As part of evening shift operations, I had to call in every room that has Do Not Disturb sign on during the day to check if they require any servicing of the room for the day.
Typically, guests won’t be in and all I need to do is to leave a voice message. More often than not, I also hoped that guests won’t pick up the calls so I don’t have to deal with funny accents. Certain guests somehow also seem to feel obliged to have funny or complicated requests when we call them to inquire about their need for service. Or maybe that was just my luck.
Last Wednesday, I was on evening shift and proceeded as per procedure to call in the DND rooms. A guest in one of the rooms picked up the call. A Japanese guest. Damn, I thought.
I got to qualify first though, that I have absolutely nothing against Japanese guests. It’s just that when they come in a group, most likely their English level is poor. This leads to communication issue, as I had then.
When the guest picked up the phone, I enquire if she required any servicing of her room, in English of course. She hesitated and I knew then she doesn’t understand English. However, I’m in a dilemma. As a service provider, I couldn’t possibly just hang up the phone. Then again, despite all the monetary and time investments I had put into learning Japanese years ago, my grasp of the language sucks even better than the Black Hole.
‘Sumimasen. Gomennasai. Eto, mo ichido kudasai.’
She repeats those words 3 times. 3 times I understood what those words mean, but I just couldn’t find the simplest Japanese words to convey my question to her. I could only repeat my question slooowwllyyy… then she hung up and ended both our agony.
Whew.
Typically, guests won’t be in and all I need to do is to leave a voice message. More often than not, I also hoped that guests won’t pick up the calls so I don’t have to deal with funny accents. Certain guests somehow also seem to feel obliged to have funny or complicated requests when we call them to inquire about their need for service. Or maybe that was just my luck.
Last Wednesday, I was on evening shift and proceeded as per procedure to call in the DND rooms. A guest in one of the rooms picked up the call. A Japanese guest. Damn, I thought.
I got to qualify first though, that I have absolutely nothing against Japanese guests. It’s just that when they come in a group, most likely their English level is poor. This leads to communication issue, as I had then.
When the guest picked up the phone, I enquire if she required any servicing of her room, in English of course. She hesitated and I knew then she doesn’t understand English. However, I’m in a dilemma. As a service provider, I couldn’t possibly just hang up the phone. Then again, despite all the monetary and time investments I had put into learning Japanese years ago, my grasp of the language sucks even better than the Black Hole.
‘Sumimasen. Gomennasai. Eto, mo ichido kudasai.’
She repeats those words 3 times. 3 times I understood what those words mean, but I just couldn’t find the simplest Japanese words to convey my question to her. I could only repeat my question slooowwllyyy… then she hung up and ended both our agony.
Whew.
posted by Cylee at
7:40 pm I