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I've lived in Japan off and on for a number of years. "Pointing and shouting," and other similar gestures, are used all over the place. I typically heard it r

I've lived in Japan off and on for a number of years. "Pointing and shouting," and other similar gestures, are used all over the place. I typically heard it referred to as "yubisashi kakunin," which basically means "confirm by pointing with your finger." I've seen elevator attendants do it when operating the buttons, and cashiers will verbalize the counting of change, and hand it back in a very animated way, which I believe is the same sort of thing. Where I live, I think a company would have to really work to get their employees to do it, but in Japan, it seems to have become a part of the culture. My wife, who is from Japan, does it while she's cooking to make sure she hasn't left anything out.

rustynails 10y ago
Both you and the author mentioned cultural barriers. However, throughout most of this thread, people have given quite a few of examples of where this is used in the west in a similar way (eg. Flight crew, climbers, theme park ride attendant, hockey coach, train driver). I worked in retail a long time ago. I was trained to vocalise receipt and calculating of change to minimise mistakes and to avoid customers disagreeing. I still see some people use this technique, especially in banks. On the topic of cultures, I noticed the author used spokeswoman and spokesperson. Is the word spokesman banned in the US or is this a gender culture behaviour? Ars Technica use this language frequently, which leads me to suspect it's cultural rather than this one author.