Mandarin + Japanese 101: Retail Edition

December 6, 2016 2:18 PM

I now work at a specialty toy store where our primary clientele consists of wealthy Chinese and Japanese tourists. Recently a large group of such tourists expressed delight to my manager over my lack of an accent when I thanked them for visiting our store in their respective languages. I'd love to get that reaction more often by learning as many retail-oriented phrases as I can so shopping at our store is easier! Here are some of the phrases (I think) I'd like to learn first...

• Welcome to your [company's name] store!
• How may I help you?
• What are you shopping for?
• What size?
• Sorry, we don't sell that here.
• Sorry, that isn't in stock.
• This costs... X dollars.
• Please swipe your card here.
• May I please see your credit card and passport?
• Thank you for shopping with us!
• Hope you have a magical day!
• Yes, this is on sale!
• Sorry, that isn't on sale.
• Would you like to take home your purchase in a reusable bag? Only X cents/dollars!

Simplified/culturally appropriate versions of any of these phrases greatly appreciated. Google tells me many things, but not whether the direct translations are going to make sense to a native speaker.

My biggest weakness has to do with numbers. I have a hard time communicating dollars and cents when I am ringing up a sale, and often a guest will just hand me all their change and tell me to get out what I need (which is fine but awkward and so far I'm the only one in the store allowed to do that when a guest wants me to). What's the best way for me to assist a guest when this happens?

Are there other phrases to know or customs that I should observe to improve guest relations?

Xièxiè + Arigatōgozaimashita!

posted by Hermione Granger to Work & Money (11 answers total)

I used to work in a store that had a similar clientele, and I'm saying all of the below in reference to that experience. I've also traveled pretty widely, myself.

I can't speak to Japan and China, but retail norms (especially where politeness and ways of transacting business are concerned) are different in different cultures. For example "have a nice day!" and variations on that are very much an American thing. Saying the Japanese or Chinese translations for those words might not really mean anything, or worse, might mean something you didn't intend. It certainly wouldn't make people feel more at home or have an easier time transacting business with you.

Beyond that, honestly, I think this is verging on problematic for a few other reasons.

Firstly, it's pretty much impossible to tell by looking at someone whether they speak English or not, or whether they're going to be fazed by a retail transaction or not. It's weird to see an Asian person and think "doesn't speak English" or "complete outsider to my culture". And even if you can, how will you be sure to always guess their language and dialect immediately? Unless you can gauge a Mandarin vs. Cantonese speaker on sight, this just isn't going to work at all.

Secondly, most people travel internationally because they want to experience the culture of the place they are going. You know how you hear Americans get exasperated because they went to France and everyone spoke English to them all the time despite the hours of Pimsleur tapes they listened to? That's what you're doing to Asian tourist customers when you assume they must want you to speak Mandarin to them.

Also, I don't think the money thing has anything to do with how you're communicating. In my experience this happens a lot either because the person in question doesn't know enough English to understand number words or can't use our currency very well. American coins and bills are not in any way user friendly if you didn't grow up here. Tipping and the way that taxes are added at the till rather than to the base price of items are also confusing to tourists, which might be why people would prefer to just hand you a wad of bills and let you sort it out. (I had this happen countless times, easily multiple times per day, when I worked in a store like yours.)

While I get that your heart is in the right place, as someone who has worked in tourist retail and dealt with international customers from all over the world, my advice would be to simply be patient and do your best. Speak slowly and precisely, show them totals written down whenever possible, and don't be impatient to move onto the next person. Be accomodating if there's some aspect of your store's retail experience that they're not used to. That's really all that is necessary.

If you *really* only wanted to learn some phrases in Japanese and Mandarin, why not take a class at your local community college, or even start with listening to some podcasts, doing Duolingo, etc?
posted by Sara C. at 3:42 PM on December 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

Best answer: The appropriate Japanese greeting for someone walking into a store is "irasshaimase" (いらっしゃいませ).

For communicating prices, it is a common practice in Japan to display the price on a large calculator (the old school super basic non scientific kind).

As to your other questions, could you clarify your level of speaking proficiency? Because most of these are going to require you to be able to understand the answer, no?
posted by telepanda at 4:01 PM on December 6, 2016

Response by poster: Many of the Chinese and Japanese customers who come into my store actively identify themselves as such by virtue of their tourist tags (prominently displayed on their bags and backpacks) and the credit cards they use. Some immediately greet me in their native language in hopes that I speak it, too, and will point at their passports to identify where they're visiting us from. I do not assume anyone's nationality or that someone doesn't speak English until I greet them and they say, sorry, no English and then they attempt to hunt down a stranger who can translate for them. They do not want to practice English with us and understandably get frustrated when they can't articulate what they need from our store for their kids and family members in an easy way. (We had a bad experience recently with a guest who didn't understand why none of us spoke Chinese by default.)

I therefore want to bridge the gap a bit by starting with retail phrases that will help us get us closer to where that guest wants to be merchandise wise. I will definitely endeavor to learn the other fundamentals as I go, too. Japanese and Chinese classes aren't available on Duolingo or in my area (which is predominantly English and Spanish speaking) otherwise yes, I'd be there and not asking this question, so I welcome references to outside resources or courses. Just being able to correctly pronounce "Hùzhào" (passport) has made a huge difference for me and my connection with guests during a transaction! That's where this is coming from. My coworkers and bosses all speak Spanish -- I'm the only person on staff who has had success so far in picking up Mandarin/Cantonese/Japanese as guests visit us.

But, all that being said, if this is truly an inadvisable effort on my part, please let me know and I'll take that to heart and let it go.
posted by Hermione Granger at 4:37 PM on December 6, 2016 [5 favorites]

Response by poster: I can see how my original post was poorly framed and apologize for that. Hopefully my intent and goals are clearer now.
posted by Hermione Granger at 4:50 PM on December 6, 2016

Best answer: Sorry if this is the wrong sort of thing, but have you searched something like "shopping phrases mandarin" on YouTube? Even if it's aimed at teaching English speakers how to shop in China there might be a few useful phrases in there, and culturally correct with a good accent to practice.
posted by you must supply a verb at 5:06 PM on December 6, 2016

In terms of Mandarin, I'd advise looking on Youtube for the phrases you want so you can hear and repeat. I don't doubt that you are good at pronunciation of languages in general, but I don't think reading pinyin that I type here is going to be helpful for learning to pronounce Mandarin. There are also sites where you can video chat with Chinese speakers for free, as long as you teach them English too.

Your company could also look into getting an account at Language Line (or similar companies) where you could call the number and get an interpreter over the phone.
posted by bearette at 5:21 PM on December 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

I also looked a little side-eye at your initial post and your follow-up makes it much clearer. I don't think the kinds of phrases that you listed will help your situation much though. "No, this is not on sale" isn't useful if you can't understand all the different ways someone might inquire if something is on sale. If you just get the greetings and thank yous down, keep a big calculator and pad of paper on hand, have or make a catalog with pictures that someone could point at, and generally indicate that you are happy and ready to accommodate limited English, that'll go a long ways.

If you really want to learn a few phrases, I'd focus on situations like your passport example. What are the points where people get confused? What are the key things that will help figure out what they want? Being able to say and recognize the words for 'boy' 'girl' 'baby' 'teddy bear' etc will be more helpful in narrowing down what your customer is looking for than learning 'the teddy bears are in aisle 13' in isolation.
posted by yeahlikethat at 5:29 PM on December 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

A funny thing to say to Japanese customers who have purchased something would be to say どうもおおきに (Dōmo ōkini), which is something shopkeepers say in Kinki (the general area around Kyoto and Osaka and Kobe and beyond) following a sale, as you're leaving the store.
posted by My Dad at 6:00 PM on December 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

More for Japanese:

Polite apology: もうしわけないです。/ moshi wake nai desu. = I'm very sorry.
An even more formal/polite version: もうしわけございません。/ moshi wake gozaimasen. Either should be followed with the reason for apologizing, i.e. ここ(/こちら)にはないんです。/ koko(or kochira for more polite) ni wa naindesu. = We don't have that here. Or: いまはないんです。/ ima wa nain desu. = We don't have that right now.

すみません。/ sumimasen. - a simple light apology similar to "sorry" or "excuse me." Use if you bump into someone by accident. Or use in rising/questioning intonation to show that you didn't understand something.

しつれいします。/ shitsurei shimasu - another kind of apology. Used when you need to interrupt someone, or when you enter someone's office while they're working.

If someone thanks you you can reply with こちらこそ / kochira koso. = The pleasure was mine (or more literally, It is I who should thank you). Or a simple "You're welcome." is どういたしまして。/ do itashi mashite.

I would avoid more difficult conversations about payment methods, sizes, colors, but maybe learn some very simple verbs to use. It's usually OK to drop the sentence subject anyways and leave it implied, so a verb can sort of be a sentence. For example: arimasen = We don't have (it). arimasu = We do have (it), dekimasu = It can be accomplished - i.e. accepting a type of payment. dekimasen = It can't be done/accepted.
posted by p3t3 at 6:13 PM on December 6, 2016

Best answer: Well, since others have already pointed out all the ways that this could be a less than practical approach, let me take a stab at Mandarin versions of some of the phrases in case you decide to go ahead anyway.

(On my phone, so hanyu pinyin accents are a pain - copy and paste into Google Translate so you can hear how it's pronounced.)

Welcome to your [company's name] store!
欢迎您来到本家[company's name]商店!

How may I help you?
请问您需要帮忙吗? (Do you need any help?)

What are you shopping for?
请问您找什么? (What are you looking for?)

What size?
请问您要几号? (What size do you want?)

Sorry, that isn't in stock.
对不起， 我们没货。

This costs... X dollars.
USD is 美元, can't think of a generic way to say "this is". Usually I'd mention the price only if someone asks about it. Maybe someone else more fluent can help. Anyway you'd need to either memorise numbers in the price range of what you sell, or use the large calculator method suggested above and clarify "美元".

Please swipe your card here.
May I please see your credit card and passport?
Credit card is 刷卡， 刷 being swipe/brush.

Thank you for shopping with us!
谢谢光临!

Hope you have a magical day!
- no real equivalent of this. Maybe 慢走 (go slowly) as a wish that they would have safe travels?

Yes, this is on sale!
Sorry, that isn't on sale.
A discount is 折扣, but usually you'd tell them directly what the discount is, usually in percent too (e.g. 原价50元，打6折= usual price $50, now 40% off). It's complicated.

Would you like to take home your purchase in a reusable bag? Only X cents/dollars!
请问您想买个环保带吗?
Price, again, would be either in cents less than 10 = 分， as in 5分钱 or in amounts of 10, 毛 as in 50cents = 5毛钱. 15cents would be 一毛半。

As you can see, some are more straightforward, and some are complicated. The phrases would often be said in context of a more complicated conversation, and my worry is that even if you did master some of these phrases, it would just invite more queries (e.g. "sorry, we don't have it in stock." - "when will you have it in stock?"/"would other outlets have this?"/"what can you recommend that is similar?")

I'm also of the opinion that pretending to be fluent is not the way to go; instead, learn to recognise key words and focus on understanding and communication, even if it's one word or phrase. Without knowing what you sell and in what context, we can't help you much with that.
posted by satoshi at 6:46 PM on December 6, 2016

Be careful with percentage discounts in Chinese. The fraction is reversed from how you normally think about it, e.g., 40 percent off = dâ 6 zhé (pretend the accent on the a is inverted, it's third tone but I'm on my phone and have limited reading ability in Chinese).
posted by serelliya at 7:22 PM on December 6, 2016 [1 favorite]