Picked on for liking japan?

[Debi]

Originally Posted by Koir

Hardly. I found your post very intelligent and well-reasoned up until that point. I don't have a problem with profanity, I use it all the time.

Like what we can't please everyone, eh ?

[redbone]

I really think it depends on the reasons why you like Japan or your level of interest. Some people make Japan into a fantasy world based on some kind of entertainment they've seen when it's entirely inaccurate. If you have an authentic reason for interest that has some kind of merit other than anime or J-Rock or a Gwen Stefani video, then there should be no reason why some knuckleheads' opinions should affect your focus.

[BucktheWolf]

Youch, kids! Here we go! Simmer down, now!

You're right, Debi (the male >.> Sorry!). The kids who study because of anime tend to do worse. They also tend to do worse in art, too x3 They don't want to do art, they want to draw cartoons. Should be taking cartoon classes, maybe.
But then, there are people so motivated by their interest in the culture, whether spawned from years of anime or whatever, that do extremely well in Japanese.
I'm in it for music. I want to be able to listen to Japanese music and know what it's about, then turn around and write it. I make all A's. Motivation isn't completely a matter of reason, but of will.

In our university, the people who are "ignored" in yours have social outlets. When they aren't there, they create them for people with common interests, kind of like forums, but in real life. Clubs and stuff.
It's hard to say an entire body of people is ignored on a college campus; this is the place where subcultures thrive. To generalize, you've got your anime nerds, your furries, your musicians, your socialists, your Greeks, your theatre fags, your engineers, your jocks... All colliding in one place, mingling, interacting. Their interests weave and intersect in a way that the stratification of high school does not allow. There's no way any one subculture can go completely ignored.
I'm an English major, a furry, a theater fag, and I LOVE cartoons. I was in a rock band with a math major indie kid who lived with a socialist punk-rock roommate, his best friend on campus. Our keyboardess was an anime nerd to the extreme who studied classical music, and our lead guitarist was obsessed with J-Rock and Jimi Hendrix and studied foreign languages. Our drummer listened primarily to rap music and was studying to be an electrician, and he knew the dance of his favorite fraternities. The drummer is an athlete, too.
No one is ostracized unless they do it to themselves, and even the ones who are totally anti-social, like my new bandmate Tim, end up meeting random people through the few people they know, and the weaving continues as we meet people who share our own interests and bring more to the table.
Remember, "otaku" is one aspect of a person's life. There is absolutely no one who is completely one-dimensional. I know the kids with Asperger's and autism, too. We're all quite complex creatures.

What I sense (and this is purely conjecture based on observation) is that you are offended. You find yourself stratified with people with whom you don't want to be associated, and you want to be separate. Like furries denouncing zoophiles, you've got an interest in Japan, but you don't want to be wrapped up in one ball with "otaku." Therefore, you are openly wary of anyone embracing anything purely "otaku" in an effort to distance yourself from them. Conjecture, really, but I see the signs I've seen before.
To sum up the symptoms, "This is why I'm different from these people. These people do something peculiar that is not socially acceptable, and I don't approve of what they do. Therefore, they bring any social consequences upon themselves. When I am associated with this group, I become defensive, subtly or overtly, and distance myself from them rhetorically."
This isn't inherently a bad thing. But like I said, we're all here right now talking about this, so we're all in the same boat.

I admire your dedication to your learning of kana, but when you use it in a forum with English-speaking people who don't know what the kana mean, you come across as pretentious. It doesn't read as practice, it reads as gloating. I see what you were doing now, but beforehand, it came off funny.

Woof! I turn the discussion back to you!

[coolforcats1]

Oh my YES. People I know just don't understand how much I love Japan and it's culture.
They either make jokes about the Japanese or laugh.

So immature..

[BucktheWolf]

Hmm... Well, in my experience, friends joke about their friends all the time. If it makes you uncomfortable, maybe you could mention that it does to them.

[MaryAuksi]

YES! Absolutely!
My classmates... Ugh... I brought this photo to school because I was going to the hairdresser's that day, with a picture of an anime character (Matt from Death Note, if anyone cares, LOL), and Grete (my deskmate in most classes) just wouldn't shut up about it... And when we were doing a blog for Computer Class, we were supposed to make a post, and I made it about harajuku street fashion (photos & all) and the guys were all like "...WTF? Lame."
At least my best friend is a crazy J-fan as well, so it isn't that bad.

[snowmanf]

You could put forward an argument to suggest the US govt is partly to blame, hehe.

Did you ever see the sort of videos they were churning out during WWII?
No wonder ppl ended up with their crazy notions, as wrong as they are. All these years later I think there's still a latent effect. You dont see the same type of hatred of things German even though they were also on the other side. but then, there wasn't a similar media campaign directed against them. Politics, it will always perpetrate evil!
I used to go around asking ppl I met if they knew that Japan was on the same side as the allies in WWI, guess how many ppl actually knew?

So I've given up asking.

sorry, I think I've wondered too far offtpic here

[BucktheWolf]

That may have been a bit of a stretch... I'm also pretty sure there was anti-German propaganda. They wouldn't even sell Hamburgers because of the connection with Germany. They were renamed :3
True, we had a special program for the issei and nissei in this country, but the propaganda stretched across the entire "axis of evil."

As for lingering effects, if we hated all things Japan, goodness knows we wouldn't love their cars or Sony and Sega and Nintendo... You see what I'm getting at?

I think the culture isn't hated. But it's become a nerdy subject, like computers and videogames and stuff.

[BusterWolfXII]

Originally Posted by BucktheWolf

I think the culture isn't hated. But it's become a nerdy subject, like computers and videogames and stuff.

True say.

But then again, going overboard with video games, animé and whatever is still nerdy in Japan, but it's not as bad whereas here, you so much as glance at a manga and it's Instant Nerdification for you.

[Undertherose25]

I haven't been picked on yet.

I'm so worried about offending Asian people that I keep my Myspace private [it's covered in Japanese band pictures and music] and I keep my music low [I only listen to J-Rock/J-Pop]. I'll read manga in public but I won't talk about it or bands. It doesn't help that before I got obsessed with this stuff and Japan I have a huge thing for Asian guys, I figure its hopeless, but I'm so concerned about offending them by letting it slip that I'm obsessed with Japan that I can't even approach them to try and make friends.

I'm a lost cause