What’s -mase do to the verb? I know what irasshaimase means as an idiom, but from my (limited 2 years of study) Japanese knowledge I can tell it’s probably a form of irassharu (keigo/formal form of “to be” and “to come/go,” probably the latter in this case), and it’s similar to -masu (which I’m not sure has any real significance, but suspect it is). If I had to really guess I’d say it looks similar to potential form, but I think that’s probably looking too much into it. My guess is it’s something like a polite imperative, as in: “Please! Come in, sir/ma’am!” but that’s an educated shot in the dark. Though that raises the question of why it’s not irasshattekudasaimasenka, though it seems contrary to Japanese culture to order your “superior” customer to come in.
When I was in Finland the service there was weird. Not bad, just very different than what I was expecting. There is no hostess or anything to seat you at a restaurant and the waitstaff never came by unless you flagged them down. The stores were much the same way in that they expected you could handle stuff on your own and would seek them out if you needed something. At first it was strange to think that they just didn’t care about service but about 3 days into my trip a little light went on over my head and I realized that it wasn’t that they didn’t care, they just generally expect people to be competent enough to figure out which tables are empty and which aren’t or be able to find the butter aisle all on their own. Whenever we had a question and found someone to help us they were always wonderfully polite and helpful. After a few days we got used to it and it was actually really nice to not be assumed to be either incompetent or a thief.
Before answering your question, I just want to correct my misspelling of irasshaimase in post 5 above. I mistakenly (in my mind) placed the small tsu before the ra and then typed it that way. So apologies there. Your romaji spelling is correct.
As far as the MASE form is concerned. As you may have determined, it comes from MASU. SE is the imperative form of SU.
Irasshaimasu - To do the honor of XXX (entering, coming, going, shopping, etc…)
So the moral of this story is that Japanese people are just better?
Really, it is just a different paradigm. Personally, I hated the formality of shopping in China. I’d rather see workers being comfortable and…well, human…rather than acting like trained monkeys jumping to attention. I get to sit down, make the occasional phone call, drop my smile, etc. on my job. I’m perfectly find with others doing the same. We’re all just people. As long as I can buy what I need and get out, I’m not really worried about having my ego stoked in the process.
I imagine demographics has something to do with it. Japan is still a place where many women do not expect to have careers They’ll do some small work when they are young to pass the time, but often just planning to work for a few years. So you get a lot more competent and motivated young women going into customer service, whereas in America that would be a career killing impossibility for the top young women. We need to get into offices and on a career path.
A customer service workforce of young women hoping to earn some spending money while they look for a husband is also going to have different attitude than a workforce of single mothers trying to make ends meet and not seeing a future. It’s a different attitude.
There was always a line on the receipt for a tip and they obviously expected to be tipped a little but I think we WAY overtipped for most of our trip. At every restaurant we went to across the country (and we covered quite a bit of Finland) they brought you the slip to sign and stood and waited for you to sign it. In the US they tend to walk away so you have a moment to figure the tip and once you sign it you just get up and leave but in Finland the waitress waits for you to hand the slip over. It seemed like they expected you to toss a couple of Euros on the bill without much thought instead of the 15%-20% math exercises we have here.
We also took several cab rides and the drivers seemed shocked that they were being tipped every single time. One of them even tried to give me my money back!
It seemed as though it was expected, at least with the waitstaff, to give at least a small tip. My American sensibilities wouldn’t let me tip someone just a euro or two though, so most people ended up getting tipped at least 4 or 5 euros if they served us in any way. It may have been that we weren’t supposed to tip them at all but I don’t think my brain could have handled assuming someone was paid a living wage for a service job.
Hoo, boy, my experience with Poland bears this out 110%. It’s been a few years, and things have changed with globalization, but I remember shopkeepers that acted like they were doing you this huge favor by selling you stuff, like they were taking time out of their busy day to accommodate *me *- by taking my money. :rolleyes: I commented on this to a Pole, who told me something very similar to what Hello Again said, that they didn’t want the fake smiles of American-style service, apparently preferring good ol’ honest surliness.
That said, I am made uncomfortable by (what I perceive to be) excess fawning, so what even sven described of Chinese staff would probably make me edgy.
Everything’s relative (especially when you’re talking about generalities for entire countries) - we have always found the customer service in the US to be far superior to Canadian customer service, especially in restaurants. Servers in Canada will be making approx. $8 per hour and up plus their tips (and a usual tip in Calgary is 15% plus); there are very few busting their asses to increase their tip. In the States where servers live and die by their tips, we usually see much more attentive service.
This is a really interesting perspective, because as RNATB pointed out, I’ve had a several Europeans remark with surprise at how friendly and attentive American customer service is on average compared to back home ( this was particularly the case with a couple of folks who were touring the American South ).
Never been to Japan and like even sven I don’t know that if sort of attentive formality would be to my taste. I’m more laid back in my shopping and don’t care for staff hovering about to closely - makes me a trifle nervous.
But I do always love these sort of threads because I find these discussions of everyday culture fascinating.
I have to say that the experience of interacting with customer service people in Japan is different than, perhaps, the impression given in this thread of hovering or being overly formal. Their eagerness to assist and to do a good job should not be construed as being cloying, or annoying. They don’t follow you around the store, for example. If you don’t require assistance, they will leave you alone, however, if you do, they have a sense of it, and will be there, ready to help.
In the Japanese culture, there’s a heightened sense of satisfaction derived by simply being very good at what one does and supporting one’s peers, which is separate from financial compensation. In fact, it is ingrained in the mind of every Japanese person to always do one’s best, and you will quite often hear “Ganbatte ne” (do your best), “ganbarimashou ne” (Let’s do our best), and “ganbarimasu!” (I will do my best) in daily conversation. This type of encouragement of self and others is just one extension of the sempai/kohai support mindset introduced in school, which is carried into adulthood and encouraged in the workplace.
Contrary to **even sven’**s comment, it has absolutely nothing to do with Japanese people being better than anyone. It is simply a cultural uniqueness that lends itself to promoting good customer service, since that’s what this thread is about, but other things as well.
I guess there’s really no way to truly understand what I’m saying unless you experience it yourself.
Here’s something you can do positive - especially this time of year and in the recession (recovery?). My wife retired from retail management then human resources for a LARGE retail chain. She also chats up every salesperson, clerk, waiter, etc… If she/we get good service; she always gets the person’s name and send a compliment to the restaurant/store’s website with the circumstances. Companies notice the good compliments too and reward employees.
It’s a low-rung vocation in Japan too. I think it has more to do with the level of service the Japanese customers expect/demand, and are willing to pay for. This translates to what level of service the employers demand from their employees.
There is poor customer service in Japan. Service in small independent shops can be quite bad, especially the type of shop that cater to “enthusiast” customers (bike shops, hobby shops, etc).
One thing I noticed on our trip to Tokyo is that there seemed to be at least twice as many employees than there would be in similar American shops. Coffee shops, restaurants, any kind of customer service situation involved double or triple the staff. We popped into a shop in Asakusa devoted to the Shigeru Mizuki character Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro - a shop the size of most American bathrooms - and even this kind of tiny retail establishment was staffed with two eager-to-please clerks.
