外国人

[trunker]

i agree that it can be used in the same way and with the same meaning as the "n" word. but at the same time i do believe that if you ask the majority of japanese people they will tell you that they use gaijin simply as a contraction of gaikokujin. i think the gaikokujin is used for things like proper writing and tv and stuff like that. you know how they have proper polite japanese and regular japanese.

even the wiki article, which is a very interesting read, ultimately links the "gai" part to refer to outsiders, as well as enemies. and if you take into account that japan is pretty much all japanese people, the easiest way to distinguish people is by being from here or not. and you know how the japanese love pigeon holing everyone and everything into categories they can understand easily.

so whether its offensive or not i think depends on context,.... for example, ol grumpy racsist dude who sees you then starts muttering gaijin this or gaijin that,.... i'll be more than happy to smack him one before you do. but the bartender telling another customer he has a gaijin client could be proud of the fact, and simply didnt say gaikokujin,..... unless he's obviously not enjoying your patronage, in which case i'm sure you'll get the hint without the word gaijin being dropped.

take my case for example, i grew up and lived outside japan for all of my life and have only just returned. i dont even speak the damn language, and i'm only half japanese. but technically on paper i'm japanese, even though i dont consider myself one of them.

the one thing i've noticed is that i'm referred to as "the gaijin" as a way to tell people i'm being introduced to, how to act around me,.... or if one was really neurotic, to tell people why i might insult them by not doing something "the japanese way". you know how big they are on this kind of crap.

now i could get really pissed about that last bit, but i've found that more often than not, "he's a gaijin" means "you can chill and relax around him as he wont judge you on how you sit seiza or how you eat your senbei".

more often than not, and if its not said by one of those nationalist morons in black landcruisers, gaijin or gaikokujin comes with it a sense of awe and a bit of envy,... as in "man, dude doesnt have to deal with all the crap we do, lucky him". its why they always ask the standard " so what do you think about japan?" question,.... they want to know your point of view,.... whether you tell the honest truth is up to you and whether they like the honest truth or not is up to them.

its tough being a minority, i've been one my whole life, and even when i'm here i'm still a minority, if not an immediately obvious one haha. but you get used to it, and with it comes alot of perks, like not having to put up with the bullshit the locals have to on a daily basis. I mean I would hate to have to be a complete and utter japanese person as it seems like their lives are really really crap, so yeah foreigners that want to be japanese and accepted as japanese completely baffle me, the silly masochists.

i think its kinda like the complaining foreigner thing (which i have been most of my life and will continue to be here), you can choose to make it a big deal every time you hear it, or you can choose to make it an issue only when its being used offensively.

[Realism]

If someone called me a foreigner in America...would I be mad??

I wouldn't even know..

[SceptileMaster]

Although I don't get it much now when I was at school I was constantly bullied for not being English by a lot of people. Now that school is in the past it's different since there are more mature people and I'm am not immediately obvious as a foreigner if someone looks at me for the first time. This doesn't mean that I've forgotten what it's like. Some people are just idiots where you go but if someone says to someone that I'm Scottish it doesn't offend me.

Also a quick question. I never thought that 国 always refered to Japan before. But even after you've told me this I have something confusing me. I mean I can understand it but what about in the context of 中国. In that context it's China is it not?

[GTJ]

Originally Posted by SceptileMaster

Also a quick question. I never thought that 国 always refered to Japan before. But even after you've told me this I have something confusing me. I mean I can understand it but what about in the context of 中国. In that context it's China is it not?

Correct, 中国 is China. China has always referred to itself as the "Middle Kingdom" (not to be confused with the Egyptian Middle Kingdom period), and this reflects in the modern name for the country, both in Chinese and Japanese as well.

[GTJ]

@Trunker: What a fantastic post. I feel great after reading that. I feel like we should hang out now, stop being in Nagoya, haha

[SceptileMaster]

Doesn't that mean that 国 doesn't mean Japan in that context though?

[trunker]

haha I never was in nagoya!

passed by on the way to osaka a while ago but nah im down south in nagasaki man.

[MMM]

Originally Posted by SceptileMaster

Also a quick question. I never thought that 国 always refered to Japan before. But even after you've told me this I have something confusing me. I mean I can understand it but what about in the context of 中国. In that context it's China is it not?

Read what I wrote again: the 国 of 外国人 is Japan. Just by itself 国 means "country".

[AyoSi]

日本　= japan silly =P

[MMM]

Originally Posted by AyoSi

日本　= japan silly =P

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