On 11/27/2003 1:17 AM, Ryan Ginstrom wrote:

> One good example is a tempura# shop near my house. Someone walks into the
> shop, the owner looks them in the eye and says "irasshaimase." In other
> words, he actually greets his customers. You walk into a combini or chain
> restaurant, and the staff say "irasshaimase" to the ceiling on reflex when
> they hear the door jingle, as they continue to wipe the table or whatever
> they were doing. It's like they're thanking the gods of Commerce for
> bringing them another sale, but they certainly aren't greeting the customer.

I find it particularly irritating when they use this 
"irasshaimase-konnichiwa" variant, which seems to have sprung up over 
the last five years or so. There used to be only a couple places doing 
it, but now it seems like every supermarket, conbini, and family 
restaurant is requiring their employees to say it.

The idea is presumably to combine the formal "irasshaimase" greeting 
with a friendlier "konnichiwa," but since it is uttered in the lifeless, 
robotic way you describe above it ends up failing on both counts. It 
neither sounds particularly polite, nor does it sound friendly. It just 
sounds stupid.

I suppose the next thing they are going to do is start greeting the 
customers in English, or some combination of Japanese and English. That 
will be even harder to get used to. "Harou-Konnichiwa!" Grrr.

-- 
_______________________________________________________________
Scott Reynolds                                      sar@gol.com