So, Simon, you live
in Japan and you were just in
Germany. Um, how is the service in restaurants
different in Japan than it is in Germany?
Yeah, I can talk about that. Well, I might be stereo-
typing here and I'll talk about maybe Japan,
Germany or Europe, and then North America. Ah,
I think in Germany there was definitely an
emphasis on efficiency, so when I went into
a pub and I said, "I wanna order a beer." and
Munich is famous for beer, so there's many
kinds, so I was thinking."What should I order?
What should I order?" and the server said,
"Well, you can't decide, I'll come back in a
minute. Thank you" and then quickly off.
would be on politeness, so the server would
wait and if I said, "Mm, what should I order?"
the server would patiently wait and says "Take
your time. I'm here," you know. You know,
"Thank you for deciding," things like that.
And you know, in my home in Canada,
Vancouver, you know, they would try to be
cool and friendly, so everybody would be
like "Hey, did you try our special? Would you
like to drink our special beer today?" you know
and smile, you know, and that's that, so
Japan the emphasis would be on politeness. In
Germany, or Europe, the emphasis would be on
efficiency and in North America the emphasis
would be on friendliness or being cool.
Hm, interesting.
