The ADDress sign-up process
02 Aug 2020So my process of signing up for ADDress so far.
I have decided to do this end of July and completed the registration form on July 26. After confirming my email address I was asked to provide some basic details and an ID (residence card worked).
Next morning I got an email saying that my identity has been confirmed, and that I should sign up on a https://form.run/ form. This form provided more information about the dedicated place option (専用ベッドオプション) and asked about whether I want it and where, if yes. It asked about the preferred start date, some demographic information (occupation, level of remote work, where heard about ADDress). In the end it also had a question about the reason of using ADDress (ADDressに申込みをした理由). I put 自転車で全国を見たいです
. 日本語を学びたいです
. which (hopefully) means seeing the entire country by bike and learning Japanese.
After completing the form the site said that the next step is going to be a screening interview before signing the contract: 続いて、サービス利用開始に際してご契約前に、電話・オンラインによる入会審査がございます。 and that I should use one of the provided URLs to book a timeslot: 面談のご希望日時を下記のどちらか1つよりお申込みください。 I was really hoping that I’ll be able to keep all communication written as my Japanese is not there to confidently do a phone interview. So when scheduling the interview I left a comment about the fact that I can speak some Japanese, but would prefer English: 私は少し日本語が話せますが, できれば, 英語が好きです。
The interview was scheduled to August 1 10:00am. I was pretty nervous, and tried to guess what they might ask and prepared some replies about what I do, what are my plans, why I want to do this etc. After the introduction in Japanese, she offered to switch to English. She said her English is not very good, but it was absolutely good (and hands down better than my Japanese). I love Japanese service: this was advertised as a screening interview, but it was much more her explaining how the service works to me, and making sure to answer any question I might have. She talked about the fact that the contract is for a year, but can be cancelled earlier with a 2 month notice period. About the booking rules, and staying with family members. She said that most people won’t speak English, and once a foreign student ended up waiting a few hours in front of a house due to some miscommunication with the landlord of the place (and it was winter). This had the opposite effect on me: knowing that an other foreigner with limited Japanese could use the service, and the worst thing was a few hours wait is actually reassuring.
She also said that my original desired start date (August 8, next Saturday) won’t work, as there are too many people using the service right now, and they are looking into opening new locations soon. The earliest possible start date is September, and she asked me to write an email to info@address.love about when in September I’d like to start using the service. In Japanese. So after the call this is what I came up with putting the start date at the first Saturday of September: