Quote:
Originally Posted by Vexx
Nah, they'd just figure you were another one of those crazy gaijin. What you described is pretty much what happens way too often anyway with tourists and visitors. They get a "gaijin crazy" pass card.
Separately, out of the languages I've spent time learning - japanese is my favorite so far and I don't find the etiquette annoying. Its a very interesting social code.
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Don't you mean the 'baka gaijin' card
I believe there are even t-shirts floating around on cyberspace, which we can buy, lol. It's playing off the stereotype of course.
The trick is to prove youself to be outside of that 'baka gaijin' bubble by of course adhering to the rules some; it's a sorta 'join them and beat them at their own game' kinda thing.
If you show even a minisucle proof that you know something a little more than the average, they'll be genuinely surprised, shocked even.
Personally, i like to keep the natives on their toes, just to represent that some of us gaijin are serious when it comes to their language and culture.
(And perhaps not to group us all into one pot)
The social code is interesting, but then Vexx since we're not born japanese, we will never ever be fully bound to it, (rather, they don't expect us to be bound to it) so perhaps we have the luxury of saying that.
Jigoku Shoujo is an anime series that when i started watching, i couldn't help but think 'at least the worst of the social codes in the UK are 'better', we're perhaps more forgiving.
Naturally the anime shows the
worst of the japanese social code (there is good too) but comparing the worst of theirs and the worst of ours, i'm glad i was brought up in london, lol.
We're much much more forgiving with our mistakes and while a sense of shame is okay to keep a person in check, sometimes as a Japanese you have no choice but to take it to the grave.
There no chance for redemption once a reputation has been broken and that makes up a lot of the revenge stories within Jigoku Shoujo. Many find that there's nothing left in life for them since society will not give them the benefit of the doubt or allow a second chance, so hey, why not send the person who screwed you over to hell, lol.
The anime is an extreme for entertainment purposes naturally, but I noticed that it does play on a lot of social codes which i find a little too harsh sometimes.
(maybe this links to the suicide rates etc)
And byakou, you'd not get evil glares (least not in public) but very very strained smiles instead.
