Advice for ex-pats living in Japan: don't speak perfect Japanese

That's the first time I have seen someone claim that a good command of Japanese was counterproductive to being accepted in Japan.

Being a foreigner still has an edge, you're "different". Once you cross the perfect Japanese threshold you lose it. My Japanese friends tell me that people like @Dogen make them cringe and feel revolted because of his excellent Japanese and ask me to never even try speak like him. Seriously. I've been here 15 years and have never met a super fluent foreigner who makes good money. The foreigners in good positions (20 M¥ above) and doing interesting stuff are in general not fully fluent. Speak some but don't aim to be Japanese.

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No worries, I'll never cross the perfect threshold.

I will go to my death bed with the words spoken to me on my trip to Tokyo--"Where did you learn your Japanese from , a retarded fisherman" , LOL

Franciso's advice is unbelievably bad - so bad that it makes me anxious for everyone who is taking investment advice from him.
What diabolically bad advice.
"They won't like you" "They will find you disgusting"
Absolute bollocks, and can only come from the small mind of someone who wants to justify his own poor command of the language, and who feels proud for getting praised for his 20-word vocabulary. He feels he's gaming the system. He knows enough to ask for a receipt at a restaurant, but doesn't know how to write the word "receipt". Then pats himself on the back, saying, "They would hate me I knew how to spell it".
I can't believe how bad this advice is. Not just bad, but at the toxic rationale behind all of it. Dogen makes people cringe because of his cringeworthy takes on things, not because he speaks wicked good Japanese.
As to his comment equating fluency with limiting your income - I don't know where to begin.
What a horribly bad take.

And then he doubles down on it when a reply tweet said his comments were borderline racist.

He's not completely wrong. No matter how good your Japanese becomes or even if you change your passport, you will always be an "other", at least to complete strangers, but so what? And from my experience, you will find individuals who can't comprehend that the Japanese language is coming from a gaijin's mouth, but that's pretty rare.

However, the idea that your fluency is somehow limiting your economic success is pure balderdash. To the contrary, the doors it opens and the opportunities that it brings could not be overstated. I agree with @Majestic: the reason people don't like Dogen is not because of his Japanese fluency; it's because he's not an easy person to like.

I haven't been worked up over a tweet like this in a long time. Just a phenomenally crappy take, on every level imaginable.

Mikawa Ossan said:

the reason people don't like Dogen is not because of his Japanese fluency; it's because he's not an easy person to like.

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Ok then, why don't people like Dave Spector either?

mdchachi said:

Ok then, why don't people like Dave Spector either?

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Dave Spector! There's a name I haven't heard in a long time! I honestly don't remember enough about him to provide an opinion any more. I vaguely recall seeing him talking on some talk show panels back in the day. Is he very opinionated? If so, that would be my first guess.

Mikawa Ossan said:

Dave Spector! There's a name I haven't heard in a long time! I honestly don't remember enough about him to provide an opinion any more. I vaguely recall seeing him talking on some talk show panels back in the day. Is he very opinionated? If so, that would be my first guess.

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Actually I don't know if people don't like him. I just assumed.

mdchachi said:

Actually I don't know if people don't like him. I just assumed.

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He's usually summoned on morning TV to analyse all sorts of "foreign affairs". While his accent isn't as good as Dogen's, he's unquestionably more affable.