Once of the recent additions to Kawasaki NOVA is a teacher named Andrew from Canada. Unfortunately for him, I am already Andrew from Canada, and I have been around for almost a year now.
Teachers are usually referred to by their first names by students and staff. In the event that there are similar names, the country of origin comes into play. For example, a branch could have a British Steven and an Australian Steven. Having two Andrews from Canada is guaranteed to cause confusion.
I asked the secondary Andrew what his middle name was, and he said “Archibald”. I asked him if he was okay with people calling him “Archie”. He said yes.
He looked nothing like this
Before he could ask why, I quickly went to the front office and asked the Japanese staff to change other Andrew’s name to Archie in the schedule system. Apparently I now have some level of credibility, because they made the change without question and without confirming with any of the supervisors.
Once again, I am the only and original Andrew from Canada. Victory!
Drinking in Japan 