Why I left Japan after 10 years
41–50 of 287 posts
Re: Why I left Japan after 10 years
#42...
>Tries to lump everything into one
Yeah, you're doing the same thing.
Re: Why I left Japan after 10 years
#43>The level of English in Japan is shockingly low, despite everyone studying it for 6 years at school. I honestly think it is kept deliberately low >I honestly think it is kept deliberately low Is this guy serious?
I imagine lots of (young) Japanese people would look for better working conditions abroad, if they only had better English skills.
Re: Why I left Japan after 10 years
#44>The level of English in Japan is shockingly low, despite everyone studying it for 6 years at school. I honestly think it is kept deliberately low >I honestly think it is kept deliberately low Is this guy serious?
Based on my own fairly limited experience in Japan, English as learned in school doesn't seem to translate (a ha ha) into effective English conversation. It seems that an academic rigor is taught (no bad thing, of course) but practical conversation skills are neglected.
Re: Why I left Japan after 10 years
#45...
Re: Why I left Japan after 10 years
#46...
This is how you breed deep, lasting resentment. We don't want to become like you but we do want to respect your way of life when we're visiting. If that's not good enough, you should reconsider your connection to the rest of the world. It seems the wests' "When in Rome, do as the romans" attitude is not appreciated or shared elsewhere. Yes we have obnoxious, loud outliers, but good god I have been on the cleaning end of japanese visitors and their general, passive contempt towards their hosts and way of life. (Cue devasted restrooms flashback)
If you want a baka gaijin's 2 cents, which I doubt: Don't dig yourself into irrelevance again with the insular mindset. You're a country of many marvels but as a people, I'm hard pressed to find anyone who actually knows what he's talking about that likes you.
[EDIT: copy of parents oriunal message] The author is a cheat - the sign says "No chinese allowed". Because Chinese are the largest tourist group. And everyone knows they are rowdy as shit. But the author, who takes a lot of care to explain all Japanese symbols, doesn't explain that. Tries to lump everthing into one. I'm glad people like him weren't allowed in our country.
Re: Why I left Japan after 10 years
#47I suspect that feeling of being unwelcome would strike you in many countries. As far as I can tell, there's only a few cities around the world where my being foreign was a non-issue. I lived in Switzerland for a good few years, but although there are plenty of friendly people, the few people who weren't so friendly soured things. I suspect a different roll of the dice would have made it a much nicer experience. You c…
"Out of 67 countries, Switzerland ranks 64th for friendliness and making newcomers feel welcome"
http://lenews.ch/2016/09/02/expats-in-switzerland-arent-feel...
Re: Why I left Japan after 10 years
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm glad people like him weren't allowed in our country. What country do you come from that denies entry to people based on how they translate Japanese signs? You're full of shit. Not surprised you hide behind a throwaway.
Are you for real? Go read the article, he knows Japanese. And there's your civility, acting all indignant and calling people full of shit without bothering to understand what's going on. Maybe you are the throwaway of author's?
I asked you what country you come from that excludes people based on, as you stated, how they interpret Japanese signs. No such country, as we all know. You're talking nonsense, and now that you've been called out on it, you're pretending this is about something else. Look at you now, deleting your comments even though you're using a throwaway! The whole point of the throwaway is that nobody can tie it to the person you usually pretend to be, but you're running away anyway.
Nobody benefits from this; not you, not me, nobody here. God's sake, owning your beliefs is a necessary step to improving them. Not just in this situation; always. Here, look, I'll start; I was unnecessarily harsh in my opening response and could have handled that better. This is an opportunity for both of us to improve. I didn't consider that you might be Japanese and that you might feel defensive; it can be hard to critique your own nation/culture with foreigners (although being from the UK, it's easy for me; sometimes it would be nice to spend a day without having some new clusterf from the embarrassing shambles of a UK government and broader population at large) and perhaps I could have helped you come out of your defensive shell.
Re: Why I left Japan after 10 years
#49It's kind of ironic how much he generalises Japanese people. See bad thing - link to Japanese people as a whole or in general, rather than the individual. It's an easy mistake to make. Especially if you do ever hear it in the inverse direction. "Foreigners do X or Y", etc. If he aimed to replace generic instances of 'Japanese people' or 'in Japan' with specific reference to the instance or person, I think he'd have h…
You think the word "Japanese" is irrelevant in a post describing Japanese culture?
Cultures have traits. Some of those traits can be good. Others can be bad. It doesn't mean all of those people exhibit those traits. We shouldn't judge individuals based on those prejudices, but it's equally mistaken to fault people from talking about cultures generally.
Half of his post is about the Japanese penal system, which is known to be extremely unfair and broken. This isn't an over generalization. It's a reality, and one that should be discussed soberly.