Siri Doesn’t Understand Japanese Accents

So my mom has been bugging me about getting her an iPhone. First I got one (because I’m cool like that), and then my dad decided to be “hip” and get one himself (because he’s a poser like that) and now my mother is hinting that she’d like one, too. She already owns a PowerBook, an iPod, an iPad and emails me incessantly from her Gmail account so buying an iPhone 4S would only complete her hipster look.

Except now that I’ve seen this video of a Japanese man trying to use the Siri personal assistant, I’m wondering if this is a bad idea.

If Siri can’t even understand what this poor man is trying to say (WORK! NOT WALK! WORK! But WOK could work, too, cause we’re Asian!), can you imagine how much trouble my mom is going to have with this, especially if she has to use words like “wolves” and “gray” and “ambulance”? And yes, those are words I’d use daily if I had an iPhone 4S. Siri, I’ve been attacked by a pack of gray wolves! Call an ambulance!

It doesn’t help that there’s no way to really say “Siri” in Japanese. You’d have to say shiri which means “butt” which makes me laugh which means yes, I have the sense of humor of a third grader.

That’s not the only thing. Once my mom can’t figure out how to use Siri (aka “Butt”), she’s going to bug me to fix things and help her out with it. And that, my friends, is the biggest problem of all. Trying to be tech support for my Japanese parents is so frustrating that I’d rather be disowned than help them figure out why they can’t double-click fast enough (true story) or insert addresses into their GPS (another true story) or why their laptop won’t power on because they jammed the power cord into the printer jack (another true story).

Conclusion: the next time my mom brings up the iPhone, I’m getting her a Jitterbug.