Yongfook is a web producer and usability consultant based in Tokyo

Im not sure whether dry sarcasm really works in this country. Twice now I have attempted to exercise my wit in the workplace, but each time my pathetic quips have suffered a response of utter wide-eyed bewilderment.

In the first instance about a week ago, me and the lady sitting next to me were working out my budget for the month, seeing as payday was looming. We concluded that there were many ‘first month expenses’ that would have to be paid, such as car insurance and buying essential things for the house. As such, I said that I may have to postpone my purchase of a Nintendo, in favour of a cheaper method of entertainment - a big ball of string. Perhaps the nuance of droll was lost in my (crap) translation, but the result of this was the lady flicking through a dictionary, looking confused, then leaving the room.

Undeterred by this, I stubbornly tried another joke, today. In idle conversation, I asked what people were going to eat for lunch, having already proclaimed that I was hungry. Waiting politely for the predictable replies to subside, I concluded the banter with a proud grin, saying that because I am so broke at the moment, I am going to eat toilet paper and water for lunch. Some people twitched. The man next to me turned round and said “do you not have any rice?”.

I think Im going to give up.

I turned to the same lady as in the first example and asked her to teach me a Japanese joke. This is what she came up with:

“san pei desu”

This was like gold. No matter how many times I repeated it, it still made her laugh. As I repeated it over and over, using imaginary hands to cover my own ears from the horror, I wondered to myself whether the humour was being derived from the joke itself or just the fact that a silly gaijin was saying it. Thankfully, the other people in the office quashed my confusion, as they repeated after me “san pei desu!” and everyone fell about in fits of maniacal glee.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 27th, 2002 at 1:36 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.