Yeah, but here's the best part

[cstaylor]

Most polite tourists. Americans (1), Japanese (3), while Britons were judged the rudest, followed by Russians and Canadians.

The funniest thing I ever saw was when this Japanese tourist was in Las Vegas trying to order milk... and he kept saying it with his katakana reading of the english: "miruku"... needless to say, the waiter couldn't figure out what the hell he was trying to say...

[cstaylor]

Yeah... it was my father-in-law, after all.

[cstaylor]

Yeah, it does make those trips to America easier.

[tokyojoe]

A funny Japanese tourist story. After a year of studying Japanese in college I was on my way home for Xmas vacation. I went to SFO and got on the long moving walkways to my terminal. There in front of me was a large group of young Japanese, all clumped together and blocking the whole walkway. Impatient Americans were trying to get around them with little success. To help speed things up I belted out a big `Sumimaseeeeeen!!` All of a sudden it was like the parting of the red sea. They all moved to the left side and let the other people pass. The Japanese travellers turned around with this expression on their faces of `who the f&%# said that?`

[GomiGirl]

The funniest thing I ever saw was when this Japanese tourist was in Las Vegas trying to order milk... and he kept saying it with his katakana reading of the english: "miruku"... needless to say, the waiter couldn't figure out what the hell he was trying to say...

I know of many thirsty punters trying unsuccessfully to order "biiru" in pubs at home. Of course I have helped out.

On a serious note, I have honestly thought that the use of so many words in katakana without the original word being known has really done a disservice to Japanese native speakers who WANT to travel and communicate in foreign countries. Don't flame me as I do NOT believe that everybody around the world should speak the English (I speak Japanese).

But there is a false sense of security and real problems with communication when words are badly translated into katakana and then just accepted as neologisms in Japanese.

[momo]

I agreed wholeheartedly that Japanese words are badly translated into katakana. Can't they subsitute them with proper Japanese words??? Too much borrowing makes the language very confusing. I am also referring to words borrowed from China, ie. the chinese characters... Can someone out there tell me how on earth to figure out those translated words ? Most of the time, or rather, all the time, I cannot make sense out of these words... only to find out that it is an English word..... How frustrating !!