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Joined 3 years ago
Cake day: July 28th, 2023
  • Snowcano@startrek.websitetoVideos@lemmy.world•This American dude on his way to his Japanese fluency decides to talk to a local Japanese grandpa
    41·
    7 months ago

    There’s an additional context going on in Japan right now that makes this about a lot more than just what YT content is out there.

    Similar to other countries, there is an alarming rise in anti-foreigner sentiment lately, some of it caused by economic conditions (that frankly foreign residents are not responsible for) and a lot of it caused by extreme post-pandemic overtourism, stoking of nationalism with a dash of xenophobia from the Sanseito political party, as well as a rash of very badly behaving ‘influencers’ like Logan Paul, a bunch of people doing dumb disruptive shit on trains and one guy who was just hurling invective at people trying to pick a fight (not even going to mention his name b/c he doesn’t deserve a shred of attention. Still can’t believe that guy didn’t get shanked before he was deported).

    The overall result being that, in general, people are sick to death of shit like this. And yeah, this kid seems to have good intentions, is being respectful in his speech (if not his conduct), I wouldn’t lump him in with the rest of the ‘troublemakers’ I mentioned, but the point is, as foreigners we don’t always get that chance. Just by coming up to someone at putting a camera in their face, you’re committing a significant social faux pas in Japan, and it’s exacerbated by an environment that is lately quite weary of foreigner shenanigans.

    I overhear it in cafe conversations, I see it on people’s faces when they see my outwardly foreign appearance and I see it when I enter a restaurant and there’s a look of panic on the servers faces upon seeing me and then quickly looking to the manager until at last I speak some Japanese and they finally unclench. I’ve been here a while now, it hasn’t always been this bad.

    Point is, this kid is being rather selfish and rocking the social boat in a way no one needs, and I hope that as he interacts with more people some of them will call him out on it and he’ll get wise.

    As a small post-script to address your comment about how the old man was cool with it, that’s fine and dandy. Again, the issue is the kid using people as his personal study-aid without properly asking. Again, as an outwardly presenting foreigner I can’t count the number of times I’ve been approached in all kinds of situations by people I don’t know trying to get some free English practice (and yes, it’s VERY different than simply starting a conversation in English, it is blatantly exploitative). I’ll always be polite about it, but it’s incredibly rude to reduce someone to language practice in any context. And even then, if you want to interview people, ask 'em before turning the camera on.