Survey Says!

I get in to the office this morning and my supervisor hands me a letter that asks me to participate in an online survey for JETs. It's regarding tourism and such; they'd like to look at things from the point of view of a couple thousand foreigners living in Japan. Fair enough. Once I get into the survey, though, things got funny.

First thing I notice is that the survey is in translated English. It's pretty well done, but there are a few gems in there that are adorable. For example, they want to know about your experiences abroad: "Your experience of tripping abroad." Uh, tripping? Sorry, I only drink when I'm abroad. I try to save tripping for when I'm at home.

As with any survey, they need to know two things - who you are, and what your opinon is. Knowing who you are helps them qualify and categorize your comments. In this case, they ask questions about what countries you've been to, your purpose of going there, and what the results of your travel were.

Hmm. So how exactly should I comment on Iraq?

Should I mark it "Business", "Research/observation", or "Participation in international conference"? Does "invade a foreign country and topple their government" fall under the category of "Other"?

And then we get to the "Results" column. Were the results of my trip to Iraq...
"As expected"
"Nearly as expected"
"Results did not meet expectations"
"Absolutely no result"

I really have no clue how to answer that.

I'm going to spend five more chuckling minutes on this survey, then get back to doing real work. It's a busy week; I'll have to wait until later to talk about this awesome coffee shop I went to yesterday. No, strike that - It'll have to wait until I visit there with my camera. Words won't do it nearly enough justice. I'll just throw a teaser out by way of saying that the house it's in is nearly 200 years old, there's handcrafted pottery all over, and you have an incredible view of the bay and Sakurajima while sipping your coffee. I'll be going back, that much is certain.