Cute racism a la japonaise ?

**Mike Cash** · Sep 4, 2007, 18:49

Originally Posted by GodEmperorLeto

I mean, if we are going to be outsiders, instead of insulating ourselves, take the role of objective observer.

I don't isolate myself. I work in a Japanese company as the only non-Japanese person. My work environment is 100% Japanese. I have no real-life foreign friends or acquaintances, outside of once-in-a-blue-moon things like a JREF get-together. My children are monolingual Japanese speakers and attend our neighborhood public schools. I'm at a loss as to what more I'm supposed to do to not isolate myself.

**GodEmperorLeto** · Sep 5, 2007, 23:38

Originally Posted by Mike Cash

I don't isolate myself.

Ummm. Sorry, I didn't mean to come off quite like that, implying that you do isolate yourself. Indeed, it seems that you've done a great deal of assimilation. I'm interested in what you and other expatriates have done, especially since I am planning on moving to Japan for several years before returning to the U.S. to finish my schooling.

**Mike Cash** · Sep 6, 2007, 01:19

Originally Posted by GodEmperorLeto

Ummm. Sorry, I didn't mean to come off quite like that, implying that you do isolate yourself. Indeed, it seems that you've done a great deal of assimilation. I'm interested in what you and other expatriates have done, especially since I am planning on moving to Japan for several years before returning to the U.S. to finish my schooling.

It boils down a simple matter of "even though" instead of "just because".

I want to be able to live and work in Japan even though I am a foreigner...not just because I am a foreigner.

You jokingly asked in another thread if it was my dream to drive trucks. No, it wasn't. But it was my goal to attempt to live in Japan without taking any advantage of or making any use of my foreignness.

Now that I've seen I can do it, I feel perfectly free to go back to teaching English if I want. I just didn't want to keep on teaching English feeling that it was all I could do and that the only reason I could keep the wolf from the door was because of an accident of birth which meant that I picked up English as a child instead of some language that would be unmarketable in Japan.

I just keep driving trucks because it beats working for a living. Seriously, though, among other reasons, I just don't have the temperament for teaching English.