OKP has been my introduction to working with a foreign supplier. We stock this moldable plastic at Fiber Optic Center to make it readily available to users in North America. Should be easy, right?
With all the talk these days about quick delivery service, same day delivery, delivery by drone, even ‘anticipatory’ shipping, you would think the world was a very connected place. But I’ve found that not only deliveries, but just regular communications half way around the world still proceed at a ‘human’ pace. It doesn’t matter if my email arrives in Osaka, Japan, 30 seconds after I hit the Send button if it arrives there at 1AM. My response will come while I am at home, fast asleep. I will get it the next day I am at work.
Completing the hand shake on the email doesn’t necessary insure an effective exchange of information. I try to be very clear with my English and write in simple sentences. I’m not sure I’m always understood, and I’m sure I don’t always understand the answers I get. So it usually takes a few emails to accomplish what I set out to do. However, I’m writing English and if I had to write in Japanese, we wouldn’t accomplish anything. I am grateful for the English my Japanese counterparts speak. I simply note once again, for all the speed of the internet, the effective speed of our communications returns to the human realm.
Sometimes things are delayed by not just a day, but days. This happens during the holidays, which of course proceed in both countries, oblivious of what the other is doing. Recently it was Golden Week in Japan. I let the week go by and asked my question again. I was told Japan was still on national holiday. I think Golden Week sounds like a great holiday. Can I tell my customers in North America it is Golden Week in Japan?
