[steven]

Yea a lot of people do that talk with me. (about being the "perfect foreigner"). In a sense I fit right into it... but there are some spots where I don't match that picture perfect image and it can be hard to try to meet people's expectations all the time. In a sense, really knowing Japanese (which includes cultural things) you can dissapoint people straight away. Like you're a foreigner, but you've been tainted with the "japanese" way of thinking. But I digress haha.

Another thing, Nyororin is spot on with what she's saying. I find myself agreeing with pretty much all of her posts on the topic of language acquisition/communication. It's sometimes embarassing to admit it, but I have basically two selfs-- my Japanese self and my English self. They're two very different things... my voice changes my mannerisms change. I think that's important though. Communication, down to the mannerisms and gestures, is really VERY different in Japan and America. So much so that Japanese people are weird seen from Americans' perspective (or the "western world's). Then again, there are a lot of things that Japanese people find weird about us. The point is to at the very least understand those differences. If you want to learn the language (and be decent at it) then you have to accept those differences as truths (at least for your L2 self). I think seeing those differences as negative things after a period of being "immersed" is actually quite normal... but I think you'll find it more worthwhile and a LOT more respectful to come to an understanding rather than talking about those differences in a negative light.

Again though, I tend to go on and on with this kind of stuff. Nyororin put it straight and simple for you, but I hope that what I've typed has helped a little as well.

And as a reminder, I did say that it's quite natural to look at these kinds of differences in a negative light for people. So while anyone doing that is certainly in the wrong, it helps to educate them about it. Immediately picking out the faults in this and dwelling on them and being too blunt might not get anywhere. It's better to just educate people about this in a nice manner. You might learn something yourself by doing so... what's the worst that could happen? I mean if the person isn't receptive then there's nothing forcing you to keep talking to them. But approaching these things means approaching these things as a representative of whatever country you're from, so getting angry or overly straightforward might put more of a dark light on your country to the person you're trying to shed some good light to.