Neil Hopcroft

A digital misfit

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Sounds like the meeting was the standard selfcongratulatory corporate event I’d expected it to be…good job I wasn’t invited. Still, the food after wasn’t bad and it was a chance to meet some of the other people working there. Not that I actually met that many, most of the people I know already are new(ish) to the company so don’t know that many people themselves. I did meet a cute lass from HR and a crazy guy from Nagasaki who congratulated me on my good English.


Categories: Livejournal, Memories, Source.

/ 5 Comments

5 comments

    • neilh

      He thought I was from Finland.

      I’m the only native English speaker on my team in what is, essentially, an English speaking office. They all do very well though.

      Reply
      • Anonymous

        Do the Japanese in your office speak good English? Most Japanese in English-speaking offices I ever met could hardly speak a word…

        Does anybody in the street/shops speak English? Can they find you somebody who does? :-)

        Chip

        Reply
        • neilh

          They’re not fluent but they dont do badly. They understand more than they speak. I’ve got into the habit of saying things twice in different ways and with lots of gesturing, it seems to work better like that. Or maybe they’re just good at pretending.

          Not many people in shops speak much English, but that doesn’t matter too much, I do occassionaly get freaked out, like the time I was in McDonalds and they asked in perfect English “Would you like the meal or just the burger?”, having had me struggle with pointing and pretending to speak Japanese for a bit. But English that good is rare.

          Reply

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