Todd: So, Simon, you live in Japan and you were just in Germany. How is the service in restaurants different in Japan than it is in Germany?

Simon: Yeah, I can talk about that. Well, I might be stereo- typing here and I'll talk about maybe Japan, Germany or Europe, and then North America. Ah, I think in Germany there was definitely an emphasis on efficiency, so when I went into

a pub and I said, "I wanna order a beer" and Munich is famous for beer, so there's many kinds, so I was thinking."What should I order? What should I order?" and the server said, "Well, you can't decide, I'll come back in a minute. Thank you" and then quickly off. In Japan, if I did the same thing, the emphasis would be on politeness, so the server would wait and if I said, "Mm, what should I order?" the server would patiently wait and says "Take your time. I'm here," you know. You know, "Thank you for deciding," things like that. And you know, in my home in Canada, Vancouver, you know, they would try to be cool and friendly, so everybody would be like "Hey, did you try our special? Would you like to drink our special beer today?" you know and smile, you know, and that's that, so Japan the emphasis would be on politeness. In Germany, or Europe, the emphasis would be on efficiency and in North America the emphasis would be on friendliness or being cool.

Todd: Interesting.