Gaijin Gone Crazy
 

It might be just my own distorted perception but it seems (to me at least) that the more skilled a person becomes in either learning the Japanese language or culture (or both) there exists a higher tendency for them to become condescending or outright rude based on that particular skill set. (At least online that is.)

I have my own thoughts on the possible reasons (one being that perhaps people who have lived in Japan for a few years have a knee-jerk reaction to any foreigners who even breathe words like anime, harajuku, samurai, etc..) but I'm just curious if this is a thing others have noticed and why you might think it exists (if it does at all)?

If you had to eat hotdogs everyday for a year wouldn't you get sick of hotdogs?

Hearing, "Hey hey I love anime they are so kawaii!!!!" everyday is like eating hotdogs for a year straight.

I just shake my head and close the thread, other people vocalize their annoyance.

It's really the same anywhere in the world. The people who live there, have daily lives they attend too, where as the tourist, everything is a new thing for them and they seldom realize that what they find new or exciteing is just mundane to the folks there.

This has nothing to do with people in Japan.

Rather the attitude amongst foreigners who know a bit about Japanese culture/language towards those that don't know.

I know what Ohayou is talking about to an extent (that KyleGoetz guy in the other thread about mieru, mirareru is a twat as is the Rickoshay guy in the thread questioning whether or not people think the Japanese Emperor as God)

But while they stand out on this forum, in the real world, they are a minority in my experience.

Would this topic stem from the general type of answers appearing in the "Is kanji necessary?" thread?

I'd say that it's rather the attitude of "I watched sooo much anime I know everything about Japan, maaaan!" kiddies towards those who actually live here and work double time to be part of Japanese society.

If one refuses to respect other's experience on the matter, he should not expect respect for his own trivia information about bits and pieces of the exact same thing. It would fight against common sense.

There is and should not be equality in experience, knowledge and skills among people, not real nor imagined one.

I agree with acjama. It is the attitude of those who feel they know so much about Japan despite having very little true experience with the country... versus those who actually do have direct knowledge and experience.

Nothing is more frustrating than being told that, no, I am totally wrong because in some anime/drama/book it said otherwise, etc.

Hi Acjama,

No, no, not at all. It is not said in reference to any specific thread at all.

I've been witnessing (or at least I *think* I have) a general condescending attitude toward people who are deemed "fan boys/girls" from others who are more fluent in the culture and language.

I can understand that anime is a hot button word that doesn't conjure feelings of respect toward the individuals ogling over anime by foreigners who study Japanese or live in Japan but they are also .. kids. It seems the ones who protest the loudest are the older adults - not the kids. If you're an adult over 25 years old who gets upset over kids liking anime then maybe you want to re-evaluate who has the real problem. It's cute to me that they like another culture. I've also seen grown adults openly mock adults and kids alike who are genuinely interested in the culture or for trying to help answer a language question. Again, a re-evaluation of who has the real problem may be in store.

An interesting thing you said: "those who actually live here and work double time to be a part of Japanese society."

That seems to be where the dividing line is to me: The people striving to be a part of Japanese society vehemently disassociate themselves from their anime loving cousins or anyone else for that matter who doesn't seem to fit the bill. Truly, it seems the more adept one becomes in the Japanese culture the more one seems to loathe any other foreigner venturing into this territory.

I'm not sure I understand the particular context but I agree that respect is a 2 way street.

I truly agree that we all have different life experiences, knowledge, and skills (real and/or imagined heh) and if using the life experiences, knowledge, and skill sets that someone is proficient in as reasons to disrespect people or make light of them then that speaks volumes for the emotional maturity of the individual.

Thanks Acjama for the reply and again this is not said in a particular reference to any thread.

This I think is somewhat accurate. But probably true in all fields of study I would say.

Sometimes it's warranted of course.

Like when Christians try to comment on biology or physics.

Other times it isn't. Like when someone asks an innocent question and they are treated with contempt for no good reason.

After reading the last post, I get the feeling that I am thinking of a slightly different scenario. I don`t think I have ever mocked or been hostile toward anyone for liking anime, being a fanboy/girl, etc.
I likely have been if they tried to tell me I was wrong and they were right, thanks to knowledge they gained through anime/manga/etc.

In general though, people who go over the top with anything are frustrating and annoying - particularly when this gets in the way of reality. It tends to be these types who get the worst shock in the end when they do come face to face with the real world.

I like anime, but aside from a few basic words that I am able to pick up here and there, I fully realize it will be of no assistance in understanding Japanese culture.

beginner or veteran, it matters not to me.

It's OK to make mistakes, just be respectful then you are all welcome in Japan.

All I said was ani-nerds.. is that really all that offensive? Honestly I could care less if someone loves anime, j-bands etc, good for them, I was simply stating what the majority of this forum seems to be about. Anyhow, what I was annoyed by is the fact that the OP in the other thread clearly has not discovered Google (aka is lazy).

Well even if he or she lives in japan and knows more of the language , so what he is STILL a GAIJIN.. such an a$$$ .. i love anime, samurai and that stuff and when I meet this gaijin who loves the same thing, it kinda remind me of my reaction when I first came to Japan.:vsign:

Unless of course he/she is rude and really really stupid then that is a different story ..:mtongue:

My reaction in Japan would prolly be to stare blankly because I would have no clue about anything.

You haven't watched enough anime, and that prevents you from being kawaii desu.
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The more you learn about something, the more you acknowledge it isn't as awesome as you thought it was.

I guess many of the animu fans such as me, had a phase were he/she would consider everything from japan to be the best... the animu 破滅のマルス, is sort of an instant cure for this disease.

Nevertheless, I really don't care about those people, but it is somewhat annoying to read people with half broken wapanese.

Searching using a search engine requires less effort so I would hardly call it laziness.

Perhaps this sort of medium is what the OP prefers? Or perhaps the OP tried an internet search and the answers were unsatisfactory?

living in a foreign country 101: keep a low profile and act decently.

is it something difficult to follow? no.

I see exactly what you mean. I mean,calling somebody a weaboo! Some people on here[no-one off the top of my head] have acted like teenagers!And I'm 19! Just chill out guys,seriously! I believe that anyone that is not offensive is fine. Us and them is how wars start. Yes I know there will be an element of it but you've still got to be a nice person in the world. This just comes across to me as snobbery.

Yeah,that guy that said he wanted to get laid with a hot Japanese girl on holiday then asked why Japanese porn is so disgusting I can see,he was an idiot but you can avoid those people. If somebody is a ''weaboo'' you tease them,you politely advise them to calm down,you don't say that they are the worst possible people on this Earth!

I see exactly what you mean. I mean,calling somebody a weaboo! Trying to make out there's loads of people out there who are running into Japan like a deer in headlights! Some people on here[no-one off the top of my head] have acted like teenagers! And I'm 19! Just chill out guys,seriously! I believe that anyone that is not offensive is fine. Us and them is how wars start. Yes I know there will be an element of it but you've still got to be a nice person in the world. This just comes across to me as snobbery.

Yeah,that guy that said he wanted to get laid with a hot Japanese girl on holiday then asked why Japanese porn is so disgusting I can see,he was an idiot but you can avoid those people. If somebody is a ''weaboo'' you tease them,you politely advise them to calm down,you don't say that they are the worst possible people on this Earth!

I have almost left this board numerous times because of it.

I think it's just in general the old timers here who actually live or have lived in Japan and know what it is really like get tired of the views expressed by often very young people who have never travelled anywhere, let alone Japan and have no idea what it is like to live there. People who are fanatical about Japan and think they can really understand it's people and culture through watching or reading a few cartoons! People who seem to believe that Japan is some sort of nirvana, whose people and culture embody perfection itself. Those of us who've lived many years in Japan know that's not the case. To constantly read the completely naive views of people, who are generally struggling to fit into their own culture, thinking they will find total acceptance and be embraced into Japanese culture just gets ridiculous. And for those of us who have actually lived there many years to then be told that we have no idea what we are talking about is really very annoying. Some people just don't like to hear reality. They want to cling to their naive perceptions.

I am referring to the research the student could get done by using Google. So it does not require less effort. And this sort of medium to me is called having someone else do my homework for me, aka lazy. In any case the question itself is kind of eye-rolling in my opinion, kind of like asking if there are still a lot of active Nazis in Germany.

Yea. Most people only look at the face of japan ( Anime and stuff), not the heart ( the culture). I'm not japanese, but i'm sure it gets enoying.

I understand.
 

Yea. Most people only look at the face of japan ( Anime and stuff), not the heart ( the culture). I'm not japanese, but i'm sure it gets enoying.

To be fair, many Japanese do the same with other foreigners. Even people in America do it to each other. Whites and other races only see Blacks as ignorant entertainers or criminals. Blacks may see all Whtes as KKK members and people trying to hold us back, etc. Maybe there is truth in stereotypes...

Stereotypes exist because enough folks fit the aspect. Dumb Jock for instance or bespeckled nerd in a lab coat. The thing is, not every guy with classes is a nerd or works at a lab and not every athletic person is dumb.

Stereotypes are similer to arch types. Archtypes are used in liturature and theatre because it's easy to utilize as a framework for a character. The knight in shineing armor or Damsel in distess or the nefarious mustache twirrling bad guy. Those are all archtypes. Cultures may be built on archetype creation. Sparta creating the super soldier for example. However, this doesn't allways have to be the case.

RustyBlacklerford; white european cultures for thousands of years have worked around violence and warfare. Barbarians and empires confroting each other constantly, sometimes barbaric empire against barbaric empire. It's mostly because the populations were constantly fighting for limited agricultural land and resources.. Winter comes early in northern Europe and survival of the family or tribe more often than not ment looting somebody elses house.

Africa has it's share of violent history, but not the constant changeing of hot and cold wich could account for some of the differences in cultural exstreams. Whites didn't treat black folk any different than they treated each other historically speaking. You should check out how Germans and Swiss and Austrians, French, British and that whole lot treated each other way before they knew Africa was even a continant.

Point of interest, the idea of being dissed and getting all up in your grill. That's not an African thing traditionally. American blacks learned that behavior from the Scottish and Irish immigrants that lived around them, they are very clannish and saveing "face" and not looking weak is a strong driveing force amoung many of them, look at the Hatfields and McCoys. That's an irony for you.

Excellent points, Ryzorian. The fact remains that Blacks still lag behind others in all aspects of civilization and are generally disliked by all other humans. Maybe genetics is the reason, but either way, it sucks to be Black.

I don't know, Cush was a mighty African empire, Bethsheba was a African Queen who also built an empire, and yes, supposedly sired children with King Solomon, the wisest man on earth. So she musta had something going for her. The Zulu were and are a proud culture that even handed Britain one of it's worse defeats in history.

Personally I think cultural advances have something to do with climate change and the 4 seasons and war, lots of war. War makes advances in technology that advance civilization. Africa has far less "war" history than Europe. That doesn't mean tribes didn't fight, they did, but not nearly to the extent that Europe did.

I don't say this to make some claim that Europeans are better than Africans, what I am saying is that because Europeans fought amoung them selves so often and on such a large scale that techology and civiliation lept forward for them out of nessecity. If it hadn't Europeans would prolly be extinct, they almost wiped themselves out at least three different times as it is.

There is far more white blood on the hands of whites than any other. Read the history of Europe, the 100 years war, the 30's war, Nepolean, Franco /Prussian war, Rome the barbarians. I'm celt heritage myself, we contributed "berzerkers". Nutjobs with an battle axe basically. Do you really want to send Africa through such a crucible? European dark Ages weren't called that because they didn't have electricity.

No matter what the reasons are, the world is the way it is. Europeans emerged dominant after the Dark Ages. If you look at Africa now, there are berserkers with cheap AKs.

I believe that there were a few empires in Africa, but they could not compare to or compete with European or Asian empires. As far as King Solomon or any other Bible characters, I don't know if they even existed.

In this world, Europeans ARE better than Africans, like it or not. As a person of African descent, and a person that wish that I could go back to Japan and be a hit with the ladies, I don't like it one bit. If I were a White dude, I'd love the work of my ancestors and reap the benefits of being a White man.

You say this, "reaping the benifits of being white", yet choose to ignore what it cost us to be that. Killed each other en mass, hated by most the world as "imperialist war mongers", we were barbarians and in some ways still are. Each white, deep down, want's to rule the world. Isn't that how everyone else views us?

Whites are worshiped by most of the world. Take a stroll down Midosuji Blvd and you will probably get chicks. Having blond hair and blue eyes is like affirmative action: guaranteed eikaiwa job. Being Black sucks. I would love to be a White man. The world doesn't care about morality, only who is winning.

Every PERSON deep down wants to rule the world; whites succeed or come close to succeeding and most Blacks can only dream of being as successful or powerful as whites (or any non-Blacks for that matter).

I'm German, but that doesn't mean I'm a nazi. I'm Russian, but that doesn't mean I'm communist, or a drunk barbarian. I'm white, but that doesn't mean I want to rule the world. In fact, I'd like to become of service to other countries... Like Japan.

The people living right now are responsible for their own actions. Not their ancestors. Your race doesn't define who you are, and most certainly won't define how you live your life or your future. You are who you want to be.

As for anime lovers...
I don't have a problem with that, to some degree. At school, the "manga lovers" don't want to talk to me because even though I love Japan, I don't read manga or watch anime. They claim to love Japanese culture, but they only love the cartoons.
I'm a future foreign exchange student (I'm either going to Japan this coming August, 2012 or the next in 2013... for a year) and the other foreign exchange students think that I only want to go to Japan because I love anime. I get called "close-minded" all the time by them, and they tell me to experience "real culture"... in Europe.

I've wanted to go to Japan since I was 5 years old. Really, my mom remembers me obsessing over it for that long. I was always drawing pictures of geisha... Dragging her into Japanese antique shops, and the like... So for someone who doesn't even know me to claim I only want to go to Japan because of anime really ticks me off. It upsets me that a lot of anime lovers set that view of the rest of us who genuinely love Japanese culture, but it's even sadder that there are those who choose to not believe it.

And their race didn't matter. They all said the same thing ;P

I don't have blond hair or blue eyes either. My brother has sandy blond with blue eyes but I got really dark hair that's mostly silver now. I dare say if I stept foot in some arbian country they would try to cut my head off and nail it to a wall.

Blond hair + Blue eyes doesn't equal white worship. Japanese are in love with the American image created thru the movies. Japanese want the 2 car garage, large lawn, picket fence and barbecue. Wanting the good life they see in the movies doen't mean they want to be white.

Go ask a bunch of Yankee delinquents if they are white worshipers. After all, they call themselves 'Yankee', some of their fashion clearly comes from 60s America, and they like to bleach their hair and wear Hawaiian shirts.

As far as the Japanese populace bleaching their hair, I don't see how that is trying to be white. Before Asians bleach their hair, whites did! dark haired white girls bleach their hair because they wanted to be blond. Blonds sometimes dye their hair dark because they feel like a new look. Black girls straighten their hair because they like it better that way. Punk rockers dye their hair green, biker guys have ear rings. etc. etc... It's about style and fashion not race.


I agree with this.

I am sorry dude but you have no data to support any of this. How long have you been in Japan? Have you lived there, or just been there for vacation? I ask because I think you are totally wrong about getting jobs, and girls. I hate to say it but I think this is just your defense mechanism, for all your failures at getting girls etc.. And even if this is truly your experience, ie (because you are black you could not get an eikaiwa job or a girlfriend) it does not mean it is everybody's, I said before I lived in Japan for 7 years, and have found everything you profess to be false, based upon the black people I know who are involved with Japan. So again, do you have some data, or is it your word against mine? if so I want to know how much experience you have and if it is much less than mine, please think hard about the limits of your own perceptions and experience before deciding how the world must be, so to speak.

Most Black people that I talk to agree with me. Some of them are tall or light-skinned though so they can slip by, but they still have nowhere near the success that Whites and other superior races have.