Is 'Gaijin' going the way of 'Negro'?

[AssKissinger]

Recently, I''ve noticed that nobody besides foreigners themselves hardly uses the word 'gaijin' any more. These days it's 'gaikokujin' this and 'gaikokujin' that. I hate this kind of shit. I hate the word 'gaikokujin'. It sounds so unexciting and insincere. I went to this little country shop the other day and the lady said, "Arigato gozaimasu gaijin-sama'. That's the way it ought to stay!

[Alcazar]

That's interesting, because in terms of language evolution maybe one day 'gaikokujin' may be termed too 'disrespectful' and another term will fill the void, until........and so on. It would take decades though.

What will come after 'gaikokujin'? Any guesses? (PS the way to find out is to start acting pissed at the use of the term 'gaikokujin', then see what the Japanese come up with to appease ).

[cstaylor]

Recently, I''ve noticed that nobody besides foreigners themselves hardly uses the word 'gaijin' any more.

Not true in Yokohama. My younger brother-in-law uses it to refer to me sometimes (when he's talking with other Japanese). Our Tokyo Gas lady, first time she came to check the meter at work, said, "Ah! Gaijin-san!" when I opened the door.

I mentally translate the word to "whitey", so I don't feel too insulted by it.

[Big Booger]

[Crispy]

Yeah, cracker is the preferred nomenclature. When I was in Japan, I could hear people catching themselves before saying gaijin and saying gaikokujin instead. It's so nice of them to be sensitive to my handicap of being a foreigner...or something.

[Nagged]

What will come after 'gaikokujin'? Any guesses?

Perhaps...chopstick challenged? I still get that from people who have known me for years. I then proceed to tell them that many foreigners back home can use them without ever coming to Japan. (I learned myself from frequent visits to the local Chinese district) It sometimes takes a few seconds for folk to remind themselves that chopsticks are used in other East Asian countries also and they are not so unique as they think.

Getting back to subject, I don't care what people call me as long as it is with good intentions.

[American Oyaji]

I would have to agree with nagged. I don't care. Just dont disrespect.

[devicenull]

[Marked Trail]

[devicenull]

[maraboutslim]

[Taro Toporific]

[AssKissinger]

I want to be called a 'gaikotsujin'






http://www.fatalexception.org/spin_article

The sky is blanketed by swollen, gray clouds. Under this leaden bell jar, an hour outside Oslo in the Norwegian Countryside, lie the remains of Holen Church — just the pink granite foundation and several piles of charred pine. Among the fire's ruin, burnt pages from hymnals fly around, chaotic as brown moths. Blacksmith-forged nails lie mingled with the femurs and tiabiae of ministers buried a hundred years ago beneath the church's floorboards. Burned to the ground last May, Holen is the most recent catastrophe in Norway's ongoing national disaster: twenty-two churches, some dating to medieval times, destroyed by arson over the last four years.

Edited to fix dead pic

[kotatsuneko]

"Foreigners are all sneaky thieves."Kanagawa Gov Shigefumi Matsuzawa, during a campaign speech Sunday. (Kyodo

sure and nihonjin are all such wonderfull people arent they?

LetS generAliSe!

Heartless thieves steal kiddies' spuds

YOKOHAMA -- Dozens of sweet potatoes planted especially so pre-school children could experience digging them out of the ground were stolen Monday just one day before the kids were due to unearth them, police said.

Thieves ripped out the delicacies from the field where they had been planted in anticipation of a visit to a cultural farm on the outskirts of Yokohama by a group of about 60 kindergartners

stick that in ya pipe n smoke it jpolitico wanker!

[Nagged]

stick that in ya pipe n smoke it jpolitico wanker!

LOL. You tell 'em Kots!

Feel sorry for those anklebiters though. What a bummer.

[kamome]

[devicenull]

[GomiGirl]

I was away in the country this weekend - lots of autumn leaves etc. it was wonderful.. but I digress,

As we were a mixed room - 8 people - 4 foreigners, 4 Japanese.. in order to identify which room they were talking about they would say the "foreigners room".. I was fairly non-plussed with being identified this way but I could see the need for efficiency in a hotel full of people and us being the only foreigners - even though we are all residents.

The only solution I see is for there to be more exposure of local people with those who look different.. that will come in time and for the moment I am prepared to put up with being singled out as the "wierdo" (I am anywhere I go so I am used to it by now)

But getting all uptight over a label shouldn't be the issue.. it is the double standard of treatment if and when it happens that should happen.

G "Call me anything except late for dinner" G

[kenchan]

well I've been back in the US now, and my Japanese Exchange student friends still refer to white people as gaijin. I'm Nikkei Nisei and speak fluently, if it wasn't for my fasion, people wouldn't know what I was. I've also been called gaijin in the US from my Japanese friends....wow, I thought, I'm called an outsider in my own country from ..well, ...outsiders.

[cstaylor]

well I've been back in the US now, and my Japanese Exchange student friends still refer to white people as gaijin. I'm Nikkei Nisei and speak fluently, if it wasn't for my fasion, people wouldn't know what I was. I've also been called gaijin in the US from my Japanese friends....wow, I thought, I'm called an outsider in my own country from ..well, ...outsiders.

Just return the favor by calling them "Future Subjects of Shogun-sama Kim Jung Il"

[Mulboyne]

Japan Times: Foreign Branding
For "Gaijin:

I am well aware that the term "gaijin" has pejorative overtones...The best reason for not blowing your gasket when you hear yourself called a gaijin, however, is to remember that it's your word now -- if you have the guts to claim it...The longer we stay offended by this tag, the longer it will be used by some as a tool to keep us in our place, as it were. Yet the sooner we embrace it as a badge of honor, the sooner it will lose its power to denigrate and oppress....

Against "Gaijin":

Many of you might think the word "gaijin" is a relatively harmless little term...Yet, thinking people realize the term's wider implications and refuse to use it...Branding words, like gaijin, reinforce negative stereotypes and support unequal power distribution within society. They undermine people's right to equal treatment, respect, responsibility and accountability.

[Pencilslave]

What will come after 'gaikokujin'? Any guesses? (PS the way to find out is to start acting pissed at the use of the term 'gaikokujin', then see what the Japanese come up with to appease ).

Ishihara would probably like to refer to us as Kaiju or Oni. Goes back to eating his subway train.

[Maths Dude]

Yeah, me and my japanese wife now live in Australia and I have a great time calling her and her japanese friends 'gaijin'. They hate it, but it's damn fun

[Steve Bildermann]

I workout and teach a bit of Judo a couple of nights week at the local Taikukan. There are about 40 to 50 regulars ranging in age from kids to grizzled veterans. We have a couple of all Japan competitors too. It's not a 'banzai' environment and everybody gets a good and safe workout.

From time to time bcause we have these two All Japan guys at our dojo a few westerners from various places will come to get in some extra practice with them.

Of course I usually get lumbered with interpreting and taking care of our visitors. I don't mind and actually it's a good chance to learn about other places like Finland, Denmark, The Baltic States etc.

When asked to explain some technique demonstrated by the Sensei or the top guys I often catch myself saying to the Sensei 'sorry they are a bit slow moving because their hips are too high, Gaijin da kara'

I feel so stupid after I've said it.

[gkanai]

well I've been back in the US now, and my Japanese Exchange student friends still refer to white people as gaijin.

This is the kind of attitude that I think is hardwired into many Japanese, and will always end up creating an uchi/soto, us/them, kind of mentality. It's sad. Japan is a first-world nation but mentally separates itself from other first-world nations in a subtle but important fashion.

The poor English is another dead giveaway.

[maraboutslim]

well I've been back in the US now, and my Japanese Exchange student friends still refer to white people as gaijin.

This is the kind of attitude that I think is hardwired into many Japanese, and will always end up creating an uchi/soto, us/them, kind of mentality. It's sad. Japan is a first-world nation but mentally separates itself from other first-world nations in a subtle but important fashion.

I don't think there is anything necessarily "sad" about that attitude. The explanation that the Japanese themselves give is a perfectly acceptable one: they are an island people with a history of being isolated. Even today, despite being a first-world nation, they are the only one with 99% ethnic and language purity and therefore the only ones capable of defining the "home team" as ones who look and speak like they do.

Other European and Americans may instead define the "us" and "them" based on non-ethnic things such as world view, preference of economic or government system or religion or whatever. This doesn't necessarily mean they are any more socially evolved than the Japanese. It may just mean that the Euro/Americans don't use ethnic lines to describe "us" and "them" because such definitions don't fit onto their multi-racial, multi-language societies.

The word "gaijin" describes non-Japanese and it is appropriate for a Japanese travelling or living in the usa (for example) to use the word "gaijin" to describe the locals. (well, it's as appropriate as using the word "gaijin" can ever be...)

[Big Booger]

[maraboutslim]

So I guess while I am in Japan, I should call all Japanese people foreigners? That is using the expression, when in Rome...

The problem you are running in to when trying to make a simplistic word-to-word translation for the word "gaijin" to the word "foreigner" is that English is a language that has evolved to suit people that have had many years of involvement with people from other countries and so the meaning of the word "foreigner" to an English speaker tends to describe one who is not a native of the land in which the speaker happens to be standing when he speaks that word.

Japanese language does not have that background. "Gai" always means "outside of our stuff, man" and "gaijin" is always someone from outside of Japan, regardless of where the person speaking the word happens to be standing when he speaks it.

So instead of trying to translate word for word, you need to come up with a deeper, cultural understanding of the concept of the word "gaijin" and what it means to the Japanese, irregardless of what words we may or may not have in English.

But in the respective countries where a Japanese is the "gaijin", that term shouldn't apply. In America, a Japanese is a gaijin...

Let me stress: There are countries in which a Japanese can be a "foreigner", but there is no country in which a Japanese is a "gaijin". The concept of "Gaijin" means "foreign to us, the japanese". A Japanese can never be a gaijin. A Japanese does not become an outsider simply by leaving Japan: they are always a member of the home team and non-members are gaijin.

[Maths Dude]

It's our duty to remined japanese that THEY are the barbarian gaijin when they arent at home. Then they know what it feels like to be called that. That they are not part of my society and never will be. I hate those japs here who try to go native, maybe thats how japs feels when foreigners in Japan go native.

[Adhesive]

I remember during one of my first trips to Japan a friend chided me for using the word gaijin, and pointed out that the correct usage was gaikokujin. The funny part was that whenever I heard him talking about me over the phone or with another person it was "gaijin" this and "gaijin" that.