| ThirdSight |
08-10-2008 06:29 AM |
America's known as the "land of opportunity", or was at some point. This country is a giant melting pot of races, creeds, religions, cultures, sub-cultures, you name it. Yet when people go to get jobs, there's still a lot of discrimination going around; not enough to make it to the public face, but just enough to stay under the surface so the generic public thinks it's not happening. It's a hell of a lot harder for an Indian guy with a heavy accent, or a Muslum/Middle Eastern person to get a job, I can imagine, than a white/black/mexican/hispanic person. And women are still getting the short end of the stick; not as much as they were a few years back, but it's still not as perfect as we'd like it to be.
Every country has it's ups and downs, it's goods and bads. I can't drive through LA safely; I don't know the city, and all I need to do is turn down one wrong street and I'll be shot on sight. Nearly every major city in America is filled with cold, nearly heartless, uncaring people that'd be more than willing to step on you to further their own ambitions and goals. Not everyone's like that obviously, but the vast majority of city livers are.
Two friends of mine went to Japan a while back, one for a semester, the other for a year. The friend that went for just a semester came back loving the country, telling stories of the incredible people, how nice they all were, how accepting they were of foreigners, and how overall awesome the experience was. The friend that went for a year came back with horror stories. Nothing lived up to his expectations: the people were cold, racist, it was slightly difficult to find a job, and everyone seemed to give a rat's ass about anyone or anything; hell, he wanted to come home before his stay reached the halfway mark. The difference? The friend who stayed for a semester stayed in the country, the other went to Tokyo City. This isn't the catch-all scenario for explaining the troubles faced when dealing with other cultures, but it certainly paints a nice picture.
In nearly every culture, there are sub-cultures within them. And hell, the citizens of that country and culture usually turn a slightly blind eye to the troubles that plague the country/culture they're a part of in order to not feel miserable constantly. Nearly every country is like this to some degree, even those of us here in the US (and we have a laundry list of problems). I can imagine the people of Japan no different. And of course they may look at foreigners whilst rolling their eyes, the proof of that is these forums. Should your average Japanese citizen take a gander at these forums, I can only imagine they'd be rolling their eyes saying to themselves, "Lord, here come more foreigners who came here from anime." I wouldn't doubt, nor be surprised for a second, if most of the Japanese citizens looked at nearly all foreigners as ignorant dreamers.
Every country has problems, the difference is how the citizens, visitors, and foreigners deal with them on a daily basis. A horrible experience doesn't and shouldn't label the country as horrible, as it's unfair and most likely biased on culture-clashed conclusions.
In short: If you want to go to Japan, or any other country for that matter, go for it, but do your homework in advance and go with an open mind and heart.
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