chicagian239
後輩
- 23 Sep 2012
- 24
- 0
Just curious. I've heard a lot of bad things about gaijin life in Japan and now wonder how bad it could be. Are foreigners generally neglected?
What is gaijin life exactly like in Japan?
- Thread starter chicagian239
- Start date
- 10 Oct 2012
- 35
- 0
It does depend on the approach you take, I lived there for two years and it was a great experience. But I'm a fairly respectful person who made an effort to both learn the language and its culture. If you act really obnoxious and shout at people in English because you haven't bothered with the language you'll have a bad experience as people will ignore/avoid you.
I did not have any truly terrible experiences when I lived in Japan, however I did feel the claws of discrimination occasionally while I was there. Sometime when attempting to ask a question to a stranger for directions or something similar I would just get a "sumimasen" and a hand wave across their face indicating they could not help me. Just because I was a white male the assumed I could not have communicated in their language and brushed me off. Others were very helpful and had no problem talking with me. A major difference you will find in acceptance is in regards to the generation of Japanese you are interacting with. If you ever get one a train you will find that generally there will always be one or two elderly Japanese that will stare you down and make their assumptions about you as the train proceeds.
However negative discrimination is, I think at people should experience it in the life in order to help educate them in the matter. I am not saying terrible discrimination but maybe just someone being ignored once is enough for them to help understand the differences of them culturally from others and how they are perceived.
Just be kind and courteous and if you have any problems, move on and try again.
And for the record. Gaijin 外人 is considered derogatory. What if us foreigners only used gaikokujin 外国人? Would we help change our own perceptions? You never know.
However negative discrimination is, I think at people should experience it in the life in order to help educate them in the matter. I am not saying terrible discrimination but maybe just someone being ignored once is enough for them to help understand the differences of them culturally from others and how they are perceived.
Just be kind and courteous and if you have any problems, move on and try again.
And for the record. Gaijin 外人 is considered derogatory. What if us foreigners only used gaikokujin 外国人? Would we help change our own perceptions? You never know.
- 17 Sep 2005
- 6,017
- 1,970
Some of the best experiences I have had with strangers in Japan were with the elderly. In my experience, if you are fluent in their language, the elderly love Westerners.
- 15 Mar 2002
- 16,758
- 2,298
I would have to agree with that.
Not saying it is the case here, necessarily, but sometimes when gaijins (bugger off with that "gaikokujin" PC crap) complain about people refusing to speak to them despite their wonderful Japanese it is a case of an unjustifiably inflated opinion of their Japanese communicative abilities. Sometimes I've seen it happen right next to me and thought, "Between the horribly accented wretched pronunciation and the bungled construction, I couldn't tell what the hell you were driving at either".
Not saying it is the case here, necessarily, but sometimes when gaijins (bugger off with that "gaikokujin" PC crap) complain about people refusing to speak to them despite their wonderful Japanese it is a case of an unjustifiably inflated opinion of their Japanese communicative abilities. Sometimes I've seen it happen right next to me and thought, "Between the horribly accented wretched pronunciation and the bungled construction, I couldn't tell what the hell you were driving at either".
- 17 Sep 2005
- 6,017
- 1,970
You know that traditionally in Japanese culture, when one refers to himself or his in-group to someone from 'outside' it is considered polite to use the non-polite word when speaking. Using 'polite' words to refer to yourself is actually rude.
That's why I 'itadaku' but you 'meshiagaru'. That's why I 'oru' but you 'irassyaru'.
GaijinPanda
後輩
- 22 Nov 2012
- 2
- 0
To answer the original post, my experience has been both good and bad. I'm the only female gaijin in my city and there are only two male gaijin (not related to me at all). For the most part I get an almost celebrity reception with random kids following me around or pointing me out to their friends and parents. I get stared at everywhere even though I have lived here for almost two years.
I get many compliments about my appearance and personality however, there is a very obvious barrier between myself and everyone else. I rarely get invited to dinner and only really go to work parties. I have been told this is because many of the people I would consider to be friends don't want the stress of speaking English while enjoying their dinner or drinking. I can understand this, so I threw myself harder into learning Japanese.
Now my conversational Japanese has vastly improved but still the social aspect has not changed. I believe it is because the first impression was that I can't speak Japanese so they find it very hard to accept that I have changed. I often am held back by impressions that were made of me when I first got here and didn't know what to do with myself. I had gone through a pretty traumatic culture shock. I imagine this would be true in most places though.
As Mike said though, every single Gaijin is bound to have their own experience to this. As for using the word Gaijin, I'm not offended anymore by this. I have no shame in being American and don't hold it against them for noticing it. I have blonde hair and blue eyes so I kinda stick out. I have been asked over 30 times if my eyes were contacts. They literally didn't believe eyes could actually be blue. So while I don't often go around acting upon my 'gaijin-ness' I won't act like I'm offended by it either. Besides, I'm not the loud type everyone worried I would be.
I get many compliments about my appearance and personality however, there is a very obvious barrier between myself and everyone else. I rarely get invited to dinner and only really go to work parties. I have been told this is because many of the people I would consider to be friends don't want the stress of speaking English while enjoying their dinner or drinking. I can understand this, so I threw myself harder into learning Japanese.
Now my conversational Japanese has vastly improved but still the social aspect has not changed. I believe it is because the first impression was that I can't speak Japanese so they find it very hard to accept that I have changed. I often am held back by impressions that were made of me when I first got here and didn't know what to do with myself. I had gone through a pretty traumatic culture shock. I imagine this would be true in most places though.
As Mike said though, every single Gaijin is bound to have their own experience to this. As for using the word Gaijin, I'm not offended anymore by this. I have no shame in being American and don't hold it against them for noticing it. I have blonde hair and blue eyes so I kinda stick out. I have been asked over 30 times if my eyes were contacts. They literally didn't believe eyes could actually be blue. So while I don't often go around acting upon my 'gaijin-ness' I won't act like I'm offended by it either. Besides, I'm not the loud type everyone worried I would be.
- 20 Aug 2003
- 4,910
- 416
Aside from the simple fact already stated that no 2 foreigners will have the same experience, I'd be curious what you have heard that was so bad. Perhaps some of us could at least describe to what degree those things are true, but you and we would have to bear in mind so many circumstances:
big or small city
old or young person (us and them)
true ability to use either language
etc.
I don't think the OP was all that serious about this thread, though. Where is he?
- 15 Mar 2002
- 16,758
- 2,298
Yet another in a long series of drive-by posters.
Maybe we ought to have a rule that you can't start a thread until you been registered a couple of months and participated in some other threads. At least it would help save us the effort of answering questions for people who give no indication they ever even bothered checking back for answers.
---------- Post added at 08:33 ---------- Previous post was at 08:23 ----------
I read your blog. It is very unfair of you to blame your problems communicating with Japanese on racism on their part. If that's what your Japanese is like when you're sitting down calmly composing it, then I can well imagine they must have had trouble with what you were coming up with on the spur of the moment.
Maybe we ought to have a rule that you can't start a thread until you been registered a couple of months and participated in some other threads. At least it would help save us the effort of answering questions for people who give no indication they ever even bothered checking back for answers.
---------- Post added at 08:33 ---------- Previous post was at 08:23 ----------
I read your blog. It is very unfair of you to blame your problems communicating with Japanese on racism on their part. If that's what your Japanese is like when you're sitting down calmly composing it, then I can well imagine they must have had trouble with what you were coming up with on the spur of the moment.
