Our Japanese colleagues let us call them by their first name
vs the traditional way of addressing everyone by last name + san or some other
respective ending. I suppose it is their
way of respecting us as Americans.
I knew this was atypical for them, but I didn’t realize how strange it made them feel. From what I gather, addressing someone by
first name only is like calling them their pet name “Banana Booboo Buns” in
public.
I had a meeting with another group my colleagues work
with. They tried to introduce themselves
to me as Americans would. But every time they did, they turned to that
person to quickly add, “Oh excuse me! Haha! I am sorry!” and bow a lot. After the 3rd or 4th
round of apologizing and bowing, I told them that it was fine for us to use
last names. Everyone felt a lot better after
that.
In another instance, I sought out a friend’s friend at a
local establishment. I found a person
who matched the description and I asked him if his name was Daisuke. He stopped what he was doing and gave me a
suspicious glance. “Why do you ask? And how do you know my name is Banana Booboo
Buns?”
I learned a new vocabulary word that night: odorokimashita – surprised.
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