HM
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I worked on a project team some 10 years ago where the product had to be converted to work in Japanese.
We hired in a Japanese lady to work as a consultant. She told us various stories as follows.
There are something like 8,000 regular characters in the Japanese common language, and far more than that specialised characters. You wouldn't get your keyboard thru the front door for that lot!
Children apparently cannot read a newspaper until they are about 15 or so, when they've grasped enough of the characters to make sense of it all.
When someone is telling (or listening to) a joke in Japan it's apparently normal for no emotions to be shown on the recipients face until the punchline has been spoken. Because of the construct of the language the preceding paragraph doesn't make any sense until the last few words put it into context. The teller could apparently be announcing the death of his beloved, or telling a real corker.
When a japanese businessman hands you his business card it is considered highly insulting if you don't take the time to read it fully. Most of us put business cards into our pocket after so much as a cursory glance..
She could have been telling us a load of old porkies, but it sounded good.
HM
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