Service at Japanese post offices
Today, I went to the post office near my house in Tokyo to sent back a confirmation receipt ("accuse de reception") in French. After that I went shopping and came back an hour later. My wife told me that someone from the post office had brought my card back to my house because I had forgotten to date and sign it. This is already incredible in itself that they went all the way to my house just to notify me of that, but on top of that the paper was entirely in French and they had taken the care to double-check everything against their bilingual model. I am still in disbelief.
This kind of service is unthinkable in Western countries, I think. I would never expect a post office worker in Europe to translate a document in Japanese just to make sure that the person hasn't forgotten anything, then walk to their house to notify them of something missing (especially that it wasn't such an important paper).
That goes on to show how service is important in Japan, and how people would go out of their way to make sure think go smoothly - it was not even a matter of customer satisfaction, as I would never have known I had forgotten to sign, and it didn't matter so much anyway. Great !
postal services... somewhere else in the world
well, sorry (just remember I'm not swiss...)
although japanese post office is highly considered, here comes a serious opponent : the swiss post office system. They will do things such as translating papers (which is allready done as per a mandatory international postal union convention ). and they will take an extreme care of the customers too.
But this translation business is a question of habit. Switzerland is a tiny nation and they speak 4 different languages. The are surrounded by 4 different countries and, if you take a city like Geneva and it's great surroundings, the population is : 52 % of swiss and 48% of foreigners ! this 48 % is split into more than 150 different nations ! It's the largest concentration of foreigners in one city in th whole world. Translation here takes all its meaning, no ?
Postmans will know their area so well and most time remember the names of each and everyone the deserve. Also, in the post office itself, it's light, cleanliness and efficiency that will prevail. But that does not stop them from being friendly, specially with older people. A letter posted just before 6PM will be distributed the next moring befor 7am regardless of its destination within the country.
One thing, though. Post office in Switzerland is expensive !
dying of extreme heat, Linda Inverse...
... is (un)fortunately NOT the usual and common way to die, over there !
No heat might kill one or two.
What kills people is :
Extravagant Madness (the ones exterminating the others and vice versa),
Acts of total folly,
Assasination, and murder on the largest scale as possible,
then comes...
A I D S and
Epidemics of all kinds
then
lack of food.
But heat, no, Heat has never killed anyone in Rwanda.
Why did I go there ? I went there to work..