re
Every Tuesday at CBB, the departments have to meet with the Managing Director and tell him what we’ve been doing this week. It’s a commendable idea, soured only by the fact that most of my colleagues are prone to waffling (so I’m in good company), and several of them (The MD included) can speak English almost as well as I speak Japanese. This makes for sometimes long, sometimes confusing, sometimes Frustrating meetings where one is never actually sure whether half the assembled understood a word you said.
A feeling compunded by the fact that, after the meeting, we are all required to mail a written record of what we said to a designated person for compiling into the ‘Minutes’. Last week, the one-and-a-half-hour discussion on a proposed change to the contracts of employment produced a point on the minutes that, in essence, said :”A proposed change to the contracts of employment was discussed.” Why not take proper minutes during the meeting? Obviously, because the mintue takers probably wouldn’t understand a word that was being said.
Our head of Marketing, a very sweet but rather ineffectual Japanese gent, whose command of the English language, one would hope, would be strong enough to allow him to properly communicate with clients (all over Europe and the various Asia/Pacific Rim markets) whose only common language is unlikely to be Japanese, just came to me with a printout of my notes for todays Management meeting, and a very confused look on his face.
“What this?” He asks, pointing to the line “Mail Kabuki-san re the fact that Ops is not the only dept with access to the fax Room security code.” The word “re” is circled.
“Re,” I said, not understanding the question.
“What re?”
Then, I understood the question. “‘Re’ means ‘regarding,’ ‘about,’ ‘in connection with,’” I said, writing the words ‘Roget’ and ‘Thesaurus’ on a post-it for him.
Strange world we live in.