There are more bows performed and more bows to come. TEPCO CEO is touring refugees locations, very often schools, and bowing profusely. The newer pictures zoom back and offer a better perspective of group bowing. In the local press, this late show of remorse and compassion - formal but how could it be different? - is ushered in as a "long time waiting" necessary event. Sincerity has nothing to do with the acting although in individual comments among Japanese, sincerity is at times questioned. But the debate around sincerity leads to nowhere. The point is to do it. Now, if language bridging was a necessary act, one of these bowers could be you, could it be?
Mending, possible or not, starts even late with necessary gestures. The sloppiness of words saying "sorry" translated into foreign languages is a show of culture gaps which are natural. The message by PM Kan published in several Western newspapers the other day is just the same example, sloppy in it flowery vaporous . It yet means something in Japanese that can't be translated, only explained, and challenge the mighty difficulty to admit first without judging that differences do exist. Et voila.
A visit at a potential new client. They are new to Japan. Some may be in Japan for years but always new, so slim their interactions with Japanese is. The reverse is true. They have meetings after meetings with gazillions of Japanese on the other side of the table. Call it crowd meeting. Everybody is talking at the same time and for the sake of saving time, the interpreters are required to perform chuchotage. I am afraid this method in such situation is not appropriate, but is it the role of the interpreter to suggest there are over solutions? First of all, the "everybody is talking at the same time" is a cultural issue, because if it were meetings among Japanese "alone", thing would be managed differently and lateral talking frown at. There are talking all at the same time because there are no meeting leaders to check that this kind of useless interaction is tamed down. The role of interpreter-mediator is for the future.
Of convenience stores, and nothing related to interpreting. There are many stories of efforts to rebuild, but among those, the early role of convenience store operators is the most striking. In the crippled regions, the early birds trying and recreate what they call here the "life line" were individual drivers and operators of goods delivery, and the convenience stores who work hand in hand. Early delivery of rices balls and mineral water was hailed as miraculous and brilliant. In the newspapers this morning, one such convenience store top is upbeat, forecasting growth within and fueled by the mess. Same goes for package deliveries corporations.
The latest "added service" delivery corporations I noticed a while back was verbal. The delivery staff would pop up with a package and say sorry to deliver "earlier" than planned, "but I was just running by your home". When the service is perfectly ticking and reducing prices is not an option, wording is the last customer satisfaction strategy.
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