In this country
We don't have a printer at home: we don't print much, cartridges dry out and replacement prices are thievery. I'd print the document I need at work, but I am on holiday. So I take the Word document on a USB key to the konbini that has a printer, right?
Of course the first girl I speak with doesn't know what to do, but she plays with the machine for minutes before admitting that, and calling the manager. Him, likewise, but he has nobody to call. Along with the usual 'moshiwake-agemasen' meaninglessness, I get an explanation that it can't access a Word document, though it can access Excel, so I should go home to change the file type, and return.
Sure, I'm going to do that.
J-wife goes online to see if we can Internet transfer the document to the konbini, even after my usual rant about not giving money to idiots (such is her respect for me). She discovers their system doesn't support Microsoft documents in English. Well, not like anyone can speak it after studying it for most of a decade...
I can smell the "I..I..I don't know wtf I'm doing" instantly.
ReplyDeleteThey usually work at electronic stores.
The dumber than dumb ones....they work at konbinis.
I don't know why I even bother to try dealing with humans anymore: to be fair there's a whole lot of stupid in Canada, too. It's come to: do my own research online, shop online, do my own wrenching on bikes, deal with electronics just as much as I am able to fix or willing to write off. Every other interaction with a human makes me more misanthropic.
DeleteI've printed English Word docs at 7-11. In Japan, I mean. In Australia, all you get at the 7-11 is pot.
ReplyDeleteOh, there's probably a way, despite the denial my wife found on 7-11's site. You must have used a 'konbini' where they'd gone to the seminar. Not many Anglo Gaijin where I am.
DeleteActually did it all via instructions on Ashley's Surviving in Japan blog. Never had to ask the conbini staff.
Delete"She discovers their system doesn't support Microsoft documents in English."
ReplyDeleteWeird, because I know so many Japanese people who write documents in English for work as well as for personal reasons...
Yeah, I thought it was bogus, too; however, when you want to stay married, it's often easier to just say, 'なるほど'.
DeleteYep words to live by. Its saved me from plenty of headaches.
DeleteI don't really know many things, so maybe this is a stupid question, but how come I can use documents from my work computer (English system) on my home computer (Japanese system) but you can't print documents from an English computer on a Japanese printer?
ReplyDeleteIs this your experience?
DeleteI don't know if that's true, or not. I do know that a Japanese person would believe anything a company tells them, and I do know few would take any initiative to find out any truth for themselves, and I do know my wife - lived abroad for a decade and love her though I do... is still Japanese.
To recap, either I should have been able to print, and the locals and 711's website creators are idiots (plausible) or the people who sold them the printer but did not think to allow Word in other languages are idiots (plausible). You see what's common with both scenarios...