Lingua fracas

Left the office early for the Chan Brothers office at Fook Hai Building to make payment for the tour. They have an arrangement with Citibank, so I opted for a 6-month interest-free installment schedule. Received the obligatory "branded" carry-on tote bags, which I hope stay in storage and never see the light of day.

The lady at the counter fished out a pink travel-info pamphlet and proceeded to brief us on pertinent points: temperature between 4-15 degrees, exchange enough yen before departure, tour to be conducted in Mandarin...

... Mandarin!?

Crap! I sure as heck wasn't aware of that when I signed up!

My proficiency for my mother tongue is best represented by my O- and AO-level grades in the subject, respectively: D7 ("conditional" pass, failed oral exam) and C6 (barely passed, also failed oral exam). I certainly don't relish the idea of being educated about a foreign-language country in another language that I can hardly claim as native.

Kicked up a fuss with the Chan Brothers representative about not being told up front. The lady then put in a request to get an English/Mandarin-speaking guide for our tour. The Japan office was closed for the day, she explained, so her manager would follow up with the request and get back to us tomorrow.

Having worked in a mostly English-speaking environment to date, the fact that a significant majority of our population would be more comfortable conversing in Chinese had completely slipped my mind. :(