japanese lessons

Amazing how lessons can come from the places you least expect.

In this case, I have been learning essential lessons about my relationship with Japan but through posts on the humor blog stuffwhitepeoplelike.com.

The blog itself is indeed what I anticipated - I have been there before, and it has a brand of half-true intercultural humor that I find quite amusing. But where I really found benefits was in the comments section for the post on (surprise) Japan. (post is here: http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/02/07/58-japan/)

The post has 28 pages of comments attached to it from a wide swath of internet denizens. There were clear racial bigots who posted things like “f**ck japan; [insert racial slur]” or “remember pearl harbor”, but ignoring those, there was actually alot of content from people who had actually had contact with Japan in varying levels.

People who fit that description ranged in their degree of contact with the culture, but I found that I had alot to learn about the way that I relate to Japan through the way they described their own experiences.

And not all were good experiences.
One thing that was especially helpful was to be able to suss out the things that do not jive for me in Japan.

Some things I learned:

I have had a tendency to avoid other foreigners in Japan (besides my own friends and acquaintances) -- even to the point of being rude occasionally. This is not limited to me. Other foreigners have this same experience. Many of those posting on the site spoke of these actions stemming from wanting to be the only foreigner with an exclusive “special” knowledge of Japan, or assuming that other foreigners were simply of the type that come to Japan with no knowledge or interest in the culture and just want to party and bed Japanese girls (aka the Roppongi crowd) or the recent third stereotype of the anime nerd who gets into Japan because of Inuyasha but really knows nothing about Japan. All of these thoughts patterns about foreigner also exist for me, and it was eye-opening to have them brought to the foreground (where they are clearly ridiculous!). It turns out that I have indeed had a pattern of internally denying other foreigner’s experiences of Japan as invalid, and mine as superior because I have an advanced knowledge of the language and familiarity with the culture. Now that I see this, I want to dispel this assumption so that I may connect with more people around the world. For sure, those stereotypes DO exist and in reality I DO have a great deal of linguistic prowess in Japanese and a knowledge of Japan. But really those things are irrelevant - in the end we are just people; as blogger TG puts it, “we need to remember there is a bigger team behind that - the human team - that we all belong to”.

Although I love being in Japan, and living there for a time would give me a prime opportunity to further hone my language skills even more than they already are as well as give me much joy in the experience of being there, I don’t think that it could be a permanent move. For as much as Japan has a beautiful culture in many ways, there are ways in which it is really hard to live in (such as absolutely insane working hours and heavy social obligations) and especially so for foreigners. The governmental rules are labyrinthine, and when you live in Japan permanently you lose the foreigner sheen, cuteness, and “gaijin privilege” that allow you to ignore many of the social rules. Many others outlined this point, and though I was already feeling it internally, the feeling was given shape by reading the blog comments here. I am most definitely interested in a permanent move abroad, but in all likelihood it will not be to Japan (strange for a Japanese major!)

and even more, but I would need to sort through it to vocalize...