At this risk of turning CA into a mere online diary from the perspicacious journal of current affairs that it is, I have some more personal observations while traveling in Japan.
Those of you that have lived in Japan have most likely experienced the infamous social dynamic of in-group/out-group. This doubly applies to the Japanese-Foreigner groups. No matter how well your Japanese language ability is, no matter how well you know the system, you will never be considered/treated equal to a Japanese. Myself and many of my friends have been deeply involved in a range of traditional Japanese arts (budo, tea, etc.) and have extensive knowledge of Japanese culture and history. On many occasions we have been called “more Japanese than the Japanese” by regular Japanese themselves. But still, in many situations we are treated like children.
Now, you say, who the hell cares? You are living overseas surrounded by cute girls and Hello Kitty! What’s the friggin’ problem?
The problem is that is can be terribly frustrating. If you have a certain Japanese ability, you tend to try and make regular Japanese people understand that you are not some dumb cracker with a Japan Rail Pass, and they don’t have to treat you like a kid. Other expats in Japan have no ability and couldn’t give a flying f—on a rolling donut and don’t get frustrated. Still others have somehow broken the barrier, and nothing frustrates them anymore. These guys are the lifers, the guys who have been here for like 20 years.
Truth is, I was of the first category. I got very frustrated while living here a few years ago. Between working for the Japanese “Man” in the stifling business culture of Kyoto (hat tip Curzon), and having the Rage, I was ready to leave and I did.
But upon returning I have had an epiphany. In my daily interactions with Japanese I came to realize that I just don’t give a fuck. Over the past year and a half my personal identity has been so far removed from Japan that I don’t care about social walls here any more. Considering I may be moving back here for a spell, I think this is a good sign.
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Comments to this entry
Joe
October 1, 2006
5:06 am
1) live in a place where you like the treatment you get based on your looks,
2) live with whatever undesirable treatment you get based on your looks, or
3) change your looks.
Personally, although I still get weird gaijin treatment on a fairly regular basis, I try to take it all in stride. A couple of weeks ago, I got some lunch at the Jonathan's down the street, and the waitress wasn't sure what to say when I walked in the door. I just asked for a table as I usually would. This morning, I went back for breakfast and the same lady was polite and talkative. No problems.
The best way to kill stereotypes is to break them--in this case, by being intelligent, well-spoken and civilized. Given some of the jokers who visit this country, that might be akin to skiing uphill, but I'll be damned if I won't try.
Don
October 1, 2006
5:17 am
Curzon
October 1, 2006
5:33 am
It's easy to feel this way -- but I think this stereotype is incorrect, either because (1) today's Japan is different, or (2) because people who propogated this stereotype never learnt _how_ to speak the language (even if they learnt the words, grammar, and characters). It's easy to initially feel this way because Japanese is a language characterized by polite language and vague expressions. Most foreigners don't master this, even if they have excellent language skills. As a result, they come across as rude, brash, crack jokes when inappropriate, don't understand _keigo_ or polite Japanese, or use sarcasm.
It is possible to be accepted if you can show otherwise. This will never conquer the waiters, train conductors, and others who see or meet you for the first time, or just once in passing. In first meeting they will quite logically assume that you don't speak Japanese and are just another foreign visitor. But take it in stride and show them otherwise. Hopefully it will help you find life here as rewarding and satisfying as I do.
Chirol
October 1, 2006
1:04 pm
I can comment a bit on Germany but no on Japan. Here, as long as you're white, it's reasonably easy to fit in. The difference comes out rather in fashion and body language which means the experienced travellers or those who've been here longer have little trouble fitting in, myself included. Although I'm fluent in German and have spent a total of about 4 years in the country, I do have a slight accent yet people normally do not treat me like a child or even correct any mistakes.
Germans are fairly used to foreigners, especially those who speak little German such as the Turks and Eastern Europeans who live here. Thus, although occasionally people talk slowly and treat you different, it's a normal human reaction meant helpfully, not condescendingly.
As for patriotism, and identity, I'd be curious as to the reactions and experiences of YH and others who've lived abroad and whether extended periods abroad have enforced your worldliness so to say or reinforced your Americanness.
Joe
October 1, 2006
2:10 pm
My first trip to the Continent was a weekend in Belgium, after I had come back from my first year in Japan. I was wandering around Brussels on a Sunday morning. The city was damnear deserted.
Anyway, I was walking down the main ring road when a car full of young-looking guys stopped and one of them asked me, in very rapid-fire French, if I knew where some place was. I don't speak French so I said "Uhhhhh, no parlez Anglais." But I spent the next hour or so thinking, "Whoa! That was awesome! They thought I was a local!"
In Tokyo, it would be exactly the opposite situation: I would know where everything is, and also know how to explain the route in detail in Japanese, but nobody would ever bother asking me (unless they were, y'know, dumb crackers with Japan Rail Passes).
Funny how these things work.
von Kaufman-Turkestansky
October 1, 2006
5:05 pm
My accent did not sound English so that was confusing for many people. But my experience over the years was that when Russians got to know me for more than 5 minutes, they would usually be impressed that I knew the language and culture so well. I found them welcoming in that regard. In my work (I worked in a theatre), my young colleagues would normally tease me over the misfortunes of the Toronto Maple Leafs. I also got it for Mayor Mel Lastman calling in the army to clear snow (that made news around the planet).
There were always a few episodes from people who would treat me like a child, but there were enough people that treated me well that I was able to simply write them off as ignorant. The vast majority related well to me.
tdaxp
October 1, 2006
6:15 pm
Your identity does not matter.
Last semester, a partner and I conducted a small-n study for a class project on talent and expertise. We examined a variety of factors and one of them was "identity," or how one would verbally describe one's self ...
Admiral
October 1, 2006
8:05 pm
And that seems worldly enough to me.
James
October 1, 2006
9:36 pm
Where in Japan was this guy from? Was it a town with a US military base? My Japanese is not fluent, but I have yet to observe an "insurmountable" wall of Japanese racism against dating Americans.
Kurt
October 1, 2006
10:57 pm
I worked for Japanese companies. This was a mixed blessing because, despite the rigimented Japanese company culture, I got to do lots of good engineering work that I never could have done in the U.S. You see, I worked for small engineering companies. Its alot different than working for Toshiba or SEI. In the small companies, you have lots of opportunity to take on new tasks if you seek it out, because the Japanese staff are afraid to take on anything new because they are afraid to fail and loose face. Hence, I got to do all of the engineering work that needed to be done and, more significantly, doubled the sales revenues of the company.
I think I broke through the "acceptance" barrier at least on two occasions. The first was the aformentioned engineering company (it was an vacuum process equipment OEM). The second was a group of people (all Japanese) who made up this advanced aerobics class I took every Friday night at the gym I worked out in, then followed up with eating and drinking at the local ezakaya.
Kurt
October 1, 2006
11:16 pm
By the time I moved to Japan in 1991, I came to see myself as a sort of "lazarus Long" type who seeks to live a life-style based on an idefinitely long personal future. For those of you who are unfamilar with Lazarus Long, he is the main character in Robert Heinlein's "Time Enough for Love". Being post-mortal (i.e. having been cured of aging process) he lives an open life of unlimited adventure in various societies composed of people who have mostly not undergone the therapy to cure them of aging.
Living life as an expat, especially if you are a transhumanist (as I am), is essentially identical to the life that Lazarus Long lives in his many adventures in "Time Enough For Love". This puts a different perspective on the Japanese cultural acceptance barrier. Since I am what I want to be and consider it better than what the Japanese are, I could care less about the acceptance barrier. Just like the people back home, the Japanese are just another group of emphemerals. Since, being transhumanist, I am not like the people back home, why should it bother me that I am not like the Japanese either?
The most significant effect that 10 years of expating had on me was to make me a better transhumanist.
I guarantee you, if you identify with trasnhumanist ideas like radical life-extension and the like, you will have a MUCH EASIER time adapting to being an expat. I can bet anyone donuts to dollars on this. Once you become transhumanist, you know you are way more cool than anyone else you will ever encounter.
Joe
October 2, 2006
1:58 am
Younghusband
October 2, 2006
2:29 am
Don, duly noted and edited.
Chirol, I found my Canadian-ness was much more reinforced. Though my peeps were Worldly, and we identified with one another. I really understand when Kaplan talks about a "cosmopoitan elite" with a cross-border identity. But I found we retained our respective patriotisms.
Von, I found that there were people who treated me right. But the vast majority didn't know how to handle the situtation.
Dan, have you lived overseas?
James, nice dating comment.
Kurt, whoa man... I need to chew that over a bit.
Joe, WORD!
Thanks for all the interesting comments and experiences guys. One thing I am wondering, in regards to the "being treated like a child thing," is how much this is a reflection of Japanese culture in general. Most of you that have lived here will know how overprotective society is here (though much of this could be the result of pork-barrel politics and the constructions companies). For an independent Canadian male of nearly 30, this feels like being treated as a child, but for regular Japanese this is a cultural safety blanket that makes you feel cared about. Maybe it is culture shock at the lowest level.
Thoughts?
Elizabeth
October 2, 2006
4:37 am
I do think that people from immigrant countries- such as Canada and the US- have a much harder time finding our place in foreign cultures. This is because when people come to our countries, we generally accept them as immigrants, as our own. After just a few years, if someone wants to become Canadian, or American, they can. We implicitely expect this of our host countries, even though if we thought about it, we would realize this is a silly expectation.
Nobody can become Japanese, or Russian, or even possibly German. I love Russia and the people there, and I love Tajikistan, despite everything. But I will always, always be a foreigner there. My children will be half-foreign. Even converting to Islam (not that it's going to happen) would not help.
When I realized that I would always be a foreigner, it was a lot easier. Sounds like you had a similar experience.
machiruda
October 2, 2006
4:42 am
Maybe I should reconsider after all....
The Western Confucian
October 2, 2006
6:25 am
Anyone who's planning to stay over in these parts long term would be wise to keep the impossibilty of assimilation in mind from day one.
Joe
October 2, 2006
9:25 am
"Assimilation" has two meanings. You can assimilate in the legal/sociological sense by conforming with everyone else, or you can assimilate in the biological/Borg sense by being absorbed.
I propose that you can be *absorbed* into Japanese society without necessarily *conforming*. You can't change the fact that you look white, black or some other color, but you can certainly have a damn good livelihood.
And let's not lose sight of the fact that MANY minorities the world over would LOVE to be treated half as well as white folks are treated in Japan. For all of the little annoyances, the country is still your oyster: if you speak Japanese and understand the society and culture well enough, you can do just about anything you want to.
For what it's worth, I think people who worry too much about conforming with society in general are going to be miserable all their lives, no matter what country they're in. Conforming with a military unit or an office is one thing, but even native Japanese people exhibit very little conformity on a society-wide basis, so worrying about conforming with all of them is just as pointless as worrying about terrorist attacks on Cleveland.
Curzon
October 2, 2006
9:50 am
Joe has basically said all I wanted to say. Learning the language, customs, and all the rest, and you can succeed in a country like Japan in unparralled ways. As I've written before, in today's Japan there is http://www.cominganarchy.com/2006/05/31/japan-in-the-21st-century/a distinct advantage in being different":http://www.cominganarchy.com/2006/05/31/japan-in-the-21st-century/ (forget about the whole "nail sticks up gets hammered down" nonsense), and foreigners who are _just Japanese enough_ are in a unique position to exploit this new trend.
Jing
October 2, 2006
2:29 pm
Elizabeth
October 2, 2006
4:19 pm
You know that line in the Jefferson Airplane song "Somebody to Love", "Your friends, they treat you like a guest?" While I enjoy being treated like an American in Tajikistan sometimes, for some reason I feel more at ease when people think I am an Uzbek or Azerbaijani, although they treat me much, much worse. I don't conform- never felt any pressure- but conforming, as you point out, doesn't make any difference.
"you can certainly have a damn good livelihood... I think people who worry too much about conforming with society in general are going to be miserable all their lives"
If I was somewhere for the money, the livelihood, life would be so simple. Money is easy to get. People who live abroad are looking for something else. It was an implicit expectation of somehow becoming part of a society- having a role other than "foreigner". It's the special treatment that gets to you, not the everyday difficulties. A blind ethnic-minority punk with one leg in Tajikistan would get treated more like a friend than me, if they knew I was American.
I'm a guest. I don't help myself to the beer in the fridge, I don't change the TV channel.
Joe
October 2, 2006
4:52 pm
There's a novel concept--living overseas so you aren't a foreigner!
von Kaufman-Turkestansky
October 2, 2006
6:16 pm
Of course you seem like a child to 800-year-old Methuselahs like Kurt and me.
elambend
October 2, 2006
6:17 pm
Joe sees his differences has what sets him apart. Having moved around enough, I share more of his sense of making lemonade with the lemons you have. I couldn't wait to get out of the stix growing up, but now that I'm out, it's part of what sets me apart. I relish being different. For one, no one expects you to really follow their conventions fully. Even in different parts of the states, this means something. Abroad, you may always be the foreign guy, but hey, that's your schtick now. Being a redneck with an accent I was often underestimated/treated as a rube in college; I learned to use it to my advantage. I think growing up being an outsider of some sorts made me more addaptable. I wonder is Joe had a similar upbringing.
I admit, I've never lived/worked abroad, but in my travels; it rarely seemed as if there wasn't anything that couldn't first be resolved by a smile, language proficiency or no. In fact, the only time my foreigness did grate on me was a high-school trip to England.
von Kaufman-Turkestansky
October 2, 2006
6:35 pm
Elizabeth
October 2, 2006
7:26 pm
Lots of people come to the United States or Canada and expect to make it their home, and be treated not as a foreigner but as a citizen. You can't blame young innocent Canadians and Americans for imagining that the reverse might be possible- immigrating to a country of emigration. We don't realize how truly unique our countries are.
I never enjoyed American culture and had sincerely hoped to make a home overseas- to emigrate and join another group. I truly thought this might be possible. Of course, my dream ended about 7 months into my first long stay, when I was just 22, and reality hit (nobody immigrates to Russia, nobody becomes Russian). But I was just describing the mixed expectations that young North Americans can have, and why they might have them- not justifying them.
elambend
October 2, 2006
8:33 pm
Elizabeth, I am completely intrigued. Would you consider emigrating somewhere else?
I admit, I sometimes wonder if I shouldn't have moved to China a few years ago, as some of my friends have. I wonder sometimes if I shouldn't move to a less developed, but developing part of the U.S. Even here in Chicago, I prefer the neighborhoods undergoing the beginings of change, or those right on the bubble.
Although I get it from a different motivation, I understand the idea.
Elizabeth
October 2, 2006
9:52 pm
I do think one of the reasons I like Central Asia, though, is that I look remarkably like the people there, so until I get into a long conversation, nobody knows I'm a foreigner. That's nice, because outside of parts of South America, there is nowhere else in the world where people don't look at me and wonder where I am from, and that's not pleasant.
Kurt
October 2, 2006
10:40 pm
Asia is definitely not the place to live for westerners who are looking for a "sense of belonging".
I have also learned that the Japanese (Chinese and Koreans, as well) respect ability and competance. As a "gaijin" in Asia, you want to be the best in what ever work you do, especially if you can solve a technical or business problem for the people you work with. You do this and the Japanese will respect you enormously. This was the key to my success in Japan.
Do your best work , find the people you like to hang out with, and enjoy your life. Do this and life in Japan can be quite fulfilling.
Joe
October 3, 2006
12:23 am
But they'll still get treated as foreigners. This is the case in America, too. Look at nth-generation Asian Americans, who are regularly treated as "Asians" as if they just got off the boat. Even my dad, who came to the US from Ireland around age 25 and has lost most of his original accent over time, is still seen as Irish by just about everyone (although this might be because he lives in the South and doesn't have a Southern accent).
Let's not even get started with black people, who have been in the US since day one and still get treated as outsiders.
Elizabeth
October 3, 2006
12:49 am
Obviously we have been treated differently in the United States. Having always been assumed to be a foreigner or immigrant (or so I suppose, since eventually they ask me where I am from originally, or compliment my excellent English), and being assumed (correctly) to be a foreigner in other countries, I have to say the reaction here is quite different.
Again- I'm not talking about kindness or courtesy. It's something else entirely.
You would expect a black person, or immigrant from Mexico, or half-generation Chinese immigrant, to participate in things such as protests or rallies in the U.S. You would not expect the same of tourists, our guests. Likewise, in Russia, you would never see immigrants protesting. They hide. They are outsiders. They don't "own it". That's the difference.
ElamBend
October 3, 2006
1:09 am
Growing up where I did, having really curly hair made me a standout (and underserved by barbers). Indeed, my Mom's cousin, growing up in the early sixties in Iowa was often the only kid on the basket ball court with brown hair.
Yet, there was very little outward ethnic identity. The obvious German and Irish names stuck out, but many were an amalgamum of northern European tribes with a bit of Indian mixed in (completely normal in some parts of the mid-west/south). When I was younger I searched for an identity to cling to, only to find that my family had lost touch with any such identity. The closest thing I got was my Grandfathers pride in being Cherokee (his grandmother), which was deminimus at best. Since then, I have become very interested in the many ethnic strains that hide in the county, particularly the great mixes that occur. My girlfriend is Russian/Jewish/Mongolian (and probably no accident that I would end up with an immigrant). To me, such a mixture is so much better than a singular one. As for myself, I relish in being the wild goose. Who I want to be, where I want to be.
Elizabeth
October 3, 2006
1:19 am
I think people assume I am Mexican. Unfortunately I don't speak Spanish so this has caused problems on many occasions.
ElamBend
October 3, 2006
2:49 am
As for my uncle, he grew up in Iowa which is heavily Dutch and German, but he ended up marying a Cherokee. I think he, like me, was unconsciously looking for something outside of what he grew up around.
Elizabeth
October 3, 2006
5:09 am
Durf
October 5, 2006
3:23 am
This has been my approach, and it's worked out just fine for me. Quiet competence in the local tongue and customs goes a long way to get people over the look of my honky face so they can just deal with me as a customer, or service provider, or person to chat with in the bar.