Job Discussion Forums

[guest of Japan]

Congratulatons you win the grand prize in exterminating a cultures jouzuness.

[shuize]

"Thanks. Want me to show you how?"

Better than the boring chopsticks comments are the even dumber, "Can you eat rice?" questions.

One of my wife's aunts, who's vacationed to the United States and should know better, once asked me if Americans ate rice. "No," I told her, "We did up until the War. But the unprovoked attack on Pearl Harbor so angered the country that the government banned the consumption of rice within the United States. We only grow it for export now."

[king kakipi]

[Big John Stud]

What I usually do when someone says, complements how good I can use chop sticks. I complement how good they can use a knife and fork. Of couse only if they are using them. They usually laugh.

[JimDunlop2]

Actually, what I've started doing recently is going on the offensive instead of actually waiting for people to say it..... I just go up to Japanese people (not complete strangers) and without warning or provocation, tell THEM "O-hashi ga jouzu desu ne!!!" just out of the blue, with a very surprised look on my face... The look on THEIR faces is priceless!

It payback time!!!!!

[fluffyhamster]

Good one Jim, but getting "serious" for just a moment ...do you think they actually get the joke? Or do you reckon they go off and start talking to their fellow Japanese about how much crap and wierd sh*t those crazy foreigners come out with (even when said foreigner is not complete stranger). What I'm asking basically is, can they understand let alone take a joke? Or does it backfire (perhaps unbeknowest to you)? And are the more subtle/ironic strategies that have been suggested so far on this thread also doomed to failure, in their own various ways?

I guess that ultimately we aren't going to change Japan, or if we are, there are probably more important things we could be focussing on to effect change than questions about chopstick prowess...or are there? Me, I'm not out to change the world, or Japan, or even my current lunchtime's class(room). That being said, this thread is proving fun!

[JimDunlop2]

fluffy... Either way, I get a kick out of the reaction I get.... ;-P

[Nismo]

Up to this point I've usually just shrugged the question off, but I think from here on I'll have to go with the random quotes to confuse the hell out of everyone in earshot.

The previous example, "He's the American who makes chicks out of bricks," is a gem. I'd love to add some more quotes now:

"I am hoping that I can be known as a great writer and actor some day, rather than a sex symbol." - Steven Seagal

"I was born with a serious spiritual consciousness and for many years studied different paths." - Steven Seagal

"God gave me a great body and it's my duty to take care of my physical temple." - Jean Claude Van Damme

"What are you talking about? Are you sure you know what you�re talking about? I don�t hate anybody!" - Vin Diesel

"Violence is my last option." - Chuck Norris (Say this one as a stern warning while looking at the person who complimented you)

[gaijinalways]

I hear it sometimes, and have used the fork comment back too. But the speech one always gets me, that and people commenting on my height (or measuring themselves aganist me while my back is turned). I am tall, even by American standards (1.98 meters), but it always seems like a odd comment anywhere. Of course sometimes I ask, "How short are you?"

[Lynn]

What is a rude question to ask in Japan? I asked my Japanese coworkers, and they said:

"how much money do you make?"

"Are you kids going to college?"

"how much do you weigh?"

"how tall are you?" (if the person is taller or shorter than average)

I guess they think it's okay to ask you because you are "gaijin" and they think maybe you are considered "average" in you home country.

[PAULH]

Another one:


"Why aren't you married yet?"

[Lynn]

[Nismo]

[PAULH]

[Nismo]