Quote:
Originally Posted by Asakura
It's not supposed to be derogatory. But kids can be cruel. A kid can make anything an insult.
The experience I've had with it is that it's a term to identify a forginer. I can be derogatory or not. Depending on the situation, person, anything.
It goes back to the old saying "It isn't what you say, It's how you say it"
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Good point. While a child or someone referring to me as gaijin would simply be accurate, if I were touring outside of my own country, it could be said in such a tone - or with additional words - that could turn it quite insulting. Unlike like a racial epithet referred to earlier that can never be anything but insulting in public, I can use "tourist" very accurately and politely, but I can also use it with a connotation emphasizing the lack of knowledge which turns it into an insult.