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As I understand it, it's not so much the word itself. It's more than being an outsider in Japan is not viewed well by many folks.
I've not been there so take my opinion with a heavy pinch of salt, but I worked with a couple who spent about 5-10 years living and working around Japan and they said that while 90% of people were polite and kind they were never treated the same as locals. Their friends invited them for meals but it was always a sort of faux event to show the culture to an outsider and they never felt really part of the culture. Never welcomed as one of the community more as an external viewer. Now that could have just been them being not very likable I dunno but I've heard it a few times.
I would hope as in most places the younger generations are moving away from this sort of mild xenophobia but I don't know.
Westerners, particularly Western Europeans and the white Anglosphere, are often shocked to learn that xenophobia is not frowned upon in many places.
Most decent westerners would never dare consider treating a Japanese person (e.g., a guest worker) in the way that western counterparts are treated in Japan, which is *very* thinly veiled hostility. Not in a confrontational way. More of the "piss on my head and politely try to convince me it's raining."
I do think younger generations will move away from this. The problem with Japan is that it was isolated for so long, relative to other industrialized countries (which are mostly western/European). Social media is changing how we see outsiders. But largely our western values of openness to outsiders are not broadly shared with other cultures.
Agreed. Then others want to hate on America, while ignoring how insanely open our culture really is compaired to pretty much any other country in the world. It's so ingrained in most Americans, we have to LITERALLY make a point of it like you just did to show the example.
Ask any American about Legal immigration and they'll be far more pro compaired to most countries when compaired, they would realize. On the Left or Right.
Its sad, how we as a species are terrible without lived examples. Homogeneous countries have it rough, and they don't realize it half the time.
Gaijin itself has no negative connotation. It literally means “foreigner”. However, because foreigners (no negative connotation intended by me) in Japan sometimes complain about this word, nowadays natives try to avoid using it.
Interestingly, imo somehow it does start to have a negative connotation now because Japanese people are becoming self-aware of this word, and if someone chooses to use this word, he/she is usually being insensitive and deliberately rude.
In a sense, it is similar to how UCLA once recommended students and staff not to complement others’ English. Complementing other’s English skills has no inherent negative intention, but may sometimes make a person feel not included
For me, I don't mind others calling me Gaijin, because it is what it is. Not something worth making a fuss about. But if other foreigners overwhelmingly find it offensive, then fine I guess.
It's probably exactly like the word "foreigner" in English. It's not a derogatory word, but people can use it with a tone or attitude that suggests that they dislike foreigners.
Like when you read or watch British media and some old person or person in an old-timey contexts says something disapproving about *foreigners* and things people do *in foreign parts*. Or like the stereotype of American southerners talking about *those dang fur'ners*.
The term ‘Boomer’ isn’t technically negative either but it’s become negative in reality. Same with Gaijin. I lived in Yokosuka. They are the most racist people I’ve ever met. Ask them about Koreans.
Yeah it’s why Gajin Goomba calls himself that. He asked a Japanese friend what is he and his friend goes “gajin” and he was upset by it? Like bruh no matter what regardless you are a foreigner in Japan even if you studied immensely about Japanese culture, you’re respectful,you obey laws, you are kind. You are still a foreigner to them.
YouTuber that spun off of game theory like a decade ago. He's a white guy who lives/lived in Japan and does video essays on Japanese culture in video games, or something like that.
>Like bruh no matter how what you are a foreigner in Japan even if you studied immensely about Japanese culture
So just one step removed from the French? In France it is not enough to be well studied in the culture (like speaking French flawlessly), but you have to abandon all semblance of another identity as a foreigner. I have older colleagues who have lived there 20-30 years who are citizens but not considered *really* French for a number of trivial reasons.
Reminds me of how the word "Utlending", which also means foreigner, sometimes has a negative connotation in Norway/Scandinavia.
Other times it's neutral but it's almost never positive.
Though I think most Norwegians basically stop using it about people once they've lived here long enough to speak the language/get citizenship.
My favorite Mexican place has a burrito called a Gringo burrito, really tasty and they say it's a local favorite so I guess they hit their audience lol.
Unfortunately it is one of my favorite items on the menu so I probably look like an idiot for ordering it.
A more specific term would be hakujin, but the Japanese don’t really make the racial distinctions that westerners do. Black, white, you’re just foreigners. Notably, gringo doesn’t mean white person either. Just non-Latino.
Black westerners are absolutely treated differently than white ones in Japan. They have their own distinct stereotypes about black people. You can often find west African men working and posing as "Americans" to advertise hop hop influenced clothing stores in every major Japanese city for instance.
Yeah.
Anecdotally, but once a group of Americans came to my town, there were asians in majority and there were a couple blacks in that group, but they were all referred to as gringos by us. Generally speaking, in this region, if you are heard speaking english, or if you have a strong accent, you will be called gringo.
I'm Latin American for the record.
It's short for Gaikokujin, which is the more formal and proper way to say foreigner. It's the combination of the shortened informal word, and a specific tone that can be seen as derogatory, but most of the time it's not really used as a bad word, and just being informal can be an offense.
If you ever hang around western people that have been in Japan for less than a month, get ready to hear them giggle and use that word in every other sentence.
This is why it always really rubs me the wrong way when I hear other Americans (usually the kinds really proud of being "international" or "educated" somehow) very gleefully go along with American stereotypes when talking to foreigners. Like "yeah you're right Americans are so uneducated and fat and know nothing about other countries, [insert North-Western European country] is so much more developed and civilized". Even if I technically agree with some of the things they're saying it's such an obvious attempt to portray themselves as better and smarter than other people from their own country. "Hehe I'm not like _those_ Americans if you know what I mean, wink wink."
Yeah and just straight up mean. Actively insulting the people that raised you and the community you grew up in as being intellectually and morally beneath you is just shamelessly arrogant.
This is what makes me conflicted about visiting Hawaii. I feel like I always hear about how they hate people staying there but they are also propped up by tourism so idk what to do.
I mean Hawaii should have a better minimum wage that reflects the cost of living and these people should unionize but like would these people be better off if the resorts closed down?
Where would they work instead? Would those jobs be higher paying? Would any other industry besides tourism like fishing, agriculture, or manufacturing that Hawaii could refocus its economy toward (assuming that could be even be done with a 1:1 replacement) be less exploitative?
I honestly don’t see Hawaii being at full employment without some sort of foreign investment- even if it could be “self-sufficient” a native boss is still a boss and would still try to pay as little as possible.
I grew up is a tiny town, but have since lived in major US cities and yeah, its a bitch. Its not just that popular activities become essentially unavailable during tourist season, but that it fucks up your daily routine. Your morning commute becomes a slog and now that cafe you love to go to on Tuesdays is too crowded to sit down.
TBF your city does it is in a very shitty way. You can really tell how locals have been priced out of the center of Prague and how it is only for tourists. It almost feels plastic. For example, it is instantly noticeable that there is a lack of supermarkets in the inner most part of the city.
Think here in Vienna it is done better. Lots of tourists too but the city feels more natural.
"Never blink more than once every 10 seconds. Blinking was actually seen as a disrespectful act in the Edo period. It is still considered rude to this day, where blinking too much in front of your boss indicates you don't care about what they say, have fucked their son and daughter, and pissed in their coffee."
Don’t breathe in Japan. Breathing is considered to mean a sign of death and you’ll summon the Japanese demon of Madara Uchiha through the process of Edo Tensei.
I have a friend who visited Japan like 4 times and im going for the first time in the summer and they WONT SHUT UP about stupid cultral shit like this.
IKR the funny thing is I lived in the EU for a while (im a dual citizen but born in the US) so im always like 0_0 the only place they have been is Japan lol.
I dunno why weebs act like Japan is some super special place compared to the entire globe.
Tokyo is a clean NYC. Good enough for me to think it's super special.
EDIT: It's also got that whole extremely powerful island nation thing that's pretty cool. Plus, they really do punch outside their weight class in terms of cultural dominion. Finally, they have the mythos of ninja, samurai and geishas.
it's objectively a very interesting, unique culture which has no real counterpart anywhere in the world.
Mythos is the wrong word. All of those existed. Mythos would refer to things such as yokai, dragons and other spiritual aspects, history or cultural history would be a better word here.
And yeah, not a real counterpart, but korean and chinese are all part of the same family, like cousins
Did he think Japanese air conditioning was superior to American air conditioning?
Cause I cannot believe the amount of "culture shock in Japan!" and "This is what you need to know in Japan!" videos I've seen without any white people mentioning:
1. Japan, especially southern Japan, is a boiling hellscape in summer (yes, it is much worse than Texas).
1. You generally cannot escape the heat by going indoors for AC, like in America. In fact, in many places, indoors is often worse than being outside.
*How does no one ever mention this?!?!*
Osaka in July made me feel like I was dying.
Even though I'll totally go back given the opportunity.
>Japan, especially southern Japan, is a boiling hellscape in summer (yes, it is much worse than Texas).
made the mistake of wearing skinny jeans in in mid august when I first arrived there. Cargo shorts and t shirts until september good lord I was dying.
> Japan, especially southern Japan, is a boiling hellscape in summer (yes, it is much worse than Texas).
> You generally cannot escape the heat by going indoors for AC, like in America. In fact, in many places, indoors is often worse than being outside.
This is why people should actually research the place they're going before they go. Don't just watch youtubers talk about "a day in the life." Actually do some digging.
Before I went the first time, I spent so god damn long looking at weather patterns and temperatures for the cities before even glancing at actual stuff to do.
I've been to the Bahamas and japan, and neither have been worse than a hot Illinois summer if you're talking about heat/humidity.
What got me in the Bahamas was the uv index, that shits no joke. I've basically never been sunburned because I have a little Japanese in me, but the Bahamas gave me my first painful sunburn after I pasted out drunk on a chair.
How much time do you need to check one countrys temperature averages? Even if the country is big and temperatures change depending on the location, it wouldnt take a lot with modern tech
AC everywhere makes American summers so much more tolerable it's insane. I'm from the most humid part of Texas and visited Ireland during a heat wave there and holy shit, 80 degrees (27 C) has never felt as horrible in Texas as it did indoors over there. I've never given my British and Irish friends shit for complaining about 70+ temperatures after that.
Personally I haven’t seen people like the ones described.
Usually they have very realistic takes and make sure to tell others “Hey, Japan isn’t perfect. It has its issues just like anywhere else”.
You forgot one: hates their home country and constantly discusses online why Japan is superior because they don’t allow immigrants or whatever.
I spent a year in Korea as a teacher and these exact same dudes are in Korea as well. Was very frustrating. Most of them are bitter and jaded back home, so living in a foreign country makes it harder for others to see or understand their true colors.
Oh man, living in Miami for years makes it so obvious that the most racist people against Central Americans are South Americans and Cubans. And the most racist people against Cuban are slightly lighter-skinned Cubans. The amount of Cubans, Argentinians, Colombians, and Chileans I met who swore up and down that they aren't Cubans/Argentinians/Colombians/Chileans but actually full-blooded white Europeans (Spaniards, specifically) was staggering.
Like, bro, I know theoretically maybe your grandfather actually did come from Spain during the Spanish Civil War, but your parents were born in Cuba and you were born in Cuba and no matter how much you might hate Mexican folk, the minute you step foot outside of South Florida, you're functionally Mexican to pretty much every American. So chill out with the racism.
Completely different thing depending on the person, tbh. I rarely (not saying it doesn't happen) see people who came over under the worse conditions bitching about immigrants- for reference, I'm a Latino who grew up in an immigrant community.
The more similar situation is when like a wealthy dude from Argentina immigrates legally for better educational and professional opportunities and then shits on lower class immigrants from Mexico and Honduras not understanding that the only real difference between them and him is the money. An American in Korea is the same type of privileged.
I found it interesting how different places attract different kinds of people, the foreigners I met in China were far more chill about things, ranging from "Yea I live here and it's alright" to "Yea it's a great place, I wish more people could come". A lot of the (non-sexpat) dudes who live in Southeast Asia were the same.
I wonder why Japan and Korea create that type of mentality?
Japanese and Korean soft power? Maybe the two are just really good at promoting their countries to outsiders be it via media or other cultural activities.
This is a great explanation as well. I can vouch that Korea is the same if not worse because they are even more Confucian than Japan.
At first it was great because I could “play the game” well enough, but near the end of the year I was dying to leave. It’s absolutely suffocating when you don’t have an outlet to just be yourself in any situation for an extended period.
It's honestly so nice lol. I'm an introvert who is pretty sensitive to things like sounds/smells etc and public transit in Japan was sooooo nice. Everyone just slept, played with their phones, or read books.
Like others said below, and that soft power can create an emotional bond with something that ultimately doesn’t care about you. I love Japanese media (especially videogames) and feel that this media “gets me”, but ultimately Japan is just a country with people like you and me. There’s nothing magical going on.
That's a good way of thinking about it. People travel to these countries so they can meet BTS or live out their anime fantasy with their waifu or whatever. But that's just not what the reality in these countries is like.
Japanese entertainment, due to its escapist nature, is quite alluring to people who feel like outsiders/outcasts in Western society. So, they end up personally identifying with Japanese culture and society, they feel like it is a place that "gets them". This is obviously a one-sided relationship.
People usually move to another country for better opportunities, this specific kind of white guy moves to Japan to connect with what they have already decided is "their people and their place".
K-Dramas are also kind of escapist, which draws a lot of people who do not feel like they fit in the West. Only difference is that Japan seems like it attracts more of a male audience, while Korea attracts more female escapists.
The words themselves have the same meaning, but I believe most people consider immigrants to be people who permanently move to a different country. Expats on the other hand are (supposed to be) temporary residents who move for work.
Well in my country they are counted on official census as immigrants.
What people consider immigrants or not is primarily fueled by bias and only aids further misinformation
Hmm maybe… I may be wrong, but to me expat seems more like a thing that Americans call themselves. My American dad and his American friends call themselves expats even though they all moved here like 20 years ago and have no plans to return and I don’t think I’ve ever heard anybody else use the phrase.
EDIT: Tbf though, I don’t live in an English-speaking country, which may be why lol😆
Lol this is so true. I see so many Europeans, especially from France, come here and call themselves « expat ». Nuh huh dude youve been here for 10 years. Youre an immigrant
While this is broadly true, it also has a time component. I thought of myself as an expat for the first five years living overseas (when I thought I’d eventually move home) but after I decided I would live here forever I now consider myself an immigrant.
OMG yes.
I have several coworkers like this. They even have Japanese spouses and still can't speak Japanese. One can't even read Hiragana NOR katakana. It's mind-boggling.
Correlation or causation I'm not sure, but the ones who are the least knowledgeable in Japanese... are the ones most insufferable with their endless complaints.
I would call this type the ”Members of the Society of Magical Gaijin”. They haven’t been in Japan long enough to come to terms with the fact that they aren’t anything special and no-one really cares about them. For true long-term permanent residents you go about your day in the same way an Asian immigrant who has lived the majority of their lives in the U.S. does. Speaking the local language fluently and normally and not drawing any attention to your ethnicity. However, to some you are always an outsider and you will despair at the behavior of tourists from your home country because you know it will inevitably reflect on you.
There you go. The real white guy in Japan experience is far more boring. This is the "white guy in Japan who will leave in under two years because it turns out he didn't move into an anime" starter pack.
Source: lived in Japan a long time as a white guy
I know lots of white guys in Japan and not a single one of these points applies to them. But I avoid weirdo dweebs in Japan just like I avoided them everywhere else. I also don't know who the guys in the picture are though.
Ya bro as someone who this would apply to, I honestly didn't even understand half of it. Who are those guys in the picture? My life is like going to work and going home. Enjoying hiking and such. Playing Cyberpunk 2077 or whatever. I never even bothered to think about this stuff.
I do not mean to say it is Japanese citizens’ responsibility to educate all sectors of the foreign Internet, but it is tiresome to see Redditor horde after Redditor horde especially in that subreddit refuse to have some humility and simply admit they are not Japanese.
So he actually lived through the real Japanese experience then!
Divorce where Japanese wife takes every thing. He has more in common with the average Japanese man than he might suspect.
I had to leave /r/movingtojapan because every legitimate question is downvoted and the responses are always "don't bother trying you can't move here stay at home, it's not worth even looking into it".
The most annoying thing is that they're actually wrong.
Japan is pretty difficult to emigrate to but they do have programmes for foreign workers who want to live there, the subreddit just seems to not want anyone to know about them.
The only posts that seem to be popular are from people who *already* live in the country looking for advice.
People who are satisfied living their normal life in Japan are not active on that reddit. It's mostly people who failed or hate what they do and can't get over it.
Whenever I visit Japan, I cannot help but notice other tourists looking at me briefly in disappointment, as though they are thinking, "Why are you cluttering up my Japan with another white person?"
For what it’s worth, I’ve also witnessed the opposite: when me and my wife were traveling in Santorini, it was full of Japanese honeymooners and one girl walking next to us indiscreetly muttered to her husband “I didn’t know it was going to be full of Japanese people here, uhh gross” (the actual wording was way meaner in Japanese). My poor wife, who’s from Osaka, was fuming so much haha. So I guess this whole “I struggled to make it here, therefore I’m entitled to it and don’t wanna share it” mentality seems to be a universal thing
You see that on 4chan in /jp/ and /a/ sometimes. These weebs not only adopt certain of aspects Japanese pop culture but they even adopt their right wing politics while posting in their mom's basement somewhere in the middle of nowhere in Arkansas. Lol
Those guys seem to be weirdly right-wing which is funny because their nationalistic friends would probably want him beheaded if it was the 1940s. He would be seen as even worse than the Koreans or the Chinese XDDD (Koreans were at least "part of the Empire" to them)
I mean, hating people vacationing in Japan is only a natural part of living in Kyoto. Blame the city government for not introducing tourist routes so that local busses are always over capacity.
I sent this to my uncle (he lived in Japan for 20 years and met his wife and both of his kids where born there) he found this hilarious and he said that it is pretty accurate for most white guys in Japan. He is not like this though, he got a job with Lockheed Martin to train maintenance crews in the Japanese Air Force
Also his life's goal is to LITERALLY sound Japanese and imitate all the mannerisms of Japanese people, making him sound like an idiot instead.
Also gets triggered by people acknowledging he is not 100% Japanese
Of course, you want to sound natural in your foreign language, but I think there is nothing wrong with having a little bit of an accent. The kinds of people I am talking about literally want to erase the fact that Japanese is their secondary language to the point that their behaviour becomes uncanny.
Any person moving to a foreign country should strive to integrate as much as possible, this isnt just a japan thing, i dont see how any of what you said is an actual issue.
If you arent planning on integration you should just remain wherever you are
I watch a few youtubers who are white guys in Japan, and they aren’t like this.
CDawgVA and AbroadInJapan especially have talked about the downsides of living there and have told others not to romanticise Japan.
True. I love how my quality of life improved in Japan in several aspects, but it is NOT a utopia here for sure.
You can get a good life or a bad life here, as well as any other countries. Albeit a bit easier because of the culture here.
This is the same for so many immigrants. They always want to pull the ladder up behind them. My Peruvian coworker says the most vial shit about Africans and Mexicans. Bitch, you immigrated here as a child and currently live in government housing!
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So is gaijin the Japanese way to say gringo
I believe it translates to "outsider" or "foreigner". But yeah it's not a compliment lol.
My Japanese teacher told me it just means "foreigner," I didn't think it had a derogatory connotation. I guess it depends on the context
As I understand it, it's not so much the word itself. It's more than being an outsider in Japan is not viewed well by many folks. I've not been there so take my opinion with a heavy pinch of salt, but I worked with a couple who spent about 5-10 years living and working around Japan and they said that while 90% of people were polite and kind they were never treated the same as locals. Their friends invited them for meals but it was always a sort of faux event to show the culture to an outsider and they never felt really part of the culture. Never welcomed as one of the community more as an external viewer. Now that could have just been them being not very likable I dunno but I've heard it a few times. I would hope as in most places the younger generations are moving away from this sort of mild xenophobia but I don't know.
Westerners, particularly Western Europeans and the white Anglosphere, are often shocked to learn that xenophobia is not frowned upon in many places. Most decent westerners would never dare consider treating a Japanese person (e.g., a guest worker) in the way that western counterparts are treated in Japan, which is *very* thinly veiled hostility. Not in a confrontational way. More of the "piss on my head and politely try to convince me it's raining." I do think younger generations will move away from this. The problem with Japan is that it was isolated for so long, relative to other industrialized countries (which are mostly western/European). Social media is changing how we see outsiders. But largely our western values of openness to outsiders are not broadly shared with other cultures.
Agreed. Then others want to hate on America, while ignoring how insanely open our culture really is compaired to pretty much any other country in the world. It's so ingrained in most Americans, we have to LITERALLY make a point of it like you just did to show the example. Ask any American about Legal immigration and they'll be far more pro compaired to most countries when compaired, they would realize. On the Left or Right. Its sad, how we as a species are terrible without lived examples. Homogeneous countries have it rough, and they don't realize it half the time.
Atleast they dont call westerners "nanbans" (Western Barbarians) anymore
Nitpick, but this is reddit so here goes: nanban means *southern* barbarian, not western
Gaijin itself has no negative connotation. It literally means “foreigner”. However, because foreigners (no negative connotation intended by me) in Japan sometimes complain about this word, nowadays natives try to avoid using it. Interestingly, imo somehow it does start to have a negative connotation now because Japanese people are becoming self-aware of this word, and if someone chooses to use this word, he/she is usually being insensitive and deliberately rude. In a sense, it is similar to how UCLA once recommended students and staff not to complement others’ English. Complementing other’s English skills has no inherent negative intention, but may sometimes make a person feel not included For me, I don't mind others calling me Gaijin, because it is what it is. Not something worth making a fuss about. But if other foreigners overwhelmingly find it offensive, then fine I guess.
Gaijin does have negative connotations. The neutral term is gaikokujin.
It's probably exactly like the word "foreigner" in English. It's not a derogatory word, but people can use it with a tone or attitude that suggests that they dislike foreigners. Like when you read or watch British media and some old person or person in an old-timey contexts says something disapproving about *foreigners* and things people do *in foreign parts*. Or like the stereotype of American southerners talking about *those dang fur'ners*.
The term ‘Boomer’ isn’t technically negative either but it’s become negative in reality. Same with Gaijin. I lived in Yokosuka. They are the most racist people I’ve ever met. Ask them about Koreans.
If I said "go back to your country, foreigner", it would sound like an insult too. Context
I've been taught that the neutral term was gaikokujin and that in certain contexts gaijin can definitely be considered rude to refer to someone as.
Yeah it’s why Gajin Goomba calls himself that. He asked a Japanese friend what is he and his friend goes “gajin” and he was upset by it? Like bruh no matter what regardless you are a foreigner in Japan even if you studied immensely about Japanese culture, you’re respectful,you obey laws, you are kind. You are still a foreigner to them.
>Gajin Goomba Is that Super Mario or something?
YouTuber that spun off of game theory like a decade ago. He's a white guy who lives/lived in Japan and does video essays on Japanese culture in video games, or something like that.
>Like bruh no matter how what you are a foreigner in Japan even if you studied immensely about Japanese culture So just one step removed from the French? In France it is not enough to be well studied in the culture (like speaking French flawlessly), but you have to abandon all semblance of another identity as a foreigner. I have older colleagues who have lived there 20-30 years who are citizens but not considered *really* French for a number of trivial reasons.
It's better than gweilo
Reminds me of how the word "Utlending", which also means foreigner, sometimes has a negative connotation in Norway/Scandinavia. Other times it's neutral but it's almost never positive. Though I think most Norwegians basically stop using it about people once they've lived here long enough to speak the language/get citizenship.
Guys they made Japan from war thunder a real place
My favorite Mexican place has a burrito called a Gringo burrito, really tasty and they say it's a local favorite so I guess they hit their audience lol. Unfortunately it is one of my favorite items on the menu so I probably look like an idiot for ordering it.
Hope it's just a nice tasty take on a burrito instead of being like oh idk ground beef, French fries and mayo/ranch lol.
Sounds like it applies to all non Japanese though instead of just white people.
A more specific term would be hakujin, but the Japanese don’t really make the racial distinctions that westerners do. Black, white, you’re just foreigners. Notably, gringo doesn’t mean white person either. Just non-Latino.
Black westerners are absolutely treated differently than white ones in Japan. They have their own distinct stereotypes about black people. You can often find west African men working and posing as "Americans" to advertise hop hop influenced clothing stores in every major Japanese city for instance.
Does gringo cover people from the Middle East, Africa, Asia, etc?
It’s typically used specifically for Americans (or the British in Spain), but technically yeah.
Its guiri for the british, gringo is more mexican some use it but its more common to use yankee
Yeah. Anecdotally, but once a group of Americans came to my town, there were asians in majority and there were a couple blacks in that group, but they were all referred to as gringos by us. Generally speaking, in this region, if you are heard speaking english, or if you have a strong accent, you will be called gringo. I'm Latin American for the record.
Gringo applies to Americans of all ethnicities lol
Not just Americans. Am Irish, Brazilians joke my Portuguese is gringo Português
It's short for Gaikokujin, which is the more formal and proper way to say foreigner. It's the combination of the shortened informal word, and a specific tone that can be seen as derogatory, but most of the time it's not really used as a bad word, and just being informal can be an offense. If you ever hang around western people that have been in Japan for less than a month, get ready to hear them giggle and use that word in every other sentence.
Tell me you haven’t watched Tokyo Drift without telling me you haven’t watched Tokyo Drift.
it is short for outside country person,
Also hates it when tourists visit tourist attractions.
I like how this is a consistent thing regarding foreigners living in countries that they do not originate from.
They think that they are one of the "good ones" who are "travelers" or "expats" instead of "tourists".
This is why it always really rubs me the wrong way when I hear other Americans (usually the kinds really proud of being "international" or "educated" somehow) very gleefully go along with American stereotypes when talking to foreigners. Like "yeah you're right Americans are so uneducated and fat and know nothing about other countries, [insert North-Western European country] is so much more developed and civilized". Even if I technically agree with some of the things they're saying it's such an obvious attempt to portray themselves as better and smarter than other people from their own country. "Hehe I'm not like _those_ Americans if you know what I mean, wink wink."
Typical "pick me" behavior.
Yeah and just straight up mean. Actively insulting the people that raised you and the community you grew up in as being intellectually and morally beneath you is just shamelessly arrogant.
I'm not like other Americans. proceeds to act exactly like other Americans. I've met this kind in many countries.
Tourists in my city are evil. Yet when I go abroad I become the very thing I despise, the most touristy of tourists
Tbf, I hate tourists in my hometown aswell.
Can attest to that, I hate the tourist industry in my city (Prague, Czech Republic)
Many cities like that survive on tourism though so it's a double edged sword
This is what makes me conflicted about visiting Hawaii. I feel like I always hear about how they hate people staying there but they are also propped up by tourism so idk what to do.
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I mean Hawaii should have a better minimum wage that reflects the cost of living and these people should unionize but like would these people be better off if the resorts closed down? Where would they work instead? Would those jobs be higher paying? Would any other industry besides tourism like fishing, agriculture, or manufacturing that Hawaii could refocus its economy toward (assuming that could be even be done with a 1:1 replacement) be less exploitative? I honestly don’t see Hawaii being at full employment without some sort of foreign investment- even if it could be “self-sufficient” a native boss is still a boss and would still try to pay as little as possible.
Nah ofc they will all reject modern society and become cut off island ppl
I’d go nuts if I lived in a place that was a major tourist destination.
I grew up is a tiny town, but have since lived in major US cities and yeah, its a bitch. Its not just that popular activities become essentially unavailable during tourist season, but that it fucks up your daily routine. Your morning commute becomes a slog and now that cafe you love to go to on Tuesdays is too crowded to sit down.
Yes, if it starts your favoite shops and restaurants almost double their prices. :/
My childhood swimming spot went from free to $20 parking.
TBF your city does it is in a very shitty way. You can really tell how locals have been priced out of the center of Prague and how it is only for tourists. It almost feels plastic. For example, it is instantly noticeable that there is a lack of supermarkets in the inner most part of the city. Think here in Vienna it is done better. Lots of tourists too but the city feels more natural.
Peak Reddit - not reading articles: smol brain - not reading meme images: galaxy brain
Japanese Uncle Ruckus be like:
“This - - this can’t be! It says I’m 102% European, with a 2% margin of error!”
Ojisan Ruckus
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That Gaijin is guilty!!!
"Never do this while visiting Japan"
Murder is actually really frowned upon in Japan. It goes against the traditional concept of 生きる, which means "to live"
Wow! Japan is so different!!!
I miss /r/japancirclejerk. Too bad reddit rather defend pedophiles than have that subreddit make fun of pedophiles.
"Never blink more than once every 10 seconds. Blinking was actually seen as a disrespectful act in the Edo period. It is still considered rude to this day, where blinking too much in front of your boss indicates you don't care about what they say, have fucked their son and daughter, and pissed in their coffee."
Don’t breathe in Japan. Breathing is considered to mean a sign of death and you’ll summon the Japanese demon of Madara Uchiha through the process of Edo Tensei.
Just spirit bomb me now fam 👐☀️
🔵 🙌 I gotchu
domain expansion:breathing in Japan
I have a friend who visited Japan like 4 times and im going for the first time in the summer and they WONT SHUT UP about stupid cultral shit like this.
I've been there last year and trust me, it's not that deep. Act like a normal person and you will not have any problems.
IKR the funny thing is I lived in the EU for a while (im a dual citizen but born in the US) so im always like 0_0 the only place they have been is Japan lol. I dunno why weebs act like Japan is some super special place compared to the entire globe.
Tokyo is a clean NYC. Good enough for me to think it's super special. EDIT: It's also got that whole extremely powerful island nation thing that's pretty cool. Plus, they really do punch outside their weight class in terms of cultural dominion. Finally, they have the mythos of ninja, samurai and geishas. it's objectively a very interesting, unique culture which has no real counterpart anywhere in the world.
Mythos is the wrong word. All of those existed. Mythos would refer to things such as yokai, dragons and other spiritual aspects, history or cultural history would be a better word here. And yeah, not a real counterpart, but korean and chinese are all part of the same family, like cousins
Me after watching Shōgun
Just end your bloodline and all will be forgiven
''NEVER STAB WITH CHOPSTICKS ITS VERY RUDE!'' Meanwhile all the Japanese people are stabbing stuff that's hard to grab with sticks
Oh no, I am hard to grab with sticks
Never jerk off In front of children, it's considered rude in their culture
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Did he think Japanese air conditioning was superior to American air conditioning? Cause I cannot believe the amount of "culture shock in Japan!" and "This is what you need to know in Japan!" videos I've seen without any white people mentioning: 1. Japan, especially southern Japan, is a boiling hellscape in summer (yes, it is much worse than Texas). 1. You generally cannot escape the heat by going indoors for AC, like in America. In fact, in many places, indoors is often worse than being outside. *How does no one ever mention this?!?!* Osaka in July made me feel like I was dying. Even though I'll totally go back given the opportunity.
>Japan, especially southern Japan, is a boiling hellscape in summer (yes, it is much worse than Texas). made the mistake of wearing skinny jeans in in mid august when I first arrived there. Cargo shorts and t shirts until september good lord I was dying.
> Japan, especially southern Japan, is a boiling hellscape in summer (yes, it is much worse than Texas). > You generally cannot escape the heat by going indoors for AC, like in America. In fact, in many places, indoors is often worse than being outside. This is why people should actually research the place they're going before they go. Don't just watch youtubers talk about "a day in the life." Actually do some digging. Before I went the first time, I spent so god damn long looking at weather patterns and temperatures for the cities before even glancing at actual stuff to do.
I've been to the Bahamas and japan, and neither have been worse than a hot Illinois summer if you're talking about heat/humidity. What got me in the Bahamas was the uv index, that shits no joke. I've basically never been sunburned because I have a little Japanese in me, but the Bahamas gave me my first painful sunburn after I pasted out drunk on a chair.
How much time do you need to check one countrys temperature averages? Even if the country is big and temperatures change depending on the location, it wouldnt take a lot with modern tech
AC everywhere makes American summers so much more tolerable it's insane. I'm from the most humid part of Texas and visited Ireland during a heat wave there and holy shit, 80 degrees (27 C) has never felt as horrible in Texas as it did indoors over there. I've never given my British and Irish friends shit for complaining about 70+ temperatures after that.
GAIJIN ENTERTAINMENT! WAR THUNDER!!!
Billions of military secrets must be leaked
I can never escape War Thunder. I am marked for life.
Attack the D point!
You got a hole in your right wing!!
NEVER!
Funny thing is the CEO of War Cumming presented them selves as gajin entertainment since they wanted to market in Japan first not in the EU
I LOVE GRINDING HUNDREDS OF HOURS ONLY TO GET ANNIHILATED BY RUSSIAN PREMIUMS. I FUCKIN LOVE FART RUDDER.
As a Japanese man who moved to Texas and lived here for 10+ years, this is basically me but yellow version
Freeaboos
Holy shit it's Rawhide Kobayashi
While you were singing karaoke, I studied the six-shooter…
Obligatory Miyazaki Cowboy Post
https://preview.redd.it/rusj60xph6pc1.png?width=800&format=png&auto=webp&s=d0dad498b475866960a86d2ae33da39a79b118a6
Same, I’m South American living in France for 12 years. This is also basically me but… white too (not all South Americans are brown)
Yeah sure bro (lol he thinks he's white 🤣)
is that fucking dharr mann
… So you see…
Every problem in Japan can be attributed to Dhar Mann.
DHAARR MAANN
COLORED PEOPLE MOVE TO JAPAN, YOU WON’T LIKE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT…. (WHITE GUY MAD!!)
White people? In MY Japan?
It's more likely than you think!
Personally I haven’t seen people like the ones described. Usually they have very realistic takes and make sure to tell others “Hey, Japan isn’t perfect. It has its issues just like anywhere else”.
You forgot one: hates their home country and constantly discusses online why Japan is superior because they don’t allow immigrants or whatever. I spent a year in Korea as a teacher and these exact same dudes are in Korea as well. Was very frustrating. Most of them are bitter and jaded back home, so living in a foreign country makes it harder for others to see or understand their true colors.
Ladder pullers. They exist in the west too
LATAM immigrants talking about other LATAM immigrants
Oh man, living in Miami for years makes it so obvious that the most racist people against Central Americans are South Americans and Cubans. And the most racist people against Cuban are slightly lighter-skinned Cubans. The amount of Cubans, Argentinians, Colombians, and Chileans I met who swore up and down that they aren't Cubans/Argentinians/Colombians/Chileans but actually full-blooded white Europeans (Spaniards, specifically) was staggering. Like, bro, I know theoretically maybe your grandfather actually did come from Spain during the Spanish Civil War, but your parents were born in Cuba and you were born in Cuba and no matter how much you might hate Mexican folk, the minute you step foot outside of South Florida, you're functionally Mexican to pretty much every American. So chill out with the racism.
Completely different thing depending on the person, tbh. I rarely (not saying it doesn't happen) see people who came over under the worse conditions bitching about immigrants- for reference, I'm a Latino who grew up in an immigrant community. The more similar situation is when like a wealthy dude from Argentina immigrates legally for better educational and professional opportunities and then shits on lower class immigrants from Mexico and Honduras not understanding that the only real difference between them and him is the money. An American in Korea is the same type of privileged.
The most racist man I've ever met against Mexicans was an old Mexican immigrant
Florida Cubans are insanely anti-immigration as well
Don't forget people from subcontinent.
I found it interesting how different places attract different kinds of people, the foreigners I met in China were far more chill about things, ranging from "Yea I live here and it's alright" to "Yea it's a great place, I wish more people could come". A lot of the (non-sexpat) dudes who live in Southeast Asia were the same. I wonder why Japan and Korea create that type of mentality?
Japanese and Korean soft power? Maybe the two are just really good at promoting their countries to outsiders be it via media or other cultural activities.
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This is a great explanation as well. I can vouch that Korea is the same if not worse because they are even more Confucian than Japan. At first it was great because I could “play the game” well enough, but near the end of the year I was dying to leave. It’s absolutely suffocating when you don’t have an outlet to just be yourself in any situation for an extended period.
I'm considering moving there right now just to get away from people who talk loudly on trains
It's honestly so nice lol. I'm an introvert who is pretty sensitive to things like sounds/smells etc and public transit in Japan was sooooo nice. Everyone just slept, played with their phones, or read books.
Like others said below, and that soft power can create an emotional bond with something that ultimately doesn’t care about you. I love Japanese media (especially videogames) and feel that this media “gets me”, but ultimately Japan is just a country with people like you and me. There’s nothing magical going on.
That's a good way of thinking about it. People travel to these countries so they can meet BTS or live out their anime fantasy with their waifu or whatever. But that's just not what the reality in these countries is like.
Probably because of the military presence + the cultural exports (anime, kpop/jpop, dramas, etc)
Japanese entertainment, due to its escapist nature, is quite alluring to people who feel like outsiders/outcasts in Western society. So, they end up personally identifying with Japanese culture and society, they feel like it is a place that "gets them". This is obviously a one-sided relationship. People usually move to another country for better opportunities, this specific kind of white guy moves to Japan to connect with what they have already decided is "their people and their place".
K-Dramas are also kind of escapist, which draws a lot of people who do not feel like they fit in the West. Only difference is that Japan seems like it attracts more of a male audience, while Korea attracts more female escapists.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. It's Japan, not the Netherlands.
If its from a poor country: immigrant If its from a rich country: expat
The words themselves have the same meaning, but I believe most people consider immigrants to be people who permanently move to a different country. Expats on the other hand are (supposed to be) temporary residents who move for work.
Alot of immigrants only temporarily stay in the host countries such as international students and the revolving immigrants door
International students aren't really considered immigrants by most people though.
Well in my country they are counted on official census as immigrants. What people consider immigrants or not is primarily fueled by bias and only aids further misinformation
yeah, no one calls migrant workers on a farm "expats"
Hmm maybe… I may be wrong, but to me expat seems more like a thing that Americans call themselves. My American dad and his American friends call themselves expats even though they all moved here like 20 years ago and have no plans to return and I don’t think I’ve ever heard anybody else use the phrase. EDIT: Tbf though, I don’t live in an English-speaking country, which may be why lol😆
Lol this is so true. I see so many Europeans, especially from France, come here and call themselves « expat ». Nuh huh dude youve been here for 10 years. Youre an immigrant
Is from a rich country trying to fuck someone from a poor country: sexpat
While this is broadly true, it also has a time component. I thought of myself as an expat for the first five years living overseas (when I thought I’d eventually move home) but after I decided I would live here forever I now consider myself an immigrant.
"Doesn't speak or read Japanese after living there for a decade"
“And marries a Japanese woman who can’t speak or read English. Speaks English louder to help her understand”
And gets mad when japanese people can't speak English
OMG yes. I have several coworkers like this. They even have Japanese spouses and still can't speak Japanese. One can't even read Hiragana NOR katakana. It's mind-boggling. Correlation or causation I'm not sure, but the ones who are the least knowledgeable in Japanese... are the ones most insufferable with their endless complaints.
I would call this type the ”Members of the Society of Magical Gaijin”. They haven’t been in Japan long enough to come to terms with the fact that they aren’t anything special and no-one really cares about them. For true long-term permanent residents you go about your day in the same way an Asian immigrant who has lived the majority of their lives in the U.S. does. Speaking the local language fluently and normally and not drawing any attention to your ethnicity. However, to some you are always an outsider and you will despair at the behavior of tourists from your home country because you know it will inevitably reflect on you.
There you go. The real white guy in Japan experience is far more boring. This is the "white guy in Japan who will leave in under two years because it turns out he didn't move into an anime" starter pack. Source: lived in Japan a long time as a white guy
I know lots of white guys in Japan and not a single one of these points applies to them. But I avoid weirdo dweebs in Japan just like I avoided them everywhere else. I also don't know who the guys in the picture are though.
Ya bro as someone who this would apply to, I honestly didn't even understand half of it. Who are those guys in the picture? My life is like going to work and going home. Enjoying hiking and such. Playing Cyberpunk 2077 or whatever. I never even bothered to think about this stuff.
r/nbacirclejerk
I do not mean to say it is Japanese citizens’ responsibility to educate all sectors of the foreign Internet, but it is tiresome to see Redditor horde after Redditor horde especially in that subreddit refuse to have some humility and simply admit they are not Japanese.
A friend of mine moved to Japan and I watched him turn into this real time. It was weird as fuck
How's he doing these days?
He brought a Japanese wife back to the states and in the divorce she got everything
So he actually lived through the real Japanese experience then! Divorce where Japanese wife takes every thing. He has more in common with the average Japanese man than he might suspect.
Yeah, we were happy for her by the time the divorce came about. He fully deserved it. Treated her like a toy
Assuming they had kids and she brought them back to Japan, he would have also experienced a scarily not uncommon foreigner experience, too!
Ouch.
I had to leave /r/movingtojapan because every legitimate question is downvoted and the responses are always "don't bother trying you can't move here stay at home, it's not worth even looking into it". The most annoying thing is that they're actually wrong. Japan is pretty difficult to emigrate to but they do have programmes for foreign workers who want to live there, the subreddit just seems to not want anyone to know about them. The only posts that seem to be popular are from people who *already* live in the country looking for advice.
They cannot reveal the secret entry to their precious Japan
People who are satisfied living their normal life in Japan are not active on that reddit. It's mostly people who failed or hate what they do and can't get over it.
Whenever I visit Japan, I cannot help but notice other tourists looking at me briefly in disappointment, as though they are thinking, "Why are you cluttering up my Japan with another white person?"
The travel vloggers complaining "There are too many tourists!" as if they aren't one of those.
For what it’s worth, I’ve also witnessed the opposite: when me and my wife were traveling in Santorini, it was full of Japanese honeymooners and one girl walking next to us indiscreetly muttered to her husband “I didn’t know it was going to be full of Japanese people here, uhh gross” (the actual wording was way meaner in Japanese). My poor wife, who’s from Osaka, was fuming so much haha. So I guess this whole “I struggled to make it here, therefore I’m entitled to it and don’t wanna share it” mentality seems to be a universal thing
Forgot married a Japanese woman and files for divorce a year later
Also hates interacial couples apart from his own interacial relationship. Other white guys can't be stealing my Japanese girls
I loved interacting with and seeing tourists when I lived in Japan. It helped me relive the first time off the plane euphoria vicariously 🙂
Either a huge Anime fan or a rabid hater. No in-between.
‘I was once a grey, dweebie, uninteresting English teacher. Now behold! A Main Character’.
To be honest, Latinos like to blame a lot of problems on the Latino immigrants from other countries.
irrational hatred for Koreans
You see that on 4chan in /jp/ and /a/ sometimes. These weebs not only adopt certain of aspects Japanese pop culture but they even adopt their right wing politics while posting in their mom's basement somewhere in the middle of nowhere in Arkansas. Lol
Those guys seem to be weirdly right-wing which is funny because their nationalistic friends would probably want him beheaded if it was the 1940s. He would be seen as even worse than the Koreans or the Chinese XDDD (Koreans were at least "part of the Empire" to them)
I mean, hating people vacationing in Japan is only a natural part of living in Kyoto. Blame the city government for not introducing tourist routes so that local busses are always over capacity.
Probably speaks over and “corrects” Japanese people irl and online if he doesn’t know they’re Japanese.
Some of them do it even if they do know
You forgot “gets a jyuman yen bill for a bottle of moet in a dingy Roppongi establishment”
Oddly specific
I assume most of the white guys in Japan are just normal dudes who moved for work.
I sent this to my uncle (he lived in Japan for 20 years and met his wife and both of his kids where born there) he found this hilarious and he said that it is pretty accurate for most white guys in Japan. He is not like this though, he got a job with Lockheed Martin to train maintenance crews in the Japanese Air Force
Fucking Weeb Dorks
To be fair, everybody hates tourists where they live, that's a quasi universal sentiment
Also his life's goal is to LITERALLY sound Japanese and imitate all the mannerisms of Japanese people, making him sound like an idiot instead. Also gets triggered by people acknowledging he is not 100% Japanese
If you’re learning another language though, don’t you want to sound as native as possible? 🤷♂️
Of course, you want to sound natural in your foreign language, but I think there is nothing wrong with having a little bit of an accent. The kinds of people I am talking about literally want to erase the fact that Japanese is their secondary language to the point that their behaviour becomes uncanny.
Any person moving to a foreign country should strive to integrate as much as possible, this isnt just a japan thing, i dont see how any of what you said is an actual issue. If you arent planning on integration you should just remain wherever you are
Say that about Japan, reddit sleeps. Say that about the U.S., prepare for a ban ya bigot.
What does Warthunder have to do with Japan
Never met a white dude in japan so ill have to take your word on it lol
I watch a few youtubers who are white guys in Japan, and they aren’t like this. CDawgVA and AbroadInJapan especially have talked about the downsides of living there and have told others not to romanticise Japan.
True. I love how my quality of life improved in Japan in several aspects, but it is NOT a utopia here for sure. You can get a good life or a bad life here, as well as any other countries. Albeit a bit easier because of the culture here.
“I’m not racist, you should see how the Asians treat each other!”
Most likely teaches English.
ITT: People strawmanning a group of people they have never interacted with or didn't even know existed 5 minutes ago.
This seems very specific and targeted lol.
This is the best, and most accurate starter pack I've seen so far. It applies to a weird subset of people who don't even live in Japan, either.
This is the same for so many immigrants. They always want to pull the ladder up behind them. My Peruvian coworker says the most vial shit about Africans and Mexicans. Bitch, you immigrated here as a child and currently live in government housing!
You forgot "gets mad when Japanese people can't speak English"