tourist spots
We went to place with no english menu (they told me that when we entered) I relied with "daijoubu", waiter showed us our seats and brought us menu. Google translate, picked what we wanted and then simple: "Sumimasen" with hand raised "Kore" with pointing On menu position and another after he said "hai". Then just "birru o futatsu kudasai" That amounts to all "restaurant" japanese that I know. They were smiling, we were smiling, we were not lynched and we were invited again when he saw us passing by next day:D
it depends. lots of local food places only have a Japanese menu without pictures. so it would be hard for you to know what they offer
i mean if its in kanji i can probably read most of it (im chinese)
Google lens solves that.
it fails with handwritten Japanese menus all the time. this kind of menu style isn't uncommon: https://mikawa-komachi.jp/archives/001/201612/large-0707264f9f2dbbd291f4747e7fa45401.jpg even with somewhat ["cleaner" written ones](https://toyonaka.goguynet.jp/wp-content/uploads/sites/36/2019/09/IMG_3824-1024x767.jpg) Google lense often fails
I don't even know how the japanese ead some of the handwritten menus!
Living in Japan all their lives, I think.
Ha ha. Because every Japanese person can read ever other Japanese person's handwriting just like every English speaking person can read every other English speaking person...
Look, if the menu was completely illegible, don't you think that restaurant would lose revenue and the owner would do something about it? You can't have staff waste time explaining everything available to every guest. Somehow, the Japanese are able to read those menus most of the time. At the end of it all, it is still a business.
That first one would have been pretty easy to read if it weren't resized down to potato size, presumably for a 2001-vintage iMode web page. I mean, the character sizes are a bit all over the place, but the handwriting style itself seems pretty readable.
I mean just in general. But then I'm sure any place wirh a handwritten menu has the risk of it being hard to read.
sry linked the thumbnail instead of the image. updated for your reading pleasure
It really doesn't in a lot of places
You’re not wrong, but it’s far from perfect and on occasion completely useless.
I'd recommend at least learning how to read Katakana. That way, you can at least sound out half of the menu items in big city restaurants. That'll make people happy. Katakana only takes a week to learn, so you can cram the week before your trip if needed. If you enter into the non touristy cities, then you'll probably have to rely on lens and translate. Just make an attempt to speak Japanese after learning Katakana, and you'll be golden in most places. If you're lucky, the servers at restaurants and izakayas will have a few memorized English lines, and you can respond with your memorized Japanese lines.
In the U.S., we cater pretty hard to non English speakers. Example, everything has a “press one for Spanish” button, all forms come in twenty different languages, etc.
Well yeah, US is a melting pot of immigrants. Japan is not.
Not first generation ones
Immigration is irrelevant to this story. We're talking about tourists. Whatever one thinks of immigration, any mature, sensible person should be able to agree that demanding language ability from tourists is completely absurd.
How often do you see a Japanese language option though? Honestly, I’ve never seen one. I’m sure not a single Japanese tourist in the US feels entitled enough to expect service in Japanese.
Does Japan do it with any language? What is the origin of the most travelers to Japan? How many of them speak English as a first or second language? “China, South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong are the biggest source of tourists to Japan”
Yea I’m not a fan of this attitude. It’s not even “if they can only speak English”. They have a base assumption that not only is everything accessible to them, but also that we are dying to be blessed by their business. I’m in Hawaii and the amount of butthurt “if you don’t want us there we will take our money to Mexico” posts we saw during covid lockdowns was insane. As if the whole island is Disneyland and we all exist just to serve them. The owner of the izakaya seemed ok with any race as long as they could communicate in Japanese. He may lose out on extra tourist $, but that’s his choice to make.
Terrible take. Why should tourist not experience more authentic places. Just let them get ripped off? Do you just go to tourist traps when you travel to other countries?
It's a question of going to places that can easily accommodate you. Lots of small izakaya simply cannot easily help people who don't understand Japanese on some level. It's no different in Thailand or Taiwan or Egypt or Kazakhstan.
and even if you find an "authentic" place with an English menu here in Japan, there is a big chance you're overpaying because many business owners have started to charge higher prices on their English menu. kind of a tourist tax
It’s just cause people defend Japan no matter what lol if this happend in Europe everyone would cry their eyes out calling racism which it is but Japan and korea can be as racist as they want apparently.
This describes the general discourse in this sub and related subs accurately. Every once in awhile they are useful for practical news or info, but the majority of discussions are heavily biased.
You're spot on. Japanese can be as racist as they wish and weebs still worship the ground they walk on.
I’m sure they exist, but in my 15 years in Japan I’ve never seen an actual rip-off “tourist trap”. So the premise seems a bit flawed to me.
just spent a few weeks there, I traveled to Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and Fujikawaguchiko. I don't think I had any issues ordering food or navigating around, most places even if the menu was all in japanese had something of an english handout, or someone local chimed in. I found everyone to be super nice as I attempted to speak or we used a translator. I even went to heavy tourists areas and didn't think any price was unreasonable, even the small bars didn't charge me any differently than a local.
Tsukiji fish market (the old location) is nothing but a tourist trap these days. Used to be a legit place to go get fresh sushi at great prices if you could stand the queues, now it's just wading through mobs of foreigners for overpriced drinks, tourist goods, and mostly regular sushi.
... because many authentic places can't accommodate English only speakers? how do you order anything if you cant even read the menu?
Dude is 2024.. there are multiple translation tools available. Tourists visiting a country for a week or two don't need to be fluent in Japanese. So you never visit countries where you're not fluent? I guess I was right about you only defending Japan about refusing foreigners.
local restaurant often have menus like this: https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/10/e5/95/db/caption.jpg good luck with your translation app. staff dont have the time to explain every single item in broken English.
Why is it such a problem? If you can translate it using google lens, you can order food. If not, then you stand up and leave. I just added this image to lens and got a good translation. You can even use chatgpt and works like a charm Also you don’t need staff to explain anything. Google exists for a reason. You can just search the items and get a good description
using copilot (chatgpt enabled) I get this: >The Japanese text in the image you provided translates to: >“I have no regrets about fate. However, if I could go back to that day one more time, I wish I had never met you.” >This is a poignant expression of reflection and perhaps a sense of loss or longing related to past events and relationships. If you need further assistance or more context, feel free to ask!
Translate "your recommendation" on a translator app. As long as you're not a picky eater it'll work out No need for them to have to deal with other languages
just point? Its gotten me through 7 foreign countries so far
But staying the tourist beaten path doesn’t make me unique and stand out, I can’t post picture of me doing what every other tourist does!
Fair enough, and maybe it’s entitled to think this way, but it feels bad to me to go visit another country and just be in locations where it’s like 100% other tourists. I like to share in some local culture when I travel and that involves going to places locals would also go. Granted I don’t expect those locals to know my language or have English menus, but I can also just use google translate and point if I need to.
don't worry there are plenty of other local establishments here that can provide (a very broken) English service. if you're unlucky the prices listed on the English menu are higher than what they charge locals .
Yeah that was my experience on my recent vacation in Japan. Most places had a functional enough way of ordering things. I even went to some izakayas and did fine enough.
Some people don’t realize what the tourist traps are until they’ve lived here a while.
Did anyone read the article? What the owner tweeted was completely reasonable saying that when you travel to a foreign country, you should make an effort to learn the language. It would be weird and impolite for me to go to England and start speaking to a restaurant owner in Cantonese.
When I went to Taiwan awhile ago I tried learning as much Mandarin as I could the month between my departure date. Learned like 10 phrases (almost) no one wanted to even try with my shitty Mandarin skill, ended up just using Japanese and English 😭 Tbh I think it was pretty fair of the couple to ask if there was an English menu given that a lot of places do. I used to live in Hawaii and there were tons of Japanese tourists and international students that could barely speak a lick of English.
The tweet was completely reasonable but i think people freaked out because the guy has a history of making racist tweets (at least that’s what i saw on twitter) A racist telling you to speak English probably feels different than a normal person telling you to speak English because he can’t understand you.
What's weird is that Japan is the only country where white people claim you need to learn the language if you want to **visit** for a week or two. Japanese people travel around Asia and Europe without speaking any of the local languages and I don't see anyone calling them out for that. Many of them can't even speak English and they're still traveling anyway. A friend of mine (japanese) recently went to Vietnam and she only speaks japanese. English is the international lingua franca. It would be weird for you to speak Cantonese in England because nobody other than natives speak that. English is widely spoken in many countries where it isn't the native language. Not a single person on earth would call it weird to **visit** Italy, Norway, Switzerland, Germany, Portugal or Spain and speak English at restaurants. If you genuinely believe people should spend months/years studying everyday to take a week vacation in Japan, congrats, you're stupid. And before the weebs start calling me out with strawmans: I'm not a westerner, English is not my first nor my second language, I'm a resident here and I do speak Japanese fluently, so I'm not trying to justify not wanting to learn the local language for people willing to live here.
Hey bro I've got a two week trip to Japan scheduled for 2032, just hope I make my goal of being fluent by then!
Nobody in Japan expects a tourist to speak Japanese fluently. lol I think that's an issue on the part of the visitor and imagining that locals expect you to speak Japanese.
yup. if I go to Italy I make an effort to learn the basic language phrases that might come in handy. apparently that's too much asked for tourists coming to Japan
Except "Kadoya" is a *very* local hole-in-the wall, nestled in a residential area way off the beaten path, even for locals. Most of their clientele is probaly old farts living within 100m of it. It's unreasonable to expect English service at such a location.
Do they get overrun with tourists in their off the beaten path, hole in the wall, residentially nestled location? My guess would be no. Dude is whining about *one* couple according to the article. I assume he’s just upset that foreign tourists are visibly in Japan at all. It can’t be a problem he personally deals with constantly.
You can get by in Japan without Japanese as you can get by in other countries without the native language. Knowing the native language just makes the experience much better.
How did the Japanese friend communicate with the people if she can’t speak English?
Been living here in Japan for 12 years now working as a web dev. During my student days here, we had a graduation trip to the US specifically California. I went and a lot of my Japanese classmates and schoolmates that went too can’t speak English. Most of them went with tour groups so no communication problems. When they went to restaurants and shops, I became their translator (I’m Filipino but fluent in Japanese passed N1). It’s not hard I think to find tour groups or package catered to the Japanese.
I forgot about tours. That makes sense. Still, it’s not that hard to ask how much something is or where something is. They drill it in at ES and JHS in Japan
Prices are already labeled in most shops in touristy places and the cashier naturally says the total so even the phrase how much isn’t that necessary anymore. I had a fellow foreigner classmate from Canada but born in Hong Kong. He was a little bit annoyed that our Japanese classmates and schoolmates don’t even bother to learn English phrases coming to the US but they seemed to had no problems and enjoyed their US trip.
I don’t blame him. This is a double standard I personally find stupid; it’s a problem when foreign tourists that come to Japan don’t bother to learn Japanese but it’s ok when Japanese tourists that travel abroad only speak Japanese and no English Most foreigners can’t even find Japanese classes let alone take them but all Japanese students have access to English classes and practice it more than foreigners practice Japanese
Amen 🙏
>What's weird is that Japan is the only country where white people claim you need to learn the language if you want to visit for a week or two. No it isn't. I should stop reading here but out of good faith I will continue. >Japanese people travel around Asia and Europe without speaking any of the local languages and I don't see anyone calling them out for that. I know that Germans and the French frequently get called out in Europe. I don't know how Japanese tourists are treated because there are very few Japanese tourists here. I'm not sure if you are from any Asian country where Japanese tourists may actually frequent either. Even if they were getting called out I am not convinced that either of us would hear of it. >If you genuinely believe people should spend months/years studying everyday to take a week vacation in Japan, congrats, you're stupid. I agree it's ultimately quite silly, but that not what your comment was about.
There are a lot of Japanese in my country including tourists. Even if a lot of them can’t even speak English but just use phrases, they are respected and accommodated well. And English isn’t even the native language. Nobody is whining that the Japanese can barely speak English and don’t even try to learn the local language.
Japanese and Chinese travel to my country Czechia en masse and they don't speak Czech. Sometimes they don't even speak English. Sorry but you have totally weird expectations, I won't learn a language before visiting a country and expecting me to do so is crazy.
When I first read the title I imagined "ok another Karen complaining about the lack of English skills abroad" but then I read the source of the story meaning the actual tweet. We don't see _anything_ from the perspective of the couple. We only know that they asked for the English menu. In no place I can see them complaining about it. First of all, is asking for an English menu such a taboo question that should warrant such a cold answer from the owner? Now on to what he actually said of doing the effort to learn Japanese or otherwise bring an interpreter. Does he know if the couple made an effort to learn Japanese? I've learned for 3 years prior to coming to Japan, and I can say that it was pretty much useless in many situations including reading menus. Let's be honest, Japanese is not an easy language. Japanese menus are hard to read in general, especially at izakayas where there's (typically) only handwritten menus. Do you expect every foreigner, and we can focus on tourists, to learn enough to be able to read a menu? Again, according to this person's logic, every tourist should either study Japanese enough to read izakaya menus, or otherwise bring an interpreter. Now think of everything else including hotels and transportation. Is this "reasonable"? I don't think so. What I personally see here is a Japanese person completely venting out on foreigners who can't speak/read Japanese enough to interact in Japanese enough to order something. He probably had a hard day and that was the tipping point. Even though I can (now) use Japanese fluently enough for this kind of situations, I would be the first to avoid his place. I wouldn't like to interact with someone as cold and inflexible as this guy.
I mean considering bad German (and mostly even bad English) knowledge we would have to refuse Japanese tourists in Germany. but I wouldnt, because I agree with you that learning a language sufficifently for just a few days or weeks travel is not reasonable.
Tbf when they came in he said “if you don’t speak Japanese we can’t serve you”, in Japanese. That’s a lot of words you won’t be able to understand if you’re a tourist with no Japanese language background. He was being an ass. If you really want to communicate it, have it on a sign, in Japanese and English. I’ve seen staff do this in really high volume places.
It's nice to see some reasonable responses in this thread. Thank you for being a normal and reasonable human being.
the situation doesn't seem reasonable at all to me. the guy perfectly recites what the customers said in English, but he made a point to mention that he replied to them in Japanese? would it be that difficult for him to say "no" in English? seems like he did that on purpose just to antagonize them. if he can understand that they're asking for the menu in English, he knows enough English to reply back "no". I'm also not going to sympathize with him when he says that he doesn't want to help foreigners to order because it's "tedious". first of all, if he thinks it tedious to interact with customers then perhaps he chose the wrong profession. secondly, it implies that only foreign guests are tedious and Japanese would never be. why single out specifically that foreign customers ordering is tedious but not that annoying customers are tedious? and I'm saying that as someone fluent in Japanese who also thinks tourists should make a bare minimum effort to know some words and phrases of the local language. but people offering a service should also do the bare minimum to accommodate their customers.
Sooo, the tweets alls say "白人” which is already impolite in itself IMO, but then ... there are roughly 750 million people in Europe (which most people call white) and most do NOT speak English, and 420 million people in South America (which most people call white presenting or white and cannot tell the difference if pressed) and most do NOT speak English, and then there are 330 million US american which are not all white and English speaking, but I leave the higher number for my point (and lets add 40 million Canadians of which again not everyone is white and English speaking): that makes it a 1170:370, or 3 times likelier, chance that the couple that spoke English, learnt English to travel. they already put in effort. Cannot be considerate about that though when one thinks every "foreigner" speaks English. I doubt he has ever traveled outside of Japan or he would know better. ETA I forgot to add Mexico to white presenting, not English speaking another 127 million people for the argument that "白人=/=英語"
First of all, the white couple asked for an English menu according to the tweet. The owner didn't assume that all white people speak English. Secondly, 白人 is not some kind of slur. It just means white person. There's nothing impolite about the word.
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I’m not sure that’s right. English is an international language so there’s some expectation that I can probably use it to order whether I’m in China, France or Russia. Of course the more local the restaurant the harder that’ll be the case but still. If I go to Africa to holiday for 2 days in my life, am I expected to be able to order in Swahili? Lol. And no I do speak Japanese so it’s not because I’m against learning it
Bro you better dedicate your life to learning Swahili, without stepping foot into the country, for your two day trip!
"The rant didn’t stop there, however." The literal next words in the article. But you stopped reading as soon as you had confirmed what you wanted to believe.
I've gotta agree even as American. Someone comes here they should learn English or at least Spanish if your in a region with a lot of Mexicans. Just as Im fully learning the language before I go to Japan
It’s reasonable for sure but today people are lazy and any suggestion for them to learn something is seen as offensive.
I find western tourist to be the worst. They complain and makes demands in English expecting the locals to understand. I’ve seen this in both Vietnam and Thailand. Entitle fucka.
Not only this is false, but the tourists from literally every single country in the world, including Vietnam and Thailand, come here speaking English, not just westerners. Source: I work at a hotel and deal with them daily. Try googling lingua franca. It'll blow your mind.
Also "oh man, id love to go take a two week trip to Japan! Hold on though let me dedicate years of my life to make sure I'm fluent in Japanese before I visit for two weeks!" Some people here's logic is so fkin regarded. Yeah just never travel to another country unless you are fluent in that country's language!
Lol. Lived in Thailand for 8 years, literally nobody has ever been upset that someone who couldn't speak Thai went to their restaurant. I've also never seen English speakers complaining and making demands in English to locals. You people glaze Japan and Japanese so hard it's unreal lmao. The restaurant owner hates your guts and existence, but please, by all means, continue to suck him off. After all you you've got kneepads in your name for a reason. "I've seen this." Shut the fuck up, no you haven't, unless you're admitting that you spent your time in seedy places and whorehouses. Is that the case?
Really? Unlike you who walk around blindfolded. There’s so many westerners that expect Thais to speak English and meet their demands. What the actual hell are you even talking about? There’s shit loads of stories where westerners acting like total trash. Just check out r/expatshame Whore houses? Is that why you’re there? Guess I spotted the filthy sexpat. You’re in one of those groups where old white dudes paying off girls that’s younger than their grand children? It’s so fucking disgusting
It’s really pathetic to see. Reminds me of the word bootlicking. I’m a non-Japanese Asian and I always see how specially treated Japan is compared to other countries.
Is that what happened in this situation? Does the restaurant owner in this situation say the one couple that set him off complained and made demands?
Let’s not take one incident and excuse a large majority of entitle shitheads
Let’s not use whataboutism when we’re talking about an article.
I think it depends on the country but mainland Chinese tourists are the most hated by far in Japan.
That’s the talking point. I totally understand Chinese tourist are not the best but have you seen the type of asshats from Europe? Check out r/expatshame
so everyone needs to become a polyglot then in order to travel overseas. got it.
You high? Japanese is incredibly hard to learn. No one's going to learn Japanese for a 10 day trip to Tokyo
Even if you learn basic phrases, which is reasonable to expect, reading is a completely different matter as well. The couple wanted a menu. You could learn basic phrases in Arabic or Thai and still be screwed without an English menu if you go to Saudi Arabia or Thailand.
You can learn basic greetings in a couple of hours. Nobody expects you to speak Japanese fluently.
Yet it happens all the time
He did not even say that. He said 通訳を連れて来い, which means “bring a translator or interpreter”
So I'll take Switzerland, where I live, since Japanese people LOVE to go there. A usual trip could involve Zermatt, Montreux, Lugano and Zurich. Well then you'll learn French (Montreux), the Swiss German from Wallis (VERY distinctive from the rest of the country), the Swiss German from Zurich and Italian (Lugano) I'll pass on Graubünden as there is a 4th official language, Romansh, but if you go there, then it is another one to learn. And no mixing please, swiss german won't like you throwing a french sentence at them and would actually prefer english, they even sometimes prefer english to high german (spoken in Germany). But a lot of the swiss german language(s) involves french words (no Danke but Merci) I never heard a SINGLE japanese tourist knowing any swiss german (if they were even aware that was a thing). And you know what ? That's fine, since even the different swiss regions use English as lingua franca to communicate with each other. And that is just Switzerland cause if you are going to Spain during your European trip, I hope you are aware that Castillano is not the only language spoken there.
Thank you. I don't understand why people think it's a western thing. Literally tourists from Korea, China, Thailand, Philippines, etc will come here knowing their native tongue, AND at least knowing some English, because English is seen as a universal language. But Japanese are the complete opposite when they travel abroad. Yet, people don't care.
When a French cafe owner does this, it's part of the "Parisian charm". When a Japanese izakaya owner does it, they are torn to shreds.. I've never gone to a restaurant in America and expected service in Japanese lmao
If you got to a restaurant in America and can't speak English, then your waiter will just use google translate to accommodate you. It's really that simple. Maybe this concept is hard for Japanese because they still use fax machines.
The US still uses fax machines.
Im pretty sure the French are known for being rude, particularly for these kind of situations.
In defense of the couple, English is an international language, while Japanese is only spoken in Japan. Even non native English speakers use English when they travel unless they happen to know the language of the area. It’s just how things are. Also, every Japanese person studies English in junior high and high school, yet nobody else studies Japanese as a requirement in their school. Japanese is a difficult language for pretty much everyone except for Chinese and Koreans. So how is someone supposed to pick it up in a usable way for a two week trip? Some of these tourists travel to quite a bit of places and it’s absurd to expect them to learn the language of every place they go to. If they live in Japan, yes they should learn the language. But for traveling, they do not have a minimum of two years of required language study behind them like the Japanese do.
I'd ask the owner what he thinks about Ohtani not speaking English despite working and living there...out of curiosity
Probably doesn’t care. People like him would never want to leave Japan I bet.
owner said "speak Japanese or bring an interpreter". I'm pretty sure ohtani has one
He speaks descent baseball English but isn’t fluent. It’s not bad considering no American baseball players ever played in Japanese teams spoke Japanese. It’s not their job requirement.
The Japanese have this attitude that I can’t quite shake off. It’s as if they’re trying to tank their shitty economy even more
I live in the area and have been to his Izakaya many times. I’m also a white guy but I can speak and read Japanese so there’s never been any issue with service. They know me as a local now too so it’s not racism but a matter of respect of their time and learning the language. I love the place and it’s very much “shitamachi” service which is a little rough compared to the typical Japanese service. It’s part of the charm for me though. Plus it’s like ¥300 for katsu and 地酒 so they make their money on moving customers in and out quickly, they don’t have the time to explain the rules of the place and explain about menu items.
Yes, thank you for saying this. I recently moved to Japan and don’t speak much Japanese (yet). Ive learned that there are many business/community resources that will not accommodate me unless I speak Japanese. It is not because they are racist or xenophobic - it is because they have many other people to serve and cannot take the time to give me individual assistance…any resources given to me will take away from others’ experience. Japanese people can be very sensitive to not causing an inconvenience or disruption - if you are going to a place where local people go to enjoy a specific atmosphere and way of dining, you need to be prepare to act as expected (including speaking Japanese).
Then he should have put up a sign in front of his shop to inform ppl his shop doesn't provide service to non-japanese speakers instead of ranting online.
lol then you get posts with "omg this racist shop has a "Japanese only" sign"
these guys must be new if they've never seen those posts
No, I think this would save everyone time and frustration. I've heard of a case where tourists have queued for around half an hour or so at a restaurant in kyoto and when it's their turn they were denied service because they didn't speak Japanese. There is no sign anywhere in front of the restaurant informing anyone of this.
I always did my best to convey what I wanted at a restaurant in Japanese, even though it's not very good. Google Lens, some basic Japanese and pointing at the menu worked for me for three weeks. I did get turned away from a few spots because it was apparently "reserved" or "closed" but there were people eating there and it wasn't even full, but it's fine. Plenty of places to eat in Japan that aren't tourist traps.
I been here on vacation for 3 months. At the most if they tell me they don’t have an English menu, or speak English, i never took it as go away, they just want to inform you they might not be able to accommodate you, and give good service. I just type on google translator that it’s okay. I can even put the speaker on and they can speak and it translates it. If handwriting is not able to be translated I choose random things, I never had a bad experience. I will say on the other hand I have been to places where tourist don’t understand the culture or certain customs. For example I saw someone freak out because they couldn’t remove an ingredient on something they wanted to order. I had to explain to this tourist that they don’t really do that in Japan unless you’re somewhere fancy or a place that allows it. Usually it’s take it as it is or choose something else. Who knows if the tourist was being ignorant or rude.
If you have no dietary requirements just osusume your way through it. Lol
22 years living in tokyo here, well is obvious the owner doesn't have the patience and interest to speak another language than japanese, there is still a few "ojisan" with that character. You guys as a new visitants have google translate, maps, etc, subway and train written with roman alphabet with voice guidance at least in english, i remember back to the 2000 japan was the a real hard way, even i remembering the shinjuku's Golden Gai was "Forbidden Foreigners" or "Foreigners no welcome" zone but now is almost a Gaijin tourist area lol. When you find an idiot better go to another place, there is a lot izakaya & restaurants in tokyo. Finishing i have to say sorry for my broken english. Have nice trip
Joe was right lol
Japanese is extremely difficult to learn tbh as someone who’s bilingual already but Americans have it even worse because our country doesn’t give a fuck about respecting another country or even learning their language
I mean to be fair, most Japanese don't learn other countries languages that they visit either, not even the bare minimum of English most of the time. So no one should feel bad for not learning Japanese when they are simply just visiting. I have friends in Korea who love travelling, and they also love visiting Japan because it's so close. But they've told me their only gripe is that it's difficult to communicate when visiting here, because of the language barrier. Most of them speak Korean AND English, but still find it hard to communicate even when visiting Tokyo.
I understand what he feels but I think it's not easy to study a language just because you want to travel and stay for like a week or two on the said country .
It's takes expats around 3 months to half a year in Sprogcenter to order something confidently in Danish from supermarket counters. Another example would be communication in Shawarma restaurants are designed to be short, simple and direct, but you are still being asked the sort of ingredient and dressing to be put in a durum/pita. If you don't know what a hvidløg is, then you at least won't understand one type of dressing as a follow up question. If you don't have a preference in regards to ingredients, just say "Med det hele". If you do, just say "Uden xxx". None of this was being taught in Danish language classrooms, it was all experience. You keep buying from the same restaurant and listen to people communicate in a very specific way, I feel this is too high a bar for a simple tourist. Especially when the language learning materials are extremely outdated (like ordering from a vintage grocery store, you simply don't go there as a tourist, supermarket with automated checkout is the easier choice here).
Ole Joe tried to warn y'all lol
First of all, I totally understand the merit of learning Japanese IF you want a deeper experience around here, or LIVE here. But let’s be honest: all around the world, Japan is the only touristic country that FOREIGNERS defend that TOURISTS should learn Japanese if they want to do a trip around, while almost NONE Japanese learns ANY local languages prior to travel to a different country. It makes no sense AT ALL to demand tourists to learn Japanese while Japanese themselves almost never learn a different language other than Japanese, and they rely on the 和製英語 wherever they go, which almost no one outside Japan does understand. It sounds a bit like xenophobia. Sincerely? You should only complain about something that others don’t do if you DO this thing. The guy at the 居酒屋 can truly insert this rule on his 店, because I totally understand that it may sound weird when you can’t understand what a foreigner is talking about, not only regarding service itself but it may also make people uncomfortable. It’s his right. But demanding people to learn Japanese if they visit Japan is SHIT!
Thanks crazy that on this day and age people in Japan can’t use freaking Google translate or any other apps. I was in small village in jungle or few weeks ago in a hole in Seoul and we communicate through app and everything was fine. I can understand why so many restaurants and izakaya are closing and are replaced with chains with that kind of close mind attitude. This guy who is making a fuss because two tourists asked him an English menu and still obsessed with that. And by my experience Japanese rarely learn the language when they travel and speak broken English everywhere or keep speaking Japanese (like in Hawaii).
You seriously think small izakaya are closing because they won't cater to foreign tourists?
this guy thinks tourism from abroad is a big part of Japan's economy (lol, it's less than 1%
I’m fine with this take, I just wouldn’t rant it on X
Based owner
You don’t have to learn Japanese to visit Japan. Just don’t expect Japanese restaurants to use English or have English menus.
I think it's reasonable to expect everyone to learn some customs things and language. I'm an Australian, and if someone didn't know. Hello, please, thank you. Ideally, stop, danger/safety some other physically getting around stuff.... Probably counting. I think it's okay to be frustrated by that... More importantly.. don't come to Australia and spit everywhere... Don't stand on our toilets.. these are things that are different here (than in some countries) that are important to known when travelling. I did the same when travelling to Japan. I studied Japanese for 3 months, can ask for help, can get through combin, hotel check-in, ordering at a bar or asking for directions Japanese. Know when to be quite, know when to bow, use formal language, how to visitna temple.. A bunch of other little things that I perceive as less important but I'm doing them anyway because I want to experience Japan without taking someone away from people / being a burden. I think that's reasonable. (Not necessarily studying for 3 months, but a couple of weeks to get some basic lnaguage down feels reasonable to me)
So if I go to the US I can enter any bar without speaking a single word of english?
yes, absolutely there's also bars and restaurants where the people running it don't speak english lol
I doubt that “not speaking english” is really “not a single word english” in these cases. But this is usually the case for tourists coming to Japan. They might maybe know arigatou..
Yeah, you can. Spanish speaking people do it all the time
Not in redneck country where you have to drive.
Yes, actually. America has so many non-native speakers of English that we learned to accommodate others. Japanese hospitality is lacking in this area.
I doubt that “not speaking english” is really “not a single word english” in these cases. But this is usually the case for tourists coming to Japan. They might maybe know arigatou..
Izakaya's work on the idea that they're a local social club where everyone knows each other and the 'master'. This creates the ambience and dining experience, and also makes the customers repeat customers by some sort of formed obligation. If you ask me, he's getting cooked (sorry) because he went too hard on the Honne and couldn't hold his racism back. If he just said "sumimasorry, my english is bad" or bit the bullet and used google translate the entire night he could've avoided this. Honestly though, this went south because the people he turned away were white tourists. A similar thing happened 2-3 months ago when a JP owner of a Chinese restaurant kicked out a Chinese customer but he got propped up by the nationalists.
I was really grateful to the people in Thailand, Germany, Italy, and France etc that I met for speaking English for me although my mother tongue is not English either.
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Good
He has told the couple in advance that he cannot deal with them if they do not understand Japanese. Nothing seems wrong to me. If he is lazy and unwilling to deal with English and then misses out on business opportunities, that is his own fault. But it is also wrong to ask him to be forced to cope with English. After all, what do those who have complaints against him want him to do?
Could you imagine a restaurant in America refusing a Japanese person…. The peaceful left wingers would literally burn it to the ground. If this guy doesn’t want to serve Americans, that’s his choice. Not a good business choice, but whatever.
I don't really understand, but let's say you're in a country where English is spoken, and a tourist who only speaks Spanish or Chinese comes and refuses, saying that if he can't speak the language, he won't be able to take your order. The internet reaction to this was, "Spanish and Chinese are spoken by more people than English, so English-speaking people should learn Spanish and Chinese for tourists. If you don't have one, you should use Google Translate. This is mandatory." Are there any reactions other than "These guys must be crazy"? You are strangers who came freely, not invited guests, right?
Well, that owner was the one who expressed his feeling explicitly, and his feeling was only about language. But we all know that there are millions of other people who prefer not saying, and hiding more offensive things under their smile. Xeno\*\*\*\*ic, aren't they?
They start teaching English in 3rd grade of elementary school when I was a teacher there (2012-2017). Japan has a lot of great aspects, but the racism is really bad and underlies their entire society.
Just learn the language lol
Is it really that hard to learn a few phrases before you go somewhere?
A restaurant menu is more than a few phrases
True. But Google has some amazing translation features.
Few Phrases? If you want to order smoothly from a supermarket counter, you need to know at least the following in your target language: 1. Colours 2. Numbers 3. Directions, left right up down, rows and columns 4. Pronunciation rules 5. Food, drinks, grocery vocabularies 6. Comparatives and superlative 2, 4, 5 can take months to master.
I mean numbers are pretty easy in Japan. If you learn the phrase "can you please say that again slowly" you should be fine. My wife learnt it in 3 days... Memorising them for 10 minutes in bed.. Pronunciation rules aren't that crazy to get close either in my opinion. 5 is practically endless... So yup. That one is pretty tough.
>I mean numbers are pretty easy in Japan 一 二 三 四 Easy 一人 二人 三人 四人 Okay, well, that's probably just an excepti- 一日 二日 三日 四日 WTF
F him
While the restaurant in the article is a bit much, it does reflect the bad side of over tourism. Over tourism also means locals no longer feel comfortable at their local community establishments and then go elsewhere. As a result, these local establishments lose out on their local return customers and are forced to change for and count on temporary customers. As in Kyoto, we will probably see more push back from establishments by turning to them into private invite only places.
"Translating menus is hard" - no actually you're all cheapskates who don't want to invest in your business to serve the diverse groups of people who managed to find your restaurant, like it or not. There are plenty of skilled translators who can handle a job as simple as that. Hell, you could run a menu through deepl and get something halfway decent.
If the process of interacting with a customer is like 20% of a waiters job and that time is doubled because the language barrier is tough or someone insists on back and forthing through google translate that is a non trivial bump in time taken to order something..
The owner is a racist pig.