Vendo used to make vending machines in Pinedale CA, about 10 miles from me.
I worked there right after they bought California Detention Products, which was years after Japan’s Sanden corp had bought Vendo.
We had young Japanese people working in the engineering offices, supervising the construction of prison windows for the Korkran, Avenal, and Chowchilla prisons.
These were kids coming from a very well to do Japanese corporation, being sent to a crusty old US factory, built in a collection of filthy world war two cotton compresses, lumber warehouses, and military electroplating operations.
I figured this was like punishment duty, or it was like when they send Mormon kids out on a mission.
I shared a small office, up in a mezzanine level overlooking the punch press shop, Looking out my window I could see dirt on top of the pipes and beams of the trusses that dated back to the days when those Japanese kids could’ve been training for kamikaze duty.
One of my jobs was to take the Japanese drawings and translate them to English drawings, with English measurements and our typical tolerances. Converting dimensions was easy, But there were a few symbols on the drawing in kanji characters which no one in the shop understood. Japanese people could not seem to explain the symbols themselves very well in English.
They brought all the supervisors into the conference room, and asked me to give an explanation on the blackboard.
Everything was pretty easy but there were two symbols that confused everyone. This is what I told them, as I drew the two symbols on the blackboard.
“in Japanese engineering, a dimension can be male or female.”
“This symbol represents a Japanese woman. It looks kind of like a butterfly because she’s holding her kimono wide open for you. She is of course undressing INDOORS, thus this symbol indicates an INSIDE dimension.”
The Japanese guys there all started to grin and giggle. They tried to hide it but not well. All the American guys were holding a straight face at this point. Then I drew the next symbol on the board.
“This symbol looks like a man with a backpack on. He has a walking stick and so you can tell he’s going OUTDOORS. This symbol indicates an OUTSIDE dimension, and you can tell it is a man, because you can see his wiener is pointed up.” Then I drew the last little line on the character, indicating that member.
By this time, not only were the Japanese guys laughing aloud, but everyone in the room was banging on the table and cracking up.
One of the Japanese ladies was our translator, and she later told me, that’s not exactly the translation of those symbols, but that after my explanation, “no one in the shop would make a mistake.”
I worked there right after they bought California Detention Products, which was years after Japan’s Sanden corp had bought Vendo.
We had young Japanese people working in the engineering offices, supervising the construction of prison windows for the Korkran, Avenal, and Chowchilla prisons.
These were kids coming from a very well to do Japanese corporation, being sent to a crusty old US factory, built in a collection of filthy world war two cotton compresses, lumber warehouses, and military electroplating operations.
I figured this was like punishment duty, or it was like when they send Mormon kids out on a mission.
I shared a small office, up in a mezzanine level overlooking the punch press shop, Looking out my window I could see dirt on top of the pipes and beams of the trusses that dated back to the days when those Japanese kids could’ve been training for kamikaze duty.
One of my jobs was to take the Japanese drawings and translate them to English drawings, with English measurements and our typical tolerances. Converting dimensions was easy, But there were a few symbols on the drawing in kanji characters which no one in the shop understood. Japanese people could not seem to explain the symbols themselves very well in English.
They brought all the supervisors into the conference room, and asked me to give an explanation on the blackboard.
Everything was pretty easy but there were two symbols that confused everyone. This is what I told them, as I drew the two symbols on the blackboard.
“in Japanese engineering, a dimension can be male or female.”
“This symbol represents a Japanese woman. It looks kind of like a butterfly because she’s holding her kimono wide open for you. She is of course undressing INDOORS, thus this symbol indicates an INSIDE dimension.”
The Japanese guys there all started to grin and giggle. They tried to hide it but not well. All the American guys were holding a straight face at this point. Then I drew the next symbol on the board.
“This symbol looks like a man with a backpack on. He has a walking stick and so you can tell he’s going OUTDOORS. This symbol indicates an OUTSIDE dimension, and you can tell it is a man, because you can see his wiener is pointed up.” Then I drew the last little line on the character, indicating that member.
By this time, not only were the Japanese guys laughing aloud, but everyone in the room was banging on the table and cracking up.
One of the Japanese ladies was our translator, and she later told me, that’s not exactly the translation of those symbols, but that after my explanation, “no one in the shop would make a mistake.”
