[YuriTokoro]

Hi.
Could someone correct my English?


"Gaijin"

Wikipedia says that Gaijin (外人[ɡaidʑiɴ]) is a Japanese word meaning "non-Japanese", or "alien".
I have heard foreign people hate being called “gaijin”. Is that right?
I went on a trip in Japan with an American friend a few years ago. When we took a taxi, I was talking to the driver in Japanese and I said the word “gaijin” in the conversation.
My friend wasn’t able to understand Japanese. She had started studying Japanese, but she didn’t even know what to say “mother” or “father”.
However, she seemed to catch the word “gaijin”, and got upset.
Most Japanese people believe that “gaijin” means “people from foreign countries”. We don’t have any further means. We can say “gaikokujin（外国人）” and “gaikoku kara irasshatta kata（外国からいらっしゃった方”, but the first one sounds too formal and the second one is too long to say.
Since I didn’t know my friend didn’t like to be called “gaijin”, that I was shocked to know she was angry.
I believe the definitions in Wiki are a bit wrong. The Japanese people don’t have any bad shades of meanings with the word.
I’d like to know why and how the word has become known with bad meanings or impressions.
If you know any reasons, let me know, please.
And, what should I say instead of gaijin???

Thank you.