Cross-cultural communication （164）　

164) Cross-cultural communication at Seven-Eleven (convenience store)
There is a Seven-Eleven near the nursing home where I work as a medical director four days a week. I am a regular customer there in the mornings. My work at nursing home starts at 10 a.m., so I usually arrive a little early at 9 a.m. I buy a drink, find a seat in the eat-in area, and spend half an hour reading English novels or nonfiction books. In the past, I often bought Yakult, lactic acid drink but since the store started selling fresh smoothies that you mix yourself with the special machine, I’ve made it a routine to try a different kind of smoothie each time.

Then, in the fall of 2024, I had an interesting cross-cultural communication experience at this familiar Seven-Eleven. One morning, while reading an English novel at the eat-in area as usual, an Asian-looking young foreign man sat down next to me with a drink in hand. Within a few minutes of him sitting down, the male cashier came over to explain that this was the eat-in area and that an additional fee was required to use it. However, using only individual English words, he couldn’t get the message across. So, without further explanation, he said, “No, not sit here.” The man looked dissatisfied and shrugged his shoulders, clearly confused. Sitting next to him, I realized this was a bit of a problem, so I explained to the Asian foreigner in English, “This is an eat-in area, and if you pay a small additional amount for sales tax, you can use it for about 30 minutes.” He responded in fluent English, saying, “In that case, I'll take it to go,” thanked me for the explanation, and left with a smile. I suspect he may have interpreted the initial incomplete explanation as discrimination against foreigners. Later, the male employee came over to me and thanked me politely. Additionally, another senior female employee (who I had known previously) asked me to explain the gist of what I had told the foreigner. I wrote it down in bullet points on a piece of paper, read it aloud, and she was also very grateful.

There is more to this story. A week later, when I entered the Seven-Eleven at the usual time of 9 a.m., I saw the same female employee chatting amicably with a group of four customers: a white woman, an Indian woman, a black man, and an Asian man. After the group left, the female employee told me what had happened. The white woman was American, and the four of them had come to buy smoothies together. When the clerk explained the “eat-in” option to her using the explanation I had taught her, she consulted with her friends and decided to take it to go. Later, the American woman said that during her trip, she had shopped at various convenience stores, but this was the first time she had received such a detailed explanation, especially in English, and she was deeply moved. She then took out a small box of chocolates from her bag and gave it to the clerk as a gift.

In Japan, where foreign languages are not widely understood, even such a simple English explanation can evoke such emotion, and I myself was deeply moved by this experience.

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