[steven]

GoNative, I hate to say it, but I think people like you in your situation are the minority as far as people from English speaking countries living in Japan goes. I can see where you're coming from by not liking what I said there though.

However, in the case of ALTs it's a free ride basically... they are letting foreigners live here in that case, and I think that accounts for most (native) English speaking foreigners in this country. Going back to the title of the topic, Americans don't have to pay taxes in Japan (for a period of time).

I have to say though, I tend to side with chiuchimu on this issue though. I'm not gonna say that all foreigners should try as hard as they can to become Japanese though. I'd say that it would be to your own benefit to fit in/learn intricate manners. In the work place (unless you work for a place that encourages your foreigner-ness) I would think it very important. From my perspective, though, I'd say Japan is... extremely particular about far too many things (which is apparent with some of the language). I think it's to the point that most Japanese people don't even know everything. Expecting a foreigner to have a grasp on every little detail is a bit unrealistic and I don't think most Japanese hold foreigners to such standards. The more obvious things on the other hand can be picked up by simple observation. Unfortunately there are a lot of those kinds of things that some people just never get (Japanese included). It's like an extreme form of "KY". Add language difficiency, different clothes, different morals, strange mannerisms, and different facial features and it can make for an annoying situation for some people. To be fair though, some Japanese people like all that stuff about foreigners (which could help explain eikaiwas).

I think I've posted this story on here before... I can't quite remember. I had the pleasure to go out with one of the more respected members of my community. He happened to be pretty proficient at English. We were talking about linguistics, among other things of course, and during that time we had a similar conversation to this one. At one point I got pretty frank and said if Japan was serious about their English education they'd work more on teaching actual English. I said language is more than just words and that it has to do with culture and the way that culture affects nonverbal language. I said they could just show an episode or two of a TV show everyday from 1st grade (elementary) all through middle school and the kids would probably surpase their teachers in listening ability. He said there's no doubt that that would work, but it would screw up Japan's ability to teach kids "how to be Japanese". The way he said it of course had a lot more power and meaning behind it... but that was the first time I'd talked to someone in Japan who completely knew where I was coming from but disagreed... he was geniunely worried about Japanese morals, basically. He said that as a speaker of English, he was fine with being a foreigner and that is all part of it.

Hearing that made me remember that part of being in another country is that exchange of culture. Throwing away everything you know to create some new self is a waste... but before you can teach people about your country and all that I think it's important for them to be able to take you seriously. It's creating an on-off switch. It's weird but this reminds me of simultaneous interpretation... you have two completely different language "styles" to deal with at the same time.