261–270 of 287 posts
Come to Russia instead, it's the best to be for a foreigner
Lol. Literally every single one of his complaints is even worse in Russia. Hating foreigners? They teach us that from kindergarten. Police doesn't like you? You're screwed completely. And god help you if your skin is even slightly darker than white (or if you happen to be gay).
I 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…
In Europe, Switzerland is known to be particularly unwelcoming to foreigners. "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...
They claim that Chile is #57 from 60 in friendliness. Haha, ok.
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I had been wondering whether it was just Tokyo being more cosmopolitan but I'm now wondering if the reason for less adversarial encounters is simply that I haven't purchased a bike since leaving Ogaki. (If this sounds dumbfounding to folks with less context: bicycle theft is near the top of police priorities and they have the impression that foreigners are the primary cause of it. "Suspicion of stealing my own bicycl…
I had the same feeling. Personally I've only been stopped by police once (randomly, to show the gaijin card) in 15+ years, and similar is true of most of my friends. But I've occasionally met people who talked about getting stopped a lot, and they've all been people who biked in the city.
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Someone else in this discussion has pointed out that it makes sense that the Chinese is targeted at Chinese, as most English speaking folk don't know Chinese. And the English phrase is purposefully broad because English-speaking foreigners could be from a huge variety of countries.
Makes sense. Still, wondering why the Chinese is purposefully so narrow and doesn't read '谢绝外国人‘ (no foreigners) instead of '谢绝中国人' (no Chinese people).
A Chinese tourist, seeing a sign with unintelligible English plus "No foreigners" written in Hanzi/Kanji, could assume they're not foreign, since they're not Anglophone...
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Every new person I meet would assume I'm a foreigner. That's what gives rise to the feeling of being "forever a foreigner". You never escape it. It's very simple.
> Every new person I meet would assume I'm a foreigner. Which would be a statistically sound assumption. In Japan, the cases of caucasians that were born and raised there are very rare (compared to just tourists or short term staying), so they naturally assume you are not that. It's just that the US has all kinds of people living there since centuries even (e.g. 3-4th generations of Chinese), so you can't make the as…
This is a straw man. I haven't argued otherwise. You're making the same mistake that other of my respondents are making, which is to assume I'm claiming that the native Japanese are in some way doing something wrong by assuming I don't speak Japanese.
> That's not what would make me feel like a foreigner...
I'm sure you don't realize you're doing this, but I'm telling you how I and many other immigrants who have lived as ethnic minorities in a foreign country are led to feel like outsiders, and your response is to say that those feelings are invalid, and you wouldn't let it bother you, despite having (presumably) never experienced what we're talking about. You're taking a very inconsiderate side of this argument, not to mention incorrect.
The "JAPANESE ONLY" sign was probably meant for chinese tourists. The kanji below it, "謝绝中国人", translates roughly to "decline chinese people" which is understandable given their notorious behavior abroad: http://shanghaiist.com/2016/12/30/shanghaiist_2016_embarrass... https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/11/world/asia/bad-manners-ch... http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2016/10/07/commentary/wo...
I'm always intrigued in Thailand by which languages they choose to translate which signs to. In one of the big international hospitals, they have some guidelines in the bathroom: * Don't wash your feet in the sink (Chinese and Arabic only) * Don't squat on the toilet seat (Thai and Chinese only) * Please wash your hands (English and Arabic only)
I was aware of 'trench' style toilets existing, so the directions for south-east Asian languages make some sense.
I wasn't aware of the 'foot washing' practice though... that seems odd.
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Can you expand the 'not the greatest country anecdote' ? I am moving to SF soon (from France) and while the US have great opportunities for techies, I find it the 'best country in the world' mantra laughable. (it applies to pretty much any country though .. which norm (in the mathematical sense) are you using exactly ? I don't think there is one and only one.
Well, it's fine if you don't think the U.S. Is the best, just don't make a point about it. It's not so much that Americans don't think America has faults, we just mostly love our country and take offense if you criticize it the wrong way. I love France but it certainly has its fair share of problems, for example, but I don't go around arguing with The French if they say they love France and it's the greatest place. I…
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If you don't consider the presumption of innocence a core human value, what do you?
You can't shorten it like that. It's a complex litigation system were we westerners, when applying our own interpretation grid, see a presumption of guilt. For the core human values, a good example is the case of a little girl running dangerously near a well, any human except some psychopath will jump on their feet and save her. Here we all share something that can be qualified as universal.
You're arguing that "presumption of guilt" is somehow contextually relative. It's not. If 99% of "trials" result in a conviction, there's an unequivocal presumption of guilt.
The "JAPANESE ONLY" sign was probably meant for chinese tourists. The kanji below it, "謝绝中国人", translates roughly to "decline chinese people" which is understandable given their notorious behavior abroad: http://shanghaiist.com/2016/12/30/shanghaiist_2016_embarrass... https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/11/world/asia/bad-manners-ch... http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2016/10/07/commentary/wo...
I'm trying to avoid commenting on this thread because I think it is impossible for me to write a nuanced enough response that will give people a closer understanding of what it's like to live here (I moved here 10 years ago, though I spent 2 years in the UK, so 8 years total). However, I can comment on the "Japanese only" signs. I've never actually seen one myself, but I know they exist in some places. An acquaintanc…
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You think the desire to protect individuals from racism is merely virtue signalling?
Only if (as in this case) it discards the other side of the debate, which is the desire to protect individuals from harm predominantly perpetrated by a particular demographic.