@TimMay-l4e
The truth. Gaijin can learn and many want to learn. I'm going to compare this to something in the US... Asian Americans sometimes look down on others for attempting to use chopsticks. If you shame someone for learning then it's your fault if they don't. If someone is truly interested in your culture and wants to uphold it with dignity, invite them and be willing to help them learn. This is what the world needs in these times
@turocrock
This is such a refreshing take on the topic. I lived as a foreigner in other countries my entire life and have always noticed the kind of otherness you described here. Thanks for the video.
@johnvogt5847
The hardest thing for me in Japan was making mistakes but everybody is too polite to correct and instruct you. This makes it difficult to improve your social skills.
@sevenproxies4255
To be fair though, as a gaijin I feel very ashamed about the stupid gaijin-influencers going to Japan just to cause trouble and make complete asses of themselves. It's not like Japan has done anything to deserve this crap.
@kanzaki0001
5:33 Reading the atmosphere is difficult because it’s different in every culture because tension and behaviors are different. But you can learn to understand emotions
@ykoba4054
Hakuho is the greatest sumo wrestler of all time. Although born in Mongolia, he is a naturalized citizen of Japan. But Japanese nationalists continue calling him "a foreigner who has little respect for Japanese culture."
@elementalfitnesslab
Good attitudes expressed here. I live in a rather rural area, and a couple things that have really helped are to 1. Learn conversational-level Japanese. Locals are surprised at first that I can communicate perfectly fine and know some local customs and then the barriers fade. 2. When inevitably asked where I'm from I might say Uchuujin (alien) or sekaijin (planet roamer) and that can get laughs and break the ice too, so they may not just see "foreigner".
@HotBlasterBot
There is no need to apologize for your accent, especially when it is quite clear to understand. Just as I love hearing heavy Scottish accents, I love yours. It speaks of your character, who you are and your growth as you told in the introduction.
@Khamehyou-jw2mj
7:00 made me tear up, this was a really beautiful video, the stupidity of a few should not be the punishment of the others, I understand the countrys strong stance to defend their culture and understand how suffocating it is for someone to witness another person disrespect it. But as a potential resident, I support any and all stance against these clown-influencers who abuse peoples kindness and affect the reputation of truly hard working people in the job market.
@johnmorrow5461
I'm an American who lived in Tokyo for over a year about 25 years ago. Four observations to consider. The first is that I largely considered the low expectations many Japanese people had for me to be a good thing, not a bad thing, because it made my life in Japan easier than it is for a Japanese person. But I think it would be fair to say that it also made me lazy and I didn't learn as much Japanese as I probably could have nor did I try to conform to Japanese culture as much as I could have because there wasn't much expectation that I would or penalty if I didn't. That's not to say I didn't care or try to socialize. I spend quite a bit of time with some of my Japanese co-workers, for example. The second is that to illustrate that it can be very difficult for foreigners to live up to Japanese expectations, the Japanese OL where I worked who helped me handle a lot of things in Japan had spend a year in the UK studying English and a friend of hers met and married an ethnically Chinese but culturally English man there. That man hated life in Japan because, as an Asian, Japanese people would expect him to behave Asian or even Japanese, which was difficult and unpleasant for him as someone who was culturally English. I have read that this has also been a problem trying to integrate ethnically Japanese people from South America back into Japanese society. If's very hard to conform to and accept Japanese expectations and culture if you do not grow up in it. Urban Japanese who try to move to rural areas can experience the same problems dealing with the more extreme and invasive version that can exist in more traditional rural communities. The third is that I met an American who had lived in Japan for a while, worked as a translator, and could understand and speak Japanese fairly well. There were times when I would go into shops with him where the clerks would deliberately not understand his Japanese because they didn't want to speak with him. I will point out that I also met many friendly and helpful Japanese people and my overall experience was good, but there are Japanese people who simply don't want to deal with non-Japanese people. Finally, a college friend of mine had studied Japanese was living in Nagoya at the time teaching English, and he came to visit a few times while I was in Japan. When I first visited, he suggested I buy the book Straitjacket Society: An Insider's Irreverent View of Bureaucratic Japan Hardcover by Masao Miyamoto from 1995 (only a few years before I was there) to better understand the Japanese mindset. It actually did help me a lot. If you are not familiar with the book, the author had spent several years living in the US before returning to Japan and he experienced his own problems and culture shock dealing with Japanese culture after getting used to US culture. You might find it worth reading, if you haven't seen it already. I'll add that I actually think I experienced as much or maybe more culture shock returning to the New York City area of the US than I had moving to Japan because I went from a safe, predictable, and simplified life living in Japan back to the relative chaos of New York City and more complicated social circles and life options.
@Rupture_EX
I do agree that if things are unreasonable for Japanese people to know, it applies doubly so for a foreigner, but I think the root issue is more on the expectation side of things it goes from "I dont expect you to know anything about this" to "oh you messed up this so im going to chew you out for it" where I think it should be more gradual which in both ends becomes healthier. Instead of expecting to "read the room" or not at all, starting by "a little bit of profesionalism/respect" would be a easier compromise. Instead of either "dont know kanji" or "write this chinese noodle 80 stroke kanji" be like "well you know how Ki is written" Instead of "keigo or no keigo" be like "well you use -san -kun etc we can work with that". Instead of foreigners with tattoos being banned from public baths or just flat out ignoring the rule cause "gaijin" maybe be like "oh hey that japanese person have a small tattoo, its fine". Flexibility.
@Haph3us
As a resident, you hit the nail on the head. Thank you
@DenisChangMusic
I’m a professional musician in Japan, and I feel there’s a very interesting phenomenon that I witness in my job. When it comes to music making, generally Japanese are not so good at 空気を読む , and with Westerners, it’s the opposite, in music , they care more about being harmonious. It’s a very strange phenomenon. I had this conversation with a French friend who has been living in Japan for almost 20 years.
@crossthreaded6867
This is a really interesting perspective, thank you for making this.
@CyrusVonBismarck
I like the stance on resident va foreigner. When I was a Highschool , university, student and later worked in Japan a long time ago, non-Japanese apart from Zainichi Koreans were not allowed to have Resident Card for identification (Juminhyo). Only Gaikokuiin Torokusho (Alien Registration Card)s. I was very happy when I came back years later and immediately received a Juminhyo immediately. It made me feel positive about the way the society was moving and very happy and proud to be considered as a resident.
@SamuelRoche-m9i
As a person who has lived in Korea, China, and now Japan (3 years), I can say that it is extremely difficult to get past these assumptions. I also think that English teaching in Japan is a unique case—because we are often working for a Japanese company, but their main “product” is “foreignness”. We end up being made to do things by our superiors that make no sense from an educational perspective, but can do nothing to stop it—even if they hired us because of our expertise, it gets ignored because “we don’t understand Japan”. This is a large part of the reason English education continues to fail. The people who actually see the problems are either forbidden to speak or ignored when we do.日本語で言っても、結局出る杭は打たれるからその現実を向かって 「しょうがないな」しか言えない時もよくあります。
@Komikino
Good job with your run down on the situation. I will be visiting Japan later this year and am looking forward to seeing the sites and visiting my wife's family.
@onbedoeldekut1515
I would just ask, 'do you believe in reincarnation'? If they say yes, I would reply 'how would you stop your reincarnated soul being born abroad, and how do you know the 'foreigner' speaking to you isn't your reincarnated ancestor?
@NicoSenpai-p2b
25年前に、ホテルでworking holiday visaで働きました。 スタッフはみんな敬語を作っていました。それを見たら、自分が”外国人だから”を言われたくなくて、一生懸命敬語を勉強して、日本人スタッフより、朝の朝礼の１０個のルールを綺麗で敬語で覚えて、部長がみんなんお前で褒めてくれた時にとても嬉しかったです。
@Domebuddy