もしもし

Boss would like to meet with his friends during his visit to Tokyo and so, following the names given by him, I had to make the arrangements. Of the 4 friends whom he had mentioned, his PA could only give me the email address of 3. As for the last person, I was given a telephone no. dated 6 years ago.

Hmm...

As a civil servant, we are not to go to the boss for such a small thing though it is the most logical thing to do: he must have the recent contact details since the person is his friend, who knows, he might introduce his friend to me on fb and it would be so simple to send an invitation by writing on his wall.

Alright, daydreams aside, I made the call and asked for Dr Kaneda

「Oh ... ok, just a moment please」

There was a short pause before the female voice at the other end reappeared

「I am sorry, Dr Kaneda is not in, but I will give you his number ...」

But I would prefer an email address ... but i guess, my English had bothered her and so ...

「日本語のほうが分かりやすいですよね？」

And so, Dr Kaneda was no longer in the company (come on, it's a no. from 6 years ago) and the person whom I was speaking to worked for Dr Kaneda before he left. Apparently she has his new office no. but not his email address.

I made another call with the new no. and managed to get the email address from his PA, this time too, in English.

Somehow I didn't want to use Japanese until when it was completely necessary. I realised that I had no problem with Japanese at all after conversing with PA1 but I guess I didn't have the confidence, and it feels weird for me to use Japanese when I am not expected to understand it as a staff officer in the civil service of Singapore.

I guess I need more Japanese telephone kakis, and then it will be natural for me to pick up the phone with 「もしもし？」 instead of 「Hello~」