It’s hard for Americans to understand life outside of the big cities in Japan
I saw Non Non Biyori, it’s like that /s
Comment on This American dude on his way to his Japanese fluency decides to talk to a local Japanese grandpa
TheAsianDonKnots@lemmy.zip 5 days ago
It’s hard for Americans to understand life outside of the big cities in Japan. There’s just no other races but Asian. Indian food, Korean/Chinese labor, and Malaysian tourism. Seeing a white person in some cities is like seeing Big Foot. The point being, if you try to speak the language, nothing else matters to the Japanese. Even if you’re shit at it (like me), the respect comes from the attempt to speak Japanese, not the fluency.
One trick. If you get REALLY lost and need to get somewhere, hold a train map upside down and hopelessly stare at the ceiling. A nice elderly person will usually stop to help you… again, because you’re trying to understand.
SpookyBogMonster@lemmy.ml 5 days ago
RustySharp@programming.dev 5 days ago
A Malaysian friend (interestingly in line with your stereotype there 🙃) said the Japanese were just the most helpful people.
He would politely ask someone a question in English when he’s lost. And they, in either broken or NO English at all, would nearly always try to help. Or at least go around helping him find someone else with functioning English.
A gentleman in business suit looked at his watch, thought for five seconds, then spent 15 minutes showing him he’s got the wrong ticket, helped him get the right ticket, and took him to the right platform. (This was a couple decades ago. I assume the tourist experience is more streamlined these days)