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ntropy

Joined: 11 Oct 2003 Posts: 671 Location: ghurba
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Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2015 7:44 pm Post subject: "Ware ware nihonjin + nonsense" |
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What's the most ridiculous way you've seen this ubiquitous statement completed? |
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mitsui
Joined: 10 Jun 2007 Posts: 1562 Location: Kawasaki
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Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2015 11:34 pm Post subject: |
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I don't like English because I am Japanese.
I saw this on surveys I gave out this month to high school students. |
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nightsintodreams
Joined: 18 May 2010 Posts: 558
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Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2015 11:56 pm Post subject: |
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Is it hot?
Yes, it's hot.
Are you OK?
Yea, I'm fine. You?
Yes, I'm Japanese. |
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ntropy

Joined: 11 Oct 2003 Posts: 671 Location: ghurba
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Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2015 1:32 am Post subject: |
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Started to reply sooner but couldn't stop laughing. |
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jrwhisky
Joined: 07 Jul 2013 Posts: 43
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Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2015 10:30 am Post subject: |
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I've been told that only Japanese get stiff shoulders and upper back pain.
I have also heard the, "English no can't, *why* because I'm Japanese |
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ssjup81
Joined: 15 Jun 2009 Posts: 664 Location: Adachi-ku, Tokyo, Japan
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Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2015 12:06 pm Post subject: |
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I've been told that "Domestic violence doesn't exist in Japan and that it only exists in America". I couldn't help but scratch my head at that one. |
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TokyoLiz
Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 1548 Location: Tokyo, Japan
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ntropy

Joined: 11 Oct 2003 Posts: 671 Location: ghurba
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Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2015 12:26 pm Post subject: |
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http://articles.latimes.com/1988-08-02/news/mn-6665_1_japan-foundation
Bane to Foreigners : In Japan, Unique Is a State of Mind
August 02, 1988|SAM JAMESON | Times Staff Writer
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TOKYO — Shunpei Kumon, 53, a noted Tokyo University economics professor, confessed recently that he had learned only two years ago that Japanese do not have intestines longer than those of Westerners.
Kumon's lifelong belief was shattered only because of a U.S.-Japan dispute over beef import quotas, which Japan agreed in June to eliminate in three years.
An American scholar had asked him if Japanese really believed they had unusually long intestines that made it difficult for them to digest beef, an argument that Japanese politicians and agricultural leaders had used to justify the quotas.
When he replied yes, the American looked at him askance. Kumon then questioned Japanese doctors, he wrote in a Sankei Newspaper column.
Disbelief by Doctors
"They looked at me in disbelief," he related.
Doctors told him, Kumon wrote, that government propagandists concocted the myth in World War II to forestall complaints about a lack of meat caused by wartime deprivations.
But the fact that such an argument won unresisting acceptance, and continues to be accepted today, underscores a deeper Japanese trait that many foreigners, including businessmen and government officials, are finding increasingly irritating.
That trait is the widespread belief--often reaching the level of an article of faith--that Japanese culture, language and the Japanese people themselves are unique in more ways than all other cultures and peoples of the world.
The conviction, a growing number of foreign experts say, has caused trade conflicts, troubles foreign business people working in Japan and, in many instances, stands as an emotional wall against personal relationships with foreigners.
'A Tribal Pride'
Clyde V. Prestowitz Jr., a former Commerce Department official, wrote in his book, "Trading Places: How We Allowed Japan to Take the Lead," that the Japanese possess a "near obsession with their uniqueness" that "gives rise to a certain tribal pride."
Former Ambassador to Japan Edwin O. Reischauer devotes an entire chapter of his book, "The Japanese," to what he calls "the Japanese sense of being somehow a separate people--of being unique." It is stronger than for any other people, Reischauer wrote.
Tait Ratcliffe, president of International Business Information Inc., complained that Japan's "exaggerated sense of cultural uniqueness . . . plagues companies trying to establish a business foothold in Japan." Foreign business people find they must tailor every aspect of their approach to the finest details of Japanese sensitivities. "A good product at a good price" by itself won't sell, he said.
Difficulty for Foreigners
In a survey, the Nihon Keizai newspaper recently asked foreigners living in Japan to check off "sources of difficulty in business dealings with Japanese." One of the listed items was: "The uniqueness of Japan is constantly being emphasized to me."
"I speak to the Japanese on every occasion I get about the theory they have of their uniqueness," said an American diplomat involved in trade negotiations, who asked not to be identified. "They are not unique and should stop thinking they are."
Few scholars would put it that flatly. There certainly are aspects of Japan and its culture that are unique, they would say. But they usually insist that Japan is not unique in significantly more ways than any other culture.
The Japanese conviction, however, runs so deep that it lends support to and encourages all kinds of claims that go far beyond long intestines.
Brainy Theory Suggested
Dr. Tadanobu Tsunoda, a professor of auditory disorders at the Medical Research Institute of Tokyo Medical and Dental University, has come up with perhaps the ultimate theory on uniqueness. He holds that, because of a unique influence of the many vowels in the Japanese language, the left and right hemispheres of the Japanese brain handle different functions than Western and other Oriental brains. Only Polynesians are similar, he says.
In his book, "The Japanese Brain: Uniqueness and Universality," which last year was translated into English, Tsunoda claims that Japanese show a left-brain dominance when listening to Beethoven played on Japanese musical instruments but a right-brain dominance when hearing Beethoven played on any non-Japanese, including Chinese, instrument.
Yet Tsunoda's theory has won acceptance among even leading business executives, if not among scholars.
In recent years, American negotiators have been confronted with claims that Japanese soil is unique, an argument against allowing American contractors to do construction work on such projects as a new Osaka airport.
Even Snow Is Unique
Also, Japanese snow is supposedly unique, so Japan imposed safety standards for imported skis with no parallel anywhere in the world, although it later bowed to protests from European countries and rescinded them.
Only after years of negotiations did Japanese desist from arguing that a rubberized ball used by high school baseball teams was unique, precluding imports of baseball bats. |
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TokyoLiz
Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 1548 Location: Tokyo, Japan
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Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2015 8:48 am Post subject: |
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Your source is ancient. Tsunoda's fluff was debunked long ago.
a current online journal worth reading -
http://www.japanfocus.org
Meanwhile, Giant Robots are Japanese culture!! Japanese dry wit and cultural critique at its finest. |
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kpjf

Joined: 18 Jan 2012 Posts: 385
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Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2015 11:04 am Post subject: |
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TokyoLiz wrote: |
Your source is ancient. Tsunoda's fluff was debunked long ago.
a current online journal worth reading -
http://www.japanfocus.org
Meanwhile, Giant Robots are Japanese culture!! Japanese dry wit and cultural critique at its finest. |
Yep:
Quote: |
Bane to Foreigners : In Japan, Unique Is a State of Mind
August 02, 1988|SAM JAMESON | Times Staff Writer |
Quote: |
TOKYO — Shunpei Kumon, 53, a noted Tokyo University economics professor, confessed recently that he had learned only two years ago that Japanese do not have intestines longer than those of Westerners. |
Recently, a Japanese person told me it was true that Japanese had longer intestines - a nurse no less! |
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TokyoLiz
Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 1548 Location: Tokyo, Japan
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ntropy

Joined: 11 Oct 2003 Posts: 671 Location: ghurba
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Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2015 5:32 pm Post subject: |
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Yes, robots . We want robots. Big ones. Giant ones. Can we make them stereotypical, too? Can the J-Bot have long intestines and the Yank-bots have blue eyes? |
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ntropy

Joined: 11 Oct 2003 Posts: 671 Location: ghurba
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Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2015 5:43 pm Post subject: |
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TokyoLiz wrote: |
Your source is ancient. Tsunoda's fluff was debunked long ago.
a current online journal worth reading -
http://www.japanfocus.org
Meanwhile, Giant Robots are Japanese culture!! Japanese dry wit and cultural critique at its finest. |
Nice link, Liz. |
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