People Living Abroad
Mar 29th 2010 01:37
Since Japanese figure skaters (single) have been very competitive in international stages for the last five years, figure skating has been receiving a lot of attention here. A 16-year-old American figure skater Mirai Nagasu (長洲未来）is also well-known here not only because she performed well at the Vancouver Olympics but also because she retains her dual citizenship in the States and Japan. Both of her parents are Japanese, but she was born and grew up in the States where they have been running a Japanese restaurant. She often answers questions in almost perfect Japanese in interviews conducted by Japanese reporters.
The adorable girl reminds me of the Japanese people who have been living in Western countries, especially in the States, for many years. Many of them give me very similar impressions that enable me to distinguish them from the Japanese people in Japan. Not only their outfits and ways of making up, but also their demeanor and expressions are obviously influenced by Western culture and so on.
In Japan, we can usually tell who are Chinese people by looking in town, although it seems hard for Westerners to do that. However, the Chinese people who have been living in Japan for five years for example look similar to us, so we often confuse them with us. When I just started living in Guangzhou China, I was approached by local pullers who tried to sell knockoffs in downtown. Generally, they didn't call to local people, but interestingly, they approached my Chinese friends who had been living in Japan for a decade. Half a year later, these people seemed to lose interest in me, instead local people often spoke to me in Chinese.
As I wrote in my past entires, every time I moved back from foreign counties to Japan, I was often asked by Japanese people " Do you live abroad" " Do you work for an alien company?" I really want to know what part of me makes them think of it.
The adorable girl reminds me of the Japanese people who have been living in Western countries, especially in the States, for many years. Many of them give me very similar impressions that enable me to distinguish them from the Japanese people in Japan. Not only their outfits and ways of making up, but also their demeanor and expressions are obviously influenced by Western culture and so on.
In Japan, we can usually tell who are Chinese people by looking in town, although it seems hard for Westerners to do that. However, the Chinese people who have been living in Japan for five years for example look similar to us, so we often confuse them with us. When I just started living in Guangzhou China, I was approached by local pullers who tried to sell knockoffs in downtown. Generally, they didn't call to local people, but interestingly, they approached my Chinese friends who had been living in Japan for a decade. Half a year later, these people seemed to lose interest in me, instead local people often spoke to me in Chinese.
As I wrote in my past entires, every time I moved back from foreign counties to Japan, I was often asked by Japanese people " Do you live abroad" " Do you work for an alien company?" I really want to know what part of me makes them think of it.
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Since Japanese figure skaters (single) have been very competitive on the international stage for the last five years, figure skating has been receiving a lot of attention here.
A 16-year-old American figure skater, Mirai Nagasu (長洲未来), is also well-known here; not only because she performed well at the Vancouver Olympics but also because she retains her dual citizenship in the States and Japan.
Both of her parents are Japanese, but she was born and grew up in the States, where they have been running a Japanese restaurant.
Many of them act in a slightly different way, which enables me to distinguish them from the Japanese people in Japan. (I was unsure of whether to make this suggestion or not as your English was very good. However, it 'felt' a little unnatural but I could not think of something truly better. So, this is how I would have said it.)
Not only their outfits and ways of make-up, but also their demeanor and expressions are obviously influenced by Western culture and so on.
In Japan, we can usually tell who are Chinese people by looking in town, although it seems hard for Westerners to do that. (I am not sure what you mean by this phrase.)
However, the Chinese people who have been living in Japan for five years, for example, look similar to us; so we often confuse them with us. (Perhaps: 'so we often cannot tell them apart from Japanese natives' would sound better?)
When I just started living in Guangzhou, (in) China, I was approached by local traders who were trying to sell knock-off goods in the downtown area.
Generally, they didn't approach local people, but interestingly they approached my Chinese friends, who had been living in Japan for ten years.
Half a year later, these people seemed to lose interest in me. Instead, local people often spoke to me in Chinese.
As I wrote in my past entires, every time I moved back from foreign counties to Japan, I was often asked by Japanese people "Do you live abroad", "Do you work for an alien company?" I really want to know what part of me makes them think that. (Don't use a space between the speech mark and the first character.)
Nice English again, Snoopy.
Thanks for your help.
>Many of them give me very similar impressions
Actually, I wasn't sure how to describe it in English. In Japanese, we say 「外国に住んでいる日本人は雰囲気が違う」, which means that people who live abroad have different mood. So, we can realize that they have something different from us at a glance. Sometimes, which includes acting in a slightly different way, but doesn't always include it. They give off or convey unique, different mood that their outfits and make up partly help create. In many situations, we say 「。。。。さんは雰囲気が違う」「お金持ちは雰囲気が違う」.
>we can usually tell who are Chinese people by looking in town,
In town, when walking on a street or being on a train for example, we can tell who are Chinese people just by looking or at a glance since their mood or impressions are different.
Although I can't describe well, for example as for the Japanese people living in the States, their strong will is written on their faces. I think this is because they are used to expressing their opinions due to American culture. Like them, I guess that different characters are written on my face.
I think Japanese people rarely write their mood on face, always no expressions. Chinese people tend to look right to left, but Japanese people just focus on their own things. That`s really interesting.
Thanks for your help again. I'm happy if you can get the hang of the usage of ”雰囲気” in Japanese. Actually, 雰囲気 is translated into various English words based on contexts and situations.
Hi こおり
Thanks for your comment.
>Chinese people tend to look right to left, but Japanese people just focus on their own things.
Is this general speaking or a behavior on streets? If you mean the latter, this is because Japanese people usually try to pay attention to themselves while walking around town in China. They are cautious about pickpocketing. Here, we can probably tell who are South Korean tourists although it's a little hard . However, there are so many Korean people who were born and grew up here that I can't distinguish them from us.