i was calling a few MDs from different companies, one of whom was a Japanese. he wasn't in his office, so i left a note for him to call back. about 30 minutes later, i received a call.

"Good morning, SMF (Singapore Maritime Foundation)"

"Hello, may I speak to Je-la-mo san? Je-li-mo san?"

"Huh?"

"Uh, je-la-mo... je-le-mo san?"

"Oh hi! I'm Jeremy speaking."

"Oh, je-le-mi san..."

and then normal conversation resumed. his english wasn't bad at all, he just couldn't enunciate my name properly. i thought that was super funny, and he's very polite, considering i'm just a temporary admin worker. granted, he couldn't have possibly known that.

that's not to say Singapore, Chinese, or Indian MDs aren't polite, don't get me wrong!

i guess there must be a certain good in a person's character for him to make it to the position of a managing director.