Quote:
Originally Posted by jasonbvr
I wanted to explain a bit more about the term gaijin even chachava is right in saying it is just a shortened version of gaikokujin. Before I do though, you have to realize that 99% of gaijin living in Japan refer to themselves as gaijin and others as gaijin as well.
I have heard that some people take offence to being called a gaijin and here are some of my theories on it. When you look at the meanings for the character that makes up the first syllable gai 外, it can mean from the outside. So literally a person from a country outside of Japan for the term gaikokujin 外国人. Shortened to gaijin, some people may take it to mean outsider. Then there is another meaning that translates as bad. So gaijin becomes bad person.
But honestly, taking offence to being called a gaijin is just retarded. However sometimes their are people who have lived in Japan for quite a while, maybe even there whole life, but don't look Japanese. In this case they have a bit more to complain about being labeled a gaijin, but they are usually knowledgeable enough of Japan and Japanese to accept and expect this little faux paux.
I'll leave you with one of my new favorite phrases, just because we're both gaijin doesn't mean we're friends. HaHa...
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I know that Japanese uses many Chinese characters, but I was a little surprised to see that they use 外国人 as their word for foreigners. That's exactly what Chinese say, only it's pronounced wai4 guo2 ren2 (the numbers being tone markes). Another expression used in China, one you'll usually hear every day as you walk the streets, is 老外 and is pronounced lao3 wai4. Do Japanese use it also? For anyone interested in language, check out the Chinese language page on wikipedia. Some scholars believe that a lot of words to describe recent inventions, like telephone, etc., came originally form the Japanese. Since the Japanese used the Chinese characters to write the word, like 电话 (dian4 hua4) for telephone, it was easy for Chinese to adopt them.