Quote:
Originally Posted by Nyororin
I think the more accurate way to say it would be that "A lot of Japanese don`t like associating outside of the language they`re comfortable in - Japanese."
The majority of foreigners in Japan are tourists and cannot speak Japanese. Even most of those who aren`t tourists are short timers (1 year English teachers) and they also usually can`t speak much if any Japanese. So experience tells the average Japanese person that if they approach and start speaking to someone who looks like they aren`t Japanese - foreign language communication awaits. So unless they have some strong interest in improving a language they`re studying (99% of the time English), they`re not going to put themselves into that sort of stressful situation.
Once it was clear that I could speak Japanese fluently, I never had any problems associating with people or getting them to associate with me.
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Agreed. Pretty well said. It's not really the fact that Japanese people don't like foreigners, it's simply the communication barrier that they don't like.
(to sum up his post in one sentence ^ )