In the spirit of controversy, I'd like to bring up another subject; the behavior of little Japanese kids and gaijin. For background, I work at a high school in a suburb of Osaka. I take a train to and from work everyday. My school is about a 15 minute walk from the station. On the way, I pass several elementary schools and one middle school. After school, I usually run into masses of children on their way home. Now, what bothers me is this: Everyday, I am greeted by loud and obnoxious yells of these little kids. Before you go ahead and berate me for not being patient with these youngsters, let me explain. I have no problem smiling, waving, and answering all the little kids who just want to say hello. I always do. BUT, that isn't what annoys me.
Take this for example: I was walking home the other day and ran into a group of children with their parents standing in front of school. One kid looks at me, points, and blurts out something like this:
"Herro! I rike hambaga. Preesed to, apuru! chiiizuubaga!"
and then proceeds to ramble off a bunch of funny sounds made up words, apparently trying to sound like he was speaking English. Other kids got in on it, and it disintegrated into general laughter. The parents, standing there next to their kids, looked on with polite smiles, laughed abit, and didn't do a damn thing.
This kind of thing doesn't happen often, but I still think it's completely unacceptable. Imagine if this happened in America. A bunch of, say, Caucasian people standing in front of a school and an Asian-looking teacher walks out. Imagine if the kids started yelling,
"Nihow! I like fried rice! Lui kang ching-chang-fuhoo!?"
Besides the fact that it's completely insulting, I don't know any parents who would tolerate their children acting like that, at least in public. There are other points to consider, too.
One: These children instantly assume anyone foreign-looking speaks English.
Two: Parents are reinforcing these stereotypes.
Like I said, this kind of thing doesn't happen often. When it does, I can usually just ignore it. Sometimes, of course, I can't. A few days ago I was having a bad day and just couldn't take it in stride, and not only did I not answer the kids but even scowled a little. THIS got some mean looks from the parents, which in turn only made me angrier.
I've talked to some other foreigners in Japan about this. Some suggest I go and explain to the parents that their children's behavior is inappropriate. Others have suggested that it's not their fault, and I should merely remind myself that most Japanese people don't have a good deal of experience with foreigners, and therefore don't know how to act appropriately.
What do you think?