I asked my supervisor for a reference letter to use in that job hunt that I am absolutely not looking forward to! She has pretty rubbish English - she does try, but life can be very difficult, and conversation very slow. So after I explained the concept of a letter of reference (which apparently is unknown in Japan) I then informed her that the letter needed to be in English. You should have seen her face fall! I relieved her mind a little by saying that I would fix up the English afterwards.
So what she did was write a letter in Japanese, and then had 100 other people in the office check it. Not really 100, but the signatures that had approved the letter were numerous. Having received approvals she then typed the letter into an automatic translator which resulted in some humourous comments.
Often I was referred to as an 'it' or 'the Kate Price'. The whole letter was very formal "in the teaching of English in the elementary schools of Hagi City..." and apparently I possess an "ardor to work"! The best part was the way the computer program translated 'Hagi shi' into Bush Clover City - which is the literal translation of the kanji for Hagi but sounds hilarious!
The letter concluded by recommending "the Kate Price"
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Ah, Bush Clover City. Such a pretty little town. Not that I saw much bush... where were the roos, and foxes, and scrub, Nowhere! That's false advertising that is.
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