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One of my friends wrote a very interesting journal yesterday. The title is "Foreigners, Who want to be Japanese, But Virtually Impossible." I was impressed by how many readers the entry attracted.
http://lang-8.com/36205/journals/1280335/%25E6%2597%25A5%25E6%259C%25AC%25E4%25BA%25BA%25E3%2581%25AB%25E3%2581%25AA%25E3%2582%258A%25E3%2581%259F%25E3%2581%2584%25E5%25A4%2596%25E5%259B%25BD%25E4%25BA%25BA%25E3%2581%258C%25E3%2581%2584%25E3%2582%258B%25E3%2581%2591%25E3%2582%258C%25E3%2581%25A9%25E3%2580%2581%25E7%2584%25A1%25E7%2590%2586%25E3%2580%2581%25E3%2581%259D%25E3%2581%25AE%25EF%25BC%2592
After reading the entry, and his previous entry as well, I started to think about the word "gaijin" and why Japanese people often compliment them on very small things, such as using chopsticks nicely and speaking a little Japanese.
While reading some opinions from Japanese in the comments of his journal, my interests turned to Japanese people who haven't had any friends from other countries. I am fairy sure that people, who haven't had any foreign friends, are a great majority in Japan.
Therefore, I brought up the topic in a hair-salon while I had my hair done yesterday. The hair-stylist and the other customers were pleased to give me their honest opinions.
To put it briefly, according to them, "gaijin" seem like rare creatures. Additionally, the word seems to be associated with Caucasians. They said that it seems that there is no implication of racial discrimination. Their explanation was that since Japan has been a monogenous country for ages, the Japanese people don't know how to discriminate people by races. It does make sense. However, it's true that Japan has learned to differentiate between certain countries. For example, Chinese people, Koreans, Filipinos, Indians and people in some other countries are not called "gaijin" here somehow.
Thanks to my English-learning, I have had close friends from other countries, so it's quite difficult to put myself into their shoes. I personally couldn't take them as rare creatures.
Suppose when you saw what you thought to be a rare creature, how would you treat him or her?
Would you give them a great deal of compliments about small things?
Would you try to show them off to your friends?
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The title is "Foreigners, Who want to be Japanese, But Virtually Impossible." The journal entry attracted a lot of readers, and I was impressed.
After reading the entry, and his previous entry as well, I started to think about the word "gaijin" and why Japanese people often easily make a compliment to them on very small things, such as nicely using chopsticks nicely and speaking a little Japanese.
While reading some of the opinions from the Japanese people in his comment field, my interests went off to the Japanese people who haven't had any friends from other countries.
I am fairy sure that people who haven't had any foreign friends, are a great majority in Japan.
Then, I brought up the topic in a salon during having my hair appointment done yesterday.
The hair-stylist and the other customers were pleased to give me their honest opinions.
According to them, the "gaijin" means "rarely seen creatures" and in short, "Caucasians".
Their explanation was that since Japan has been a homogenous country for ages, the Japanese people don't know how to discriminate people by races.
However, it's true that Japan has learned to differentiate between certain countries.
Suppose when you saw what you thought to be a rare creature, how would treat him or her?
Very interesting viewpoint. I think you're right, the whole gaijin thing is a result of the Japanese people simply not being educated on how to treat foreigners. In America we are surrounded by difference all the time, but even here we're notorious for becoming really obnoxious and stupid when we meet someone "rare". For example, we'll treat a grown adult like a child and congratulate him on just being able to string a few English words together. It's insulting really and sometimes it's insincere. But on the other hand it is also egocentric. Sometimes when I was in Japan and a Japanese said to me, 「あ、日本語が上手ですねぇ」I felt like they were saying, "wow, I can't believe you were actually able to speak in my language." as if I were a lower class creature.
Thank you so much for your precise corrections!!! I can learn a lot from it.
Your comment is very interesting! 「あ、日本語がお上手ですね」could also be an issue for me to think about and write about here. One of my American friends, who has been living in Japan for over 20 years, hates to be said that thousands of times almost every day! haha
Thank you for coming by!!!
One of my friends wrote about a very interesting journal yesterday.
The title is "Foreigners who want to be Japanese, but cannot." The journal entry attracted a lot of people to read (⇦This is a bit redundant), and I was impressed.
After reading the entry, and the former entry of his as well, I was thinking about the word "gaijin" and why Japanese people easily make a compliments to foreigners on very small things so easily, such as nicely using chopsticks and speaking a little Japanese.
While reading some opinions from Japanese people in the comment section, my interests went off to Japanese people who haven't had any friends from other countries.
I am fairy sure that people, who haven't had any foreign friends, are a great majority in Japan.
Therefore, I brought up the topic in a hair-salon while I had my hair done yesterday.
According to their viewpoints, in short, the "gaijin" is a "rarely seen creatures" and "Caucasians".
They said that it seems that there is no implication of racial discriminations.
This is because Japan has been monogenous country for ages, and they don't know how to discriminate people by race.
However, it's true that Japan has segregated (discrimination?) from country to country. (この文章では何が伝えたいのがちょっと微妙です。国粋によって、差別は違うってことですか？）
Thanks to my English learning, I have had close friends from other countries, so it's quite difficult to put my feet into their shoes.
Suppose when you saw a rare creature which you think is, how would you treat him or her?
Would you give them a great deal of compliments about small things?
Would you try to show them off to your friends?
First, I think it would be better not to refer to foreigners (or any person, for that matter) as "creatures." It has a negative connotation.
Also, I think that there is quite a bit of discrimination in Japan, but much of it is very subtle. For example, sometimes when I ride trains, I feel that sometimes people (usually older passengers) don't sit next to me on purpose.
Another situation I often face is when people talk to me in broken English after I ask them a question in Japanese. Whenever this happens to me, I feel like the person thinks I can't speak Japanese just because I'm Caucasian. Lately when this happens, I've started correcting their English. :P
I think that in general, the group that I've heard the most cases of discrimination about are Koreans though. One of my Korean friends from my university said he was traveling with his mother, and when they tried to eat at one of the local restaurants, the owner refused to serve them because he heard them speaking Korean.
My comments may sound a little bit critical, but I also have similar feelings towards America too. I think these days in America, the number of cases of overt discrimination are very low, but there is a lot of subtle discrimination.
As for your questions, I think that maybe the only foreigner-specific compliments I would give people are "Your English is so good!" I always make sure they're from a country that doesn't speak English first though. :P And a lot of my friends from the US were from foreign countries, so I don't think that they would be very impressed if I showed them another foreigner. 笑
Thank you very much for taking time to correct my entry!!!
I like your comment!!! I really want to hear your honest opinions about how ordinally Japanese people treat people from other countries.
About the thing you mention that they talk to you in Egnlish, even though you speak Japanese, I don't like their behavior. I feel like those people treat you as a tool to practice English.
I guessed that this has happened here and there, but I was surprised to learn about the incident of Korean people. It's so sad if it happens here.
Yes, in the US, the word "foreigner" might become a dead language some day~
Thank you for visiting here, I will visit yours soon!
According to their viewpoint, the "gaijin" means "rarely seen creatures" and also "Caucasians" in short. Fixed spelling
Thanks to my English-learning, I have had close friends from other countries, so it's quite difficult to put myself feet into their shoes. "to put oneself in another's shoes" means imagining or attempting to experience something from the other's point of view, or from his circumstances or situation; to empathize.
Suppose when you saw believe you encountered a rare creature which you think is, how would you treat him or her? I used "encounter" because you did not expect to meet this "rare creature". It's just by chance
Would you give him/her a great deal of compliments about small things? Being gender neutral
Would you try to show him/her off to your friends?
Compliments are nice as long as it's appropriate. But if it's something so simple as こにちは！& they gush over it like "Woow!!" as if this was never achievable for anyone outside of those whose native tongue is Japanese. I can see where zeroender is coming from.
I got that a lot as a kid when I moved to the US from the Philippines. They were so impressed because I was fluent in English and expected all new foreigners to not know the language or something. Got a lot of this (O__O)& ━Σ(ﾟДﾟ|||)━ my 1st year in the US lol
No reason to do that. They are people, not pets or a new toy. My old Japanese tutors (1 boy, 1 girl) from my 1st Japanese class are native Japanese. 1 has gone back home to Japan & the other to another homestay program in the US but while they were attending my school, us beginner Japanese students treated them like 1 of us. Even got to know a little bit about them on a personal level :)
I hope my Japanese gets betters so 1 day I can hold long convos in Japanese with them instead of English. Longest convo (Facebook chat) in Japanese before I gave up was 5 minutes >_< ....alot of work to do!
Thank you for teaching me proper words and phrases!!!
I knew the word "encounter", but I didn't know when and how to use it. Thank you so much!!!
Speaking of your answer to my question, I found out one of the biggest differences between America and Japan. The people I met in a salon said that if they knew, for example, an American lady visits their friend's house, it would stir up their interests highly. Many of us couldn't treat people from other countries just as one of them.
Thank you for coming here!!!
Your journal entry reminds me of a story I wrote when I was living in Japan. I titled it 外鳥. It was about a true story of a bird I saw in the town where I lived. I will see if I can find the story again ... It was over 10 years ago when I wrote it, but I have a bad habit of never throwing things away so I probably still have it somewhere. I just have to look for it.
As for the phrase 「日本語が上手ですねえ~」... I always thought it was given to me as encouragement since my Japanese was so bad. If I could go through a day without hearing it I felt more confident, but if I heard it then I knew my grammar must have sounded strange. It was sad that I would get so self-conscious over something intended to help me feel better. I think I am even more sensitive than you ^_~
I admit that ordinary Japanese people would praise your Japanese, regardless your level. I think it's funny because the more they get compliments, the lower their level is,(not all the time though)...haha. It's funny.
So, when I was told that "your English is good" from native English speakers, I thought that was just an encouragement as the same thing as Japanese people do. I once asked about it in my journal, I found out that the way of their praise was different from Japanese people.
However, I still tend to doubt of it when I hear it.
Thank you for your comment!!!
I was watching a Japanese TV show. They were trying to guess the top 3 luxury foods. One team identified the countries they it was from, with the last one being 外国.
The host (陣内) remarked, "You said 韓国 here. Isn't Korea considered 外国?" They denied it. "Then what's 外国？" The team responded 「アメリカ！」
Hm, I never knew that.
I would sometimes say I'm 外国人 just because I identify myself as from the US....
There are still Japanese people who believe that America equals 外国, aren't they?!!!
Maybe they think that 外人 are all Americans??
Japan is an interesting country, isn't it!
（^^）
The title is "Foreigners, Who want to be Japanese, But Virtually Impossible." I was impressed by how many readers the entry attracted.
While reading some opinions from Japanese in the comments of his journal, my interests turned to Japanese people who haven't had any friends from other countries.
To put it briefly, according to them, "gaijin" seem like rare creatures. Additionally, the word seems to be associated with Caucasians. (Sorry, I practically rewrote the whole thing ;^_^)
I agree. Especially in a small, isolated country, it's natural for people to be unexposed to other cultures and to act a little differently around people that are different from them.
I hope that people from other countries will enjoy Japan and Japanese people, including such different attributes!!!
Thank you very much for checking and correcting my entry!!!
｡o@(^-^)@o｡ﾆｺｯ♪
お邪魔しま～～～～～～す(^○^)
あ！初めて訪問させていただきました。
私、日本人の日記はほとんど訪問しないので、
なにか、新鮮です。
確かに、日本人が「gaijin]と呼ぶのはたぶん欧米人だけなのかもね。
私は外国の友人たちに対して「外人」という言葉を使うことはありませんが、未だに日本の中にはそういう言い方があるようですね。差別なのでしょうか・・・・
びっくりさせてしまいました！ こんなところでお会いできるとは~~~笑
私も「外人さん」って その人に向かっていうことはないのですが、 今でもそういう風に呼ぶ人たちは多いです。 受け取り方もさまざまなようです。
差別なのかどうかは、議論の余地があると思います。 人種差別ではないけど、差別かと言われると否定はできないし、、、
マイカが紹介してくれたんですね。 もう一方の日記、見れましたか？ 私はダメでした。ブロックがかかってるようでした。（^_^;）
The title is "Foreigners Who want to be Japanese, But Find it Virtually Impossible." The journal entry attracted a lot of people to read, and I was impressed.
I am fairy sure that those people make up the great majority in Japan.
According to their viewpoint, the "gaijin" means "rarely seen creatures" and can also be short for "Caucasions" in short.
That reminds me of a book I read called それでも、日本人になりたい (http://tinyurl.com/6lomduw). It was written by an American about his experience trying to "accepted" in Japan.
アメリカには人がいろいろいて、誰でもアメリカ人に認められます。でも、日本はほとんど「日本人」なので、「外人」が目立ちます。とすると、日本人はそう考えるのも当然でしょう。でも、外人の友達がたくさんいるみらいさんは日本人ですが、アメリカ人のような考え方があるみたいです。もしかして、「アメリカ人の考え方」と「日本人の考え方」じゃなくて、「いろいろな人が知っている人の考え方」と「そうではない人の考え方」に区別したらいいかもしれません。(^_^)
Thank you for your corrections and comment!!!
そうですね、外国人の友達ができると、その人たちの正直な気持ちがわかってきます。
たとえば、３０年も日本に住んでいるアメリカ人は 私より日本人らしいと思います。
反対に 私は西洋文化を学んでいるので、「へんな日本人」になっていくようです。 ^_^笑
でも、「いろいろな考えがわかる」ってすごく楽しいですね！
ありがとう！ Smiles （^^）
でしょうね。言語学の楽しいことの１つです。(^_^)