Quote:
Originally Posted by masaegu
If someone refuses to learn Japanese after 7 years of living in Japan, to me that is a good sign of a bad immigrant if not of a hater. I'm sure OP would think the same way if someone emigrated to Australia and refused to learn English even after 7 years of living there and criticized so many aspects of the country online all day like OP does about Japan.
GoNative? LMAO What's so native about him?
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Now that's where you are completely and as usual utterly wrong. Having come from Australia, a country that has basically been built upon successive waves of immigration I have plenty of experience of being in communities where new immigrants have not learned english terribly well. Within a gneration or so though you could barely distinguish their childrens accents from any other Aussie.
Those who arrive first often form their own little communities largely because of the language difficulties. For instance when I was growing up in the 70's there was a huge influx of Vietnamese refugees after the war. Initially they formed fairly close nit communities not far from the immigration processing centres. Few could speak english and in their communities whole streets would be lined with businesses purely set up to cater to that community. Many proprieters of the businesses didn't even speak english. A couple of generations on though those communities have spread out and integrated and these Australians of Vietnamese decent barely even have any accent that would distinguish them from any other Australian. Many of the older Vietnamese who were the first arrivals though still don't speak good english some 30-40 years after arriving in Australia, they have never needed to to have a good life. Exactly the same thing occurred when there was a big influx of Italians and Greeks after WWII and still occurs today with influxes of refugees from Afghanistan and Iraq. And I can assure you I never had a any problem with immigration whatsoever. I believe immigration has been very good for Australia.
The community I live in Japan is one where many of my Japanese friends speak really good english. Many have come to work here purely because of their english skills and because they want to work for foreign owned rather than Japanese companies. It's not like I don't speak any Japanese and can't get by in most everday situations. Hell I've bought a house and renovated it, bought several cars, bought investment property, am a part owner in a bar that employs 3 Japanese staff (do you employ anyone?) and had my first child here. I have been interviewed many times by the Japanese media (they seem amazed at all us foreigners wanting to live and invest up here). I have a very active social life with foreign and Japanese friends. I do Iaido and Kendo and have san dan in Iaido and have made great contacts in the local community through this. I'm also very active in Park Golf and entered some competitions at my local course this last summer (regularly finishing in the top 15) and have made a whole lot of other local friends through this. I have tirelessly promoted this region I live to the internaional community playing some small part in making this area one of the very few rural regions of Japan that has seen jobs and population growth and increasing house prices. I have always paid my taxes and never broken any laws excepting for one speeding fine. Please explain to me just how that makes me a bad immigrant? Or explain to me what I've been missing out on all these years? I'm almost willing to bet I've contributed and invested more into Japan than you ever have masaegu. The fact that I am not fluent in the language has not diminished my experience here all that much at all as far as I'm concerned. Would it be better to be fluent? Sure it would. But I work and play hard and now have a kid. Finding time to study is really very difficult especially as not being fluent hasn't exactly totally isolated me here.
And just so you know I ran a landscaping business in Australia that specialised in indigenous and native plants. It was called Go Native Landscapes. In fact my wife and I still get contracts for landscape design work through that business. Anyway that's where the name comes from.
From what I can tell you are the hater and intolerant one. And frankly your obvious racism and xenophobia is getting a little tiresome. Just so everyone knows this whole thread was started because it was this individual who accused me of being a hater.