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Gaijin SMASH
Kawakami Kenshin is BACK woohooooo. And Tatsunami got his first hit of the season! And naturally I was at work for the whole evening and just get to see this stuff on the news highlights. Also 18-year-old Yokohama rookie Ryoma Satoh hit four batters in four innings tonight and catapulted himself into the CL lead in hit batters. AND they're doing the web gems of the week now on Megaspo and I swear I was actually there for like half of these. SO awesome!
Today I thought I would have like 4 hours free in the afternoon between classes so I decided to bring my laptop to GEOS and try to get other things done during the day, except like a moron, I forgot that I'd need a 2-prong-to-3-prong adapter there. And as it turned out I also kinda needed to head home for another reason mid-day, so I ended up coming back to my apartment for about 30 minutes in the middle of the day, which was actually pretty nice, though I ended up dropping my laptop off here again then, and didn't get anything done after all. Sadly tomorrow my nice big expanse of free afternoon time just got chopped in half by having 3 classes added to my schedule tomorrow. Whee.
On my way back to GEOS, I was hit by one of my huge pet peeves -- people who make a big deal about Talking To The White Person In English. I mean, I understand that sometimes these people are just really proud that OMG they know a few words in English, and maybe they think it's Great Customer Service to do so, but really, there are a few main reasons this practice bugs me:
1) I don't WANT you to talk to me in English unless I specifically ask for it. Plus, in general, I can understand your Japanese much better than I can understand your poor English. If I talk to you in Japanese, just reply to me in Japanese rather than short-circuiting your little brain. It'll save us both a lot of trouble.
2) It's EMBARRASSING. The entire country assuming that You Have White Skin, Therefore You Can't Understand Japanese, is REALLY grating after a while.
3) Foreigners speak languages other than English, you know. White Skin does not mean Native English Speaker. I have half a mind to just bitch out the next person who treats me this way, tell them I can't understand English in Japanese, and start swearing at them in Spanish or something. Then at least they'll be embarrassed too.
So anyway, I went to get a katsu sandwich for dinner from Wako in Akabane Station, and I had to wait in line for like 5 minutes due to a fairly slow cashier guy. So finally I get up there and I say in Japanese, お持ち帰りで、ひれかつサンドを一つ下さい ("I'd like one hirekatsu sandwich, to go, please,") and he says in very thick Engrish, "Please wait one minute", gets out the sandwich... then tells me the price (399 yen) in the same slow stupid Engrish. I REPEAT the price in Japanese and put down a 500-yen coin, trying to signal "Stop talking to me in English, you retard", but it doesn't work, as he hands me 110 yen and says "Sankyuu berry machi."
Those of you who can do math will notice that the change should be 101 yen, not 110 yen. And actually normally I totally would go back and correct people for doing that sort of thing (I have done so several times in the past), but since the guy refused to admit that I can speak Japanese, I refused to admit that I can also do math.
Today I thought I would have like 4 hours free in the afternoon between classes so I decided to bring my laptop to GEOS and try to get other things done during the day, except like a moron, I forgot that I'd need a 2-prong-to-3-prong adapter there. And as it turned out I also kinda needed to head home for another reason mid-day, so I ended up coming back to my apartment for about 30 minutes in the middle of the day, which was actually pretty nice, though I ended up dropping my laptop off here again then, and didn't get anything done after all. Sadly tomorrow my nice big expanse of free afternoon time just got chopped in half by having 3 classes added to my schedule tomorrow. Whee.
On my way back to GEOS, I was hit by one of my huge pet peeves -- people who make a big deal about Talking To The White Person In English. I mean, I understand that sometimes these people are just really proud that OMG they know a few words in English, and maybe they think it's Great Customer Service to do so, but really, there are a few main reasons this practice bugs me:
1) I don't WANT you to talk to me in English unless I specifically ask for it. Plus, in general, I can understand your Japanese much better than I can understand your poor English. If I talk to you in Japanese, just reply to me in Japanese rather than short-circuiting your little brain. It'll save us both a lot of trouble.
2) It's EMBARRASSING. The entire country assuming that You Have White Skin, Therefore You Can't Understand Japanese, is REALLY grating after a while.
3) Foreigners speak languages other than English, you know. White Skin does not mean Native English Speaker. I have half a mind to just bitch out the next person who treats me this way, tell them I can't understand English in Japanese, and start swearing at them in Spanish or something. Then at least they'll be embarrassed too.
So anyway, I went to get a katsu sandwich for dinner from Wako in Akabane Station, and I had to wait in line for like 5 minutes due to a fairly slow cashier guy. So finally I get up there and I say in Japanese, お持ち帰りで、ひれかつサンドを一つ下さい ("I'd like one hirekatsu sandwich, to go, please,") and he says in very thick Engrish, "Please wait one minute", gets out the sandwich... then tells me the price (399 yen) in the same slow stupid Engrish. I REPEAT the price in Japanese and put down a 500-yen coin, trying to signal "Stop talking to me in English, you retard", but it doesn't work, as he hands me 110 yen and says "Sankyuu berry machi."
Those of you who can do math will notice that the change should be 101 yen, not 110 yen. And actually normally I totally would go back and correct people for doing that sort of thing (I have done so several times in the past), but since the guy refused to admit that I can speak Japanese, I refused to admit that I can also do math.
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It's the same for tall people who get tired of basketball and weather-up-there jokes, or very pregnant women who get asked if it's twins. They are tired of the comments, because they hear them several times a day. But the person making them doesn't make those comments several times a day. The endless repetitiveness of it is not their fault, and taking out your frustrations on the straw that broke the camels back is unfair to the straw.
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If you want to hold individuals accountable for their behaviour, go ahead -- tell them flat out that you speak Japanese better than they speak English if you like. Do it every time.
My point is that it's not a good idea to let all this anger build up and then explode it all over one individual who, realistically, was only a tiny part of the overall situation.
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I just have a feeling it's likely to happen sometime anyway.
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I'm thinking maybe a "Naze eigo de shabeteruno?" might be a nice middle ground... not bitching them out, but at least calling attention to the fact that I think it's stupid they're talking English based on my skin color.
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This is, in a nutshell, why in America I only initiate conversations in Japanese with people who are clearly not Japanese, and speak to Japanese people in English unless it becomes really obvious that Japanese would be less painful. Though I've met people who do it the other way around and think that this way is strange.
I'll also recommend occaisionally pretending to speak only French or German or Italian or Spanish. :)
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for some reason, this strikes me as HYSTERICALLY FUNNY.
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Another reason could be that they want to practice their English with a native speaker. My cousin Tsubasa wants to study abroad someday, and he talks to me almost exclusively in English.
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They immediately heel. No one has ever called me on my Germanity yet.
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I think I should go for the Spanish angle, or maybe something further eastern European.
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Occasionally it doesn't bother me because I know the person is just super-proud they actually OMFG KNOW AN ENGLISH WORD!@! But at times when it just doesn't make sense in context, it's like WTF?
My kids' classes always giggle if they hear any Japanese words on the English tapes in class. Like "This is a daruma", they are all BUSTING OUT LAUGHING like "THIS IS. DARUMA!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" as if it's the funniest thing ever. That there's some JAPANESE mixed in with their ENGLISH!! And when I speak Japanese they always mimic me and laugh, so I mimic them and laugh right back. I'm so going to get in trouble for that someday.
But I think that's exactly what it sounds like to us... japanesejapanesejapanesejapaneseENGLISHWTF?
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If I'm speaking Japanese, I expect a Japanese response. Occasionally, if they say something I don't understand and I give them the perplexed "arched eyebrow" look, and if they happen to know the English equivalent of the word, that's cool, I'll be very appreciative. But simple shit like "sumokingu oa no sumokingu," come on, give me a break.
Let's compare: business professional working in a foreign country vs. restaurant employee making minimum wage. How stupid do they think we are? And more importantly, WHY?
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The obvious answer is, "as stupid as they are."
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But I mean, if I come up and order in fairly decent Japanese, why do their ears and their eyes not link up somehow? "Oh, that is white skin. That could not possibly be Japanese I just heard spoken."
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It's also the reason we all have big noses, don'cha know! Which is completely unrelated to the scientific fact that the only people who can speak Japanese are full-blooded Yamato minzoku. It's genetic!
Sometimes I want to make a t-shirt and wear it around that says something against the ridiculous behaviour everyone here thinks is perfectly acceptable, and you know, see if anyone responds to it. *virtual pat-pat on the back*
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If anyone ever asks you if you know what it says, you have to read it incorrectly, as well, and tell them that your buddy gave it to you and said it was for [something innocuous here]
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