June 24, 2008

Gaijin Can Understand Our Inscrutable Society?!

Found a mildly disappointing, yet not surprising, survey today as translated by Ken at What Japan Thinks. Take a look at this list of things foreigners can do to surprise Japanese people:

1 Writing difficult kanji
2 Bowing on the telephone
3 Using dialect
4 Speaking Japanese fluently
5 Using proverbs, idioms
6 Eating natto
7 Habitually using chopsticks
8 Getting drunk with tie tied around head
9 Using Japanese era dates, not Western calendar
10 Singing enka, folk songs
11 Passing through crowds with a “suimasen” and the one-handed chop
12 Sitting “seiza”
13 Slurping noodles
14 Dancing a bon dance
15 Using a toothpick
16 After a bath drinking fruity milk with one hand on hip
17 Sleeping on a futon on the floor
18 Taking off shoes before going indoors
19 Wearing a kimono, yukata
20 Queueing properly
Let's analyze. Numbers 1-5 I can kind of understand. After that a lot of them are either quaint or severely underestimating foreigners. We do our homework before we come, Japan. And I could swear America invented #8. #16 is not something I ever thought of as cultural. #15 makes no sense.
One of the things I liked about our new textbooks was the chapter with the foreigner complaining about being asked if she uses chopsticks all the time. I used that as a spring board for a lesson about what is rude in both countries and what isn't and the difference. It's hard to explain why the chopstick and language compliments are "rude" though.
Number 10 is one of my favorite activities.

5 comments:

  1. 20) Queueing properly

    WTF the Japanese can't even queue properly. No one can queue quite like the English. Sometimes I hum the national anthem and think of good times in the old country when I see a good queue.

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  2. Japanese like to believe that they and their culture are very unique, means special, and Gaijins can never fully understand or immitate their uniquness. Therefore seeing Gaijins doing those thing surprises them.
    For Japanese, speaking foreign language fluently is like a magic as they do not speak English after 6 years of English education at their middle and high schools.
    And since they like to believe learning Japanese is more difficult than learning English, seeing Gaijins who speak good Japanese can totally startle them.
    And yes, some Gaijins like you do homework before they come to Japan because they are interested in Japanese culture, but others like Gaijins on their short business trip and U.S.servicemen stationed in Japan usually do not.
    Japanese media keeps feeding them the stereo types of Gaijins, guess what they are.
    And after all, Japanese are islanders, they do not know what to expect from foreigners.
    Just like the old Japanese saying, 井の中の蛙、大海を知らず。

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  3. Perhaps what was meant by #15 was that typically, though not always, a Japanese person will cover the toothpick with their other hand while they pry at the little food bits. Thus hiding the toothpick and teeth from the view of others.

    Or perhaps not.

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  4. My favorite is #3 and if you edit #14 to "Dancing yosakoi", that would be my ultimate favorite!

    ReplyDelete
  5. This.Is.Supposed.To.Be.Funny.

    No?

    You take it way to seriously. Or maybe I have just been here too long. It happens. Either way, I find the list pretty funny.

    ReplyDelete

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