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 Post subject: Re: Hello to everyone
PostPosted: 28 Mar 2017, 11:47 
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allgaeuer wrote:
@forper

I feel sorry for you that you felt discriminated by that event.

But what do you expect from a performing comedian? He is trying to make jokes and get laughs, and everything that comes with strong emotions is good for jokes ... addressing a foreigner is certainly one of the things that cause much stress on Japanese - so much that nowadays little children often get extra training to approach a foreigner without being too afraid :roll: ... Once a boy (probably 1st class of junior high) suddenly came approaching me, standing nervously in front of me saying "this -- is -- a -- pen", then blushing and running away, and his colleagues were laughing from "safe" distance. Must have been some kind of "test of courage".

I have been in a lot of similar situations like you, but never felt "discriminated". I AM a gaijin and if somebody calls me so, it is just the truth. The joke in your event was that he was addressing you in Japanese ("Haro" is considered Japanese as well as gaijin and san, "hero" would have been "English") though you are a foreigner supposed not to understand Japanese. Japanese consider this to be funny, in the sense of "stupid me", and certainly it was not intended as an offence. I think that in this situation you should have also started to laugh - this would have shown that you understand the situation and also you can laugh about a little joke. But you seem to be much more sensitive than the other Australians I know (my brother-in-law is Australian and my sister became one, I visit them from time to time in QL). So you did not laugh, and the bewildered face you probably made when he spoke "Japanese" to you, stimulated further laughs ...



Well it's all perspective. To me the term Gaijin San is the rough equivalent of "coloured person", I scowled at him and all the other Japanese laughing at me. No way I was going to give them the satisfaction of thinking I approved of their behaviour.

I had mothers force their kids on me in public too. "Go talk to English to the gaijin" they would say. I'm like no I'm not free entertainment for your kid, I'm not a clown, I'm just a guy minding my own business. My deadpan face and don't f**k with me attitude usually gave them the message pretty fast. I had friends who would play along. I call that kowtowing. I'm not a clown, a pet or a toy, I'm just a guy in the world. I guess I have too much self respect.
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 Post subject: Re: Hello to everyone
PostPosted: 28 Mar 2017, 16:28 
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Must second Benmbe !

Very much enjoy reading about everyone's experiences in your "hello" thread !

Please sir, by "Old Guard" I meant no disrespect regarding an age reference.... Only that you are an early collector of the format !
There is no room for me to make age quips, just turned 51 last week.

Fortunately we are as young as we feel (mostly !)

The reference to dogs was spot on..... People and animals do feel/ sense everything under the radar of outward appearances.
We usually get back what we put out.... USUALLY !

For my countryman that disrespected you about repeating a sentence, I apologize for there lack of respect and bad manners. That treatment was totally unacceptable to normal civilized people.
Sadly there is a great deal of fear working overtime on the populations psyche in the last 30 years. People can be friendly in the states. They can also be quite the opposite. Once again I apologize for their inappropriate response to your non offensive wish to have their statement repeated.

Gads !

Has anyone ever lived in or visited the land of the great white north called Canada ! ? !
Having been coast to coast and living there for a stint, I found that there are no strangers among Canadians. I was offered shelter and food as if family countless times. Never even had one bad experience hitchhiking there in my younger days.
That country is a true salad of many cultures from around the world. From the outside looking in it appeared that their was relative peace and harmony amongst very culturally different peeps.
Another stark finding was that there was little to no urban blight in the major population centers I visited or passed through. Almost utopian I dare say compared to their neighbor just south.
One word of caution about Vancouver I must add. When a pedestrian steps to any curb there, ALL TRAFFIC comes to a total halt to allow you to cross safely. Even if two lanes in each direction, all motorists come to a gentle halt to allow crossing.
Nearly fell over when finding through experience countless times that this is the norm there !
Granted, that was many moons ago, hope they still do !
Had to be careful after visiting there ! Very dangerous for people on foot when returning to areas that do not show this courtesy for obvious reasons .............

That's it for now !

Cheers !
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 Post subject: Re: Hello to everyone
PostPosted: 29 Mar 2017, 16:17 
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@forper:

Well, I still do not feel bad about being addressed as "Gaijin-san", but I do see your point. Probably I am the type of person that tends to forgiveness as long as I feel that the others mean no harm ... however about the little children being forced to address unknown foreigners "to loose their fear of foreigners" also me, I get sometimes upset: e.g. 14 years ago on a Sunday in summer I visited once the temples in Nikkô north of Tokyo and came across Japanese parents with their little (pre-school) child that was put in front of me to say one memorized English greeting, after which the parents asked me for my home address! When I asked them about the reason for their strange behaviour they told me that a language school had given their child the summer holidays task to address at least 20 foreigners and to bring their addresses as proof of success. After this explanation I looked around me and noticed about 3 other Japanese couples on that place with their little kids busy with "gaijin hunting" - they were already looking in my direction, waiting for the other couple to be done. After that I hurried and left Nikkô much earlier than planned. :(

Besides of being molested I feel especially bad about this Japanese behaviour, because I think that these exercises do not take away fear from little children, in the contrary these exercises possibly inject that fear into them! When I was four years old my uncle married and I was given the task of walking some meters behind the bride carrying the end of the long bridal veil. Everything went well - until after the missa when we reached the studio where the official photos were to be taken. There was this very big camera with a curtain for the head of the photographer which at first I found interesting (I had a little plastic camera myself) - until the photographer, my parents, my uncle, all came to me assuring again and again "you must not be afraid of this camera, nothing bad will happen, just smile" ... and just because of this heavy assuring I got doubts about the harmlessness of that apparatus and started to cry - in the end no photo could be taken with me in the studio. I think that Japanese parents who send their child to "fear-losing lessons" are in the best case helping the child to lose the fear they themselves have passed onto them. In the worst case they are producing this fear in the child which otherwise would not have had this fear.

Nevertheless I see much more positive and friendly traits in Japanese behaviour than negative ones - so I am happy to live here. :thumbup:

@firehorse_44:

No worries with "Old Guard" - I took it as a compliment, as being one of a special kind: in 1985 only few people in Germany knew about the existence of Laserdiscs (resp. Laservision discs as they were called then), and even fewer Germans bought them - unfortunately in Germany this hasn't changed much in the past 30 years ... :|

In Japan in 1997 about 10% of all households had an LD player in their possession - at that time every Japanese knew what a Laserdisc is ... but recently I have come across young Japanese people to whom I had to explain what kind of thing that is ... :shock:

In Canada I haven't been yet, but in many other countries. The behaviour of car drivers differs considerably from country to country - even in cases where the rules are theoretically the same. During my last visit in France (2013) I was surprised to see cars coming in from side streets waiting patiently for me to pass, even if I was still relatively far away when they saw me coming! In Germany (and in Japan) they would certainly come in before me in similar situations, disrespecting my priority and forcing me to break a little.
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 Post subject: Re: Hello to everyone
PostPosted: 29 Mar 2017, 22:01 
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Hello Allgaeuer, thats so nice to hear from you, especially in this forum :-) We wrote to each other before you left to Japan the last time in a different (German) forum. I hope you´re doing alright and that all your precious discs have survived the long travel. Hope to hear much from you here in this forum!
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 Post subject: Re: Hello to everyone
PostPosted: 29 Mar 2017, 22:09 
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forper wrote:
I still wish I could get a work visa in the US, I pretty much think it's the greatest country that's ever existed.


That explains everything for me.
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 Post subject: Re: Hello to everyone
PostPosted: 30 Mar 2017, 14:34 
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@exinferis:
Hi, I think I know who you are, though you used another zombie type user name in the other forum ... :wave:

Quote:
... and that all your precious discs have survived the long travel.

Well, my moving adventure is not yet over - still I am living here in a makeshift arrangement: all my stuff is still packed away and will be unpacked after I move to my intended destination, in August or September ... only then I will know whether all of my discs and players have survived - first: the overseas transport, second: the very strong earthquake we had here in October, third: the coldness of the winter (we were completely snown in for days). The last point does not really disquiet me, but during the earthquake some of the stored away cardboard boxes fell to the ground and were uplifted again, and I don't know exactly which ones ... I hope it was only boxes with books or clothing.

The LD-S1 which I have now here is different: it was never in Germany, I had left it in Japan many years ago. When I now started it up after so much time, it could well playback a 30cm disc. Seems to be a very good machine. However with a (doublesided) 20 cm disc there was a problem: it could not synchronize well the picture, but the audio was okay. When I will have access to my discs I will do more tests and then decide whether I have to bring the LD-S1 to a repair service. In the moment I still have a lot of other, higher priority tasks. ;)

When I think at the completion of this transcontinental move in about 5 months, the first thing that comes to my mind is not the laserdiscs, it is my bed - after more than a year I will be able to sleep again in a bed ... :D
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 Post subject: Re: Hello to everyone
PostPosted: 31 Mar 2017, 06:54 
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exinferis wrote:
forper wrote:
I still wish I could get a work visa in the US, I pretty much think it's the greatest country that's ever existed.


That explains everything for me.


What does it explain? That you're another European with a superiority complex?
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 Post subject: Re: Hello to everyone
PostPosted: 31 Mar 2017, 06:55 
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allgaeuer wrote:
@forper:

Well, I still do not feel bad about being addressed as "Gaijin-san", but I do see your point. Probably I am the type of person that tends to forgiveness as long as I feel that the others mean no harm ... however about the little children being forced to address unknown foreigners "to loose their fear of foreigners" also me, I get sometimes upset: e.g. 14 years ago on a Sunday in summer I visited once the temples in Nikkô north of Tokyo and came across Japanese parents with their little (pre-school) child that was put in front of me to say one memorized English greeting, after which the parents asked me for my home address! When I asked them about the reason for their strange behaviour they told me that a language school had given their child the summer holidays task to address at least 20 foreigners and to bring their addresses as proof of success. After this explanation I looked around me and noticed about 3 other Japanese couples on that place with their little kids busy with "gaijin hunting" - they were already looking in my direction, waiting for the other couple to be done. After that I hurried and left Nikkô much earlier than planned. :(

Besides of being molested I feel especially bad about this Japanese behaviour, because I think that these exercises do not take away fear from little children, in the contrary these exercises possibly inject that fear into them! When I was four years old my uncle married and I was given the task of walking some meters behind the bride carrying the end of the long bridal veil. Everything went well - until after the missa when we reached the studio where the official photos were to be taken. There was this very big camera with a curtain for the head of the photographer which at first I found interesting (I had a little plastic camera myself) - until the photographer, my parents, my uncle, all came to me assuring again and again "you must not be afraid of this camera, nothing bad will happen, just smile" ... and just because of this heavy assuring I got doubts about the harmlessness of that apparatus and started to cry - in the end no photo could be taken with me in the studio. I think that Japanese parents who send their child to "fear-losing lessons" are in the best case helping the child to lose the fear they themselves have passed onto them. In the worst case they are producing this fear in the child which otherwise would not have had this fear.

Nevertheless I see much more positive and friendly traits in Japanese behaviour than negative ones - so I am happy to live here. :thumbup:


Fair 'Nuff!
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 Post subject: Re: Hello to everyone
PostPosted: 02 Apr 2017, 17:08 
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Thank you, everybody who has greeted me with friendly posts. :wave:

Now I will concentrate on one of my long-awaited projects (though my free time is rather limited): I have already begun to edit a "complete list" of all Laserdisc player models, because nobody seems to have such a list - the closest to something like this seems to have been the one in the UK laserdisc website, but it is incomplete and has not any more been updated since years. If you want to help me, please look into the folder "LD Players".
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 Post subject: Re: Hello to everyone
PostPosted: 03 Apr 2017, 03:30 
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 Post subject: Re: Hello to everyone
PostPosted: 03 Apr 2017, 04:08 
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exinferis wrote:
forper wrote:
I still wish I could get a work visa in the US, I pretty much think it's the greatest country that's ever existed.


That explains everything for me.

:wtf: What does that mean :think:




Thank you again for trying to make a complete list.
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