Job Discussion Forums

[gaijinalways]

Yes, though how far you want to go in changing prevailing attitudes remains to be seen. In Japan, any effort to change anything sometimes is seen as an affront to Japanese sensibilities, where putting up with injustices is often admired (gamen, i.e. grinning and bearing it). A certain amount of tolerance is admirable in some cases, but it depends on your value systems and what your approach with especially students might be.

I was semi-flamed in another forum for sharing the following conversation;

My student and I were talking about weather, especially humid and hot Japanese summer weather.

T My wife and I love escaping Japan during the summer, I just can't stand the humidity.

S Then you should leave Japan, and live somewhere else!

T You mean my wife, who is Japanese, and students who have told me that they dislike the summers here, they should leave Japan too, and go and live somewhere else?

long silence.... (and this talk was with a dermatologist who knows I have skin problems caused by the humidity in Japan!)

Now my parents now winter in Florida in the US, as they are not so fond of the cold up North in Connecticut, and no one bats an eyelash when they tell people they hate the winter cold.

So, go figure. many native people want you to be the perpetual vistor who pays taxes and never complains too loudly! But quite a few in the other forum, some of who don't even live in Japan, think I am expecting too much (logic is too much, then again, some of logic is culturally specific)!

[madeira]

I have never met anything like an 'eigo bandit'.

Maybe women don't meet them?

I have met men offering to pay outrageous amounts to go to hotels with me... Maybe they want to learn English there? Is that what you mean?

As far as 'gaijin/gaikokujin' goes... basically, I'll accept it in Japan. They just don't seem to have other words. In my job, though, I have to teach alternatives. My students could easily be sued (or beaten up) if they use 'foreigner/alien' at their work abroad.

[lalalateda]

I'm new to Japan and there aren't many foreigners where i live and I'm just starting to learn Japanese. So I actually enjoy talking to the English bandits because I don't have many other people to talk to yet.

As far as the gaijin thing, I don't mind that either (maybe that will come with time). In Europe I was always singled out as an American and often interrogated on American foreign policy, which i can't stand.

[azarashi sushi]

I've also never encountered and "eigo bandit"... I've met plenty of people but never been in the situation where I felt that a free English lesson was someone's sole motive for befriending me.

But like madeira, I have encountered people willing to pay me money for other services!

[Bozo Yoroshiku]

[osakajojo]

[Bozo Yoroshiku]

[johanne]

I've run into a few eigo bandits in Japan, so it can happen to women too. Half the time it was a mother with a young child, maybe 6 or 7 years old who would come up to me in the park where I was reading and ask her child to speak to me. The poor kid was very shy and wouldn't do it, so it was quite sad. I usually just said, in Japanese, that I was busy and wasn't able to give her child an English lesson at the moment, but I'm sure her son/daughter spoke well in his/her English class. This seemed to save the kid a bit and got rid of the mother. Personally I thought this was a horrible thing to do to a child.
I also meet two universities students in Seoul when I was visiting the sights on my own. They offered me a tour of the city and lucnh at the best noodle shop for lunch in return for chatting with them in English. They were both fairly fluent and interesting to talk to. I made sure we stayed in public places (women can't be too careful) and it was a really fun afternoon. I learned something about Korea and the history and culture there and they got about 5 hours of English conversation practice. They didn't ask to be corrected or to be given any lessons or anything like that, so it was all quite pleasant. Sometimes these things can work in your favour. By the way, the noodles were amazing and I never would have found the little shop on my own.

[markle]

[Vince]

I had my share of eigo bandits. I didn't want to be a jerk and pass up insightful chats with nice people, but I had rules. If somebody wanted to make a little small talk during idle time and could handle it, I wouldn't mind passing a few minutes chatting and didn't sweat the choice of language. By being able to handle it, I mean a few things: having enough English for it to not be an uncomfortable farce, having the social skills to hold your end of a worthwhile conversation, and knowing where the line for inappropriate conversation or questions is. It goes without saying that anybody who thought they were entitled to English practice, but thought speaking Japanese with me was repugnant, was out.

[Willy_In_Japan]

I come from Southern Ontario, Canada and it, like Japan, is very hot and humid in the summer time. My dad can't stand the heat. I've heard him and others complain about it too. If I heard someone say 'My wife and I love escaping Ontario during the summer, I just can't stand the humidity' I personally would reply 'Where do you go?'. I would not suggest that he leave the country because he likes to travel during the most humid time of year, but that is just me.

Regarding English bandits,........I recently was chatted to on ICQ.....after a few mins of my time trying to get to know someone they finally admitted that they were done with their English practice, so 'goodbye'....I didn't reply but felt really put out they would waste my time like that.

Regarding being called a 'foreigner'........when I first visited Japan, I was in a McDonalds in Hiroshima, and the McDonalds girl was trying to get my attention, and called me 'Gaijin-san'.........I wish I knew as much Japansese as I did right now, because I couldnt express how that did not impress me.

[Zzonkmiles]

I've stayed out of this thread and read it passively, but since nobody has stated the obvious (obvious to me at least), I'll say it now.

The best way to avoid the eigo bandits is to study Japanese. If your Japanese is so good that you can be funny and/or interesting in that language (something that the bulk of Japanese can't do in English), that will tend to neutralize them. They won't have a choice but to communicate in the language that is easier for them to be expressive in. (And if they continue to respond to me in labored, broken English, I will continue to respond in Japanese or simply end the conversation. My time is too valuable to waste on "English practice.")

For those of you whose Japanese is not so good, simply hang out in places where the majority of Japanese people simply don't care about learning English or can't speak it and don't have an interest in it. Go to your local watering hole, for example, where you have to earn your respect and make your own reputation...all in Japanese. It works.

Anyway, if your experiences with fending off eigo-bandits are becoming fewer and farther between, that's a very good sign that your Japanese is getting GOOD. People ask me "nihongo daijoubu?" far more often now than "is my English okay?" It feels good.

[gaijinalways]

To Zzonk,

If your Japanese is so good that you can be funny and/or interesting in that language (something that the bulk of Japanese can't do in English), that will tend to neutralize them. They won't have a choice but to communicate in the language that is easier for them to be expressive in. (And if they continue to respond to me in labored, broken English, I will continue to respond in Japanese

Good point, though surprisingly enough, that won't stop some of the more serious ones from trying, so you may end up with you speaking Japanese and he/she speaking English (makes for interesting conversations). But of course ending the situation is another option.

To Markle,

So you got offended at the suggestion that you move somewhere where you weren't required to 'escape' for a number of months due to an acute discomfort in the humidity.
Tell me were you born a blithering idiot or it something you developed with hard work and determination?
I mean what were you expecting him to say? "Gee that's really an incovienence! hey I know, I've got a friend that works in the Ministry for Weather, Let's see if they can turn down the humidity during summer, then you'll never have to leave!"

We live in a more global society now. Believe it or not, people often travel, sometimes to avoid a season that they find uncomfortable or to travel to a place where they find the weather more suited to them at that particular time of the year. As I mentioned earlier, my parents travel down south to avoid the brunt of the winter in Connecticut every year, and their neighbors don't ask them why they don't stay in Florida the whole year (it's hotter in Florida than Japan in the summer and just as humid), the neighbors already know what the weather is like, but they are willing to put up with it, or surprise, surprise, they go north in the summer!

So, in other words, if I have the money to try and avoid some of the worst season for me and enjoy travelling at the same time, why should you complain? Some of my other students have expressed the same sentiments, that they also travel in the summer for the same reason.

But hey if you or your friend can control the weather, why not ?

[thirstie]

Is this a big city phenomenon?

I live in a small city in Shikoku, the countryside compared to the rest of Japan, and I never have this problem.

One of my co-workers speaks fluent English and we're doing a language exchange and some of the mothers talk to me after lessons, but they're being friendly and help me out with my still appalling Japanese. I've only been here 6 months. I usually end up having conversations half in Japanese and half in English, with basic communication being the main priority, especially at my karate class.

In supermarkets I often get small children running up to me to say hello, but as they're my students its pretty sweet.

After 6 months in Korea, where I found a huge majority of people to be downright rude, Japan is sooo refreshing.

[JimDunlop2]

I really think it's hit-or-miss no matter where you are.

I just got back from a 3-day ski holiday in Niigata-ken... For a good part of it I was skiing on my own, which meant frequently sharing my chairlift with many Japanese people. Not one of them was an "eigo bandit" even though they had a "captive audience." It's not like I can sit somewhere else or just "get off" when I want....