Phone Calls

From Japan: The Original Point-and-Speak Phrasebook by Toshiya Enomoto (highly recommend)

As those who know me in person may or may not know, I hate making phone calls! Maybe it's just me being a child of the 21st century or the lack of seeing body language, but I've always been pretty anxious about phone calls. Finally got to the point where I didn't shake out of anxiety when making phone calls during my last year of college (yes I know this is very late hahaha). Still don't like phone calls and will avoid by pretty much any means possible, but at least I can now make a phone call without forgetting how to speak (or sometimes breath).

These days I live in Japan. You may be thinking "oh yeah Japan is so advanced in technology you don't even have to see a person to go to a restaurant/hotel/etc.!" But let me tell you it is a LIE. All that stuff is in Tokyo or other major cities. Want to know who doesn't live in Tokyo? Me and 89% of the Japanese population. Computer literacy is ABYSMAL in Japan. Like at my school everyone has their own laptop, but we have a shared computer dedicated to sending emails and everyone in the school uses one email address. All our classrooms have smart boards yet the teachers don't even realize that you don't need a computer dedicated to emails. Also I swear all Japanese websites look like they were made in 2005. Major pet peeve of mine. Okay rant over, back to the point.

Japan is still very much based on phone calls. Younger generations are pretty good at texting, but making an appointment online is very rare, especially where I live. For example, when I receive fliers in the mail, see posters, or get a business card, they often have a little map showing where the location is instead of an address. This is exactly what the business cards and pamphlets I found in my Great Uncle's scrapbooks from his time in Japan in 1952 looked like. Guess not much has changed in 70 years. Many businesses only have a phone number and address or map when it comes to contact info, especially in rural areas. No websites, and if they do, as mentioned above they look like they were made in 2005.

Now, "why is this a problem?" you might ask. "You have a supervisor, they can make your phone calls for you!" Yes, this is a good answer. Other ALTs in my area have asked their supervisors to make appointments for them and it goes great. However, as you may know, I studied Japanese in college and came to Japan with low level conversational Japanese. In my first days here I had some hour long car rides with my supervisor, so what else to do but talk (my supervisor doesn't know much English, so mostly Japanese). Due to this, she has a lot of confidence in my Japanese ability. This turned into her calling me when she needs to tell me something. Which then turned into her not offering to help me call places. If I ask very nicely and it seems difficult, like changing my appointment at the hospital, she will do that for me, but otherwise I'm on my own. She says she does this on purpose because she knows my Japanese is good and wants me to be independent. I appreciate this, but what she doesn't know is I hate phone calls even in English XD. It's much easier ask people to make phone calls for you in Japan, since you can just say "it's hard to understand over the phone" which is one true and two a believable reason to not want to make phone calls in a foreign language especially.

A few months ago I had to cancel a driving lesson and dentist appointment. I was hoping my supervisor would make those calls for me, but unfortunately she is very proud of my Japanese skills and believes I can do this myself. After procrastinating for a week, the appointment day was approaching and I really needed to cancel these appointments. After making some notes and practicing, I dialed and made the phone calls (with much anxiety). I managed to cancel both appointments with little issue. I felt like a super hero!

Now, since I canceled my driving lesson and I still have to learn the stupid driver's license course (I will write about that later), I have to make more appointments. The woman who writes down all the appointments has an easy to understand voice, but the issue is for whatever reason she can never understand my name. I have to say my name multiple times and she still doesn't know who I am until I tell her my most recent appointment date. It's a struggle but we figure it out eventually.

Another issue is there is a special kind of Japanese called Keigo. Keigo is used to show respect for the person you are talking to, like in a customer service situation. This is even more polite than normal polite vs casual form Japanese. It's also completely off the rails from standard Japanese. Like the polite ending to a statement in Japanese is "です"(desu) but in Keigo it's "でございます"(degozaimasu). You get the idea. This means that pretty much every time you need to call some sort of customer service representative, they are going to speak to you in Keigo. Luckily for me, I hear the secretary and my coworkers use Keigo for the phones at work every day but there is still a lot I have no idea about (even have a textbook now). I understand they are just trying to be polite but it makes it very difficult for me to understand, as now I have to learn another whole set of words on top of what I already learned.

As time goes on, I make more and more phone calls in Japanese. My supervisor calling me, calling the doctor, speaking to the vice principal, making driving lesson appointments, and yesterday I took on the biggest challenge yet: calling the driver's license center. This means unfamiliar people, lots of Keigo, scheduling, asking questions, and listening to instructions. I decided to try this phone call at work (people do this all the time) so if I got stuck I could go find a free coworker to make the call for me. I called the number, told them I want to make an appointment for the driver's license test, then got transferred to another guy (the on hold music was like techno Fur Elise or something which was hilarious) who asked me for my foreigner special paperwork number. Told him I want an appointment for next week, pick a day, he goes over the documents I need to bring. There was a little confusion but I was able to repeat enough back to him to confirm we figured it out. To be completely honest I was surprised how well it went.

Basically, these days I can make phone calls! I still avoid it, but honestly if you had told me I would feel comfortable on the phone two years ago, let alone talk on the phone in Japanese, I would think you are crazy.