Quote:
Originally Posted by Nyororin
I`ve been riding the trains for over 10 years, and have never had stares or people not sitting by me. I`ve never heard anyone talking negatively about foreigners/me.
I have however seen other foreigners sit down and take up two or three spots with their way of sitting, or plop their bag on the seat next to them when it is crowded in the train, or sit in the priority area without noticing, or keep talking loudly with friends, or be generally inconsiderate.
I have had other people with me who only speak poor or elementary Japanese THINK that other people were talking about them - when the other people were really talking about something completely unrelated. (And the lower level Japanese speaker think they were quite sly for "understanding" the people talking about them, saying something to the people who were talking - earning them stares and avoidance... Which is pretty understandable as I think I`d do the same if I were talking to a friend and someone came up and said "I understand what you`re saying!" or "I know you`re talking about me!")
Having seen far more people misinterpret normal things as being negative toward them than actually have negative things happen to them... I tend to take these accounts with a grain of salt. There is WAY too much "this happened to me because I was a foreigner!" and way too little "this happened to me because I was doing something something" - when most of the time it is something that would earn a Japanese person just as many stares. People aren`t going to not look when you do something that they find weird just because you`re not Japanese.
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I really can't say I behave all the time, I myself is like a spoiled brad grew old, so it doesn't bug me that much some people behaving a bit naughty but it sure is sad to see people breaking rules AND think they get discriminated, not knowing what they are doing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nyororin
Seriously though, I have been waiting 12 years to catch someone saying something about me thinking I couldn`t understand them so that I could make some snarky comment - and have yet to find even one.
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Once upon a time, I was a stupid little brad living in the UK. I was in front of Mitsukoshi London, with my female friends, waiting for someone. There was a caucasian woman, probably in her late 30's, in front of us and my friends started complimenting how her legs were nice. Somewhat annoyed for some reason, I made a comment 「ああ、でも腹太いよね。」
Then she immediately turned around and said 「人は見かけによらないってことわざ知らないわよね！ 」 in Japanese. I was too shocked and embarrassed I couldn't even apologize. I had to have looked like a total idiot. Well, I WAS a total idiot. It was right in front of
Mitsukoshi for God's sake...
Now when I think about it, she acted too quickly. It was like 0.5 second. She must had been waiting for that chance for 12 years...