Quote Originally Posted by Raviolo73
Hi to all,
is the first time i write in the forum. So hello to all.
Welcome to the forum !

Sometimes they ask me id i ride with bulls or i sleep all day...i reply them that if i see a bull they can be sure i will run like a demon far from it and that if i sleep all the day probably i will not have money for stay in japan and have my own house in spain already payed. Or if they see me speaking italian they think im a man that stay joking all the day and eating pizza.
I have heard similar stereotypes about Italy and Spain in Japan. Interestingly, the Japanese don't seem to have stereotypes about smaller European countries (e.g. Benelux, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe...). That's probably because they know even less (less than stereotypes !) about these countries. Most of them think "Australia" when you are talking about "Austria", which doesn't help...

2) they think that their language is unique and so difficult to learn. I still dont know a japanese even with really high level (i find teachers of italian in japan that teach the language over 30 years that make very very basic errors) that cant coniugate and use correctly the verbs of the neolatin languages in all the tenses.
I completely agree with that. The only difficulties of Japanese language for a Westerner is that it is very different from European languages, and that it is not very logically structured (even natives are confused about the use of particles, because of the lack of clear rules). Otherwise, it is much easier in every aspect than Latin or Germanic languages (among which English is already the easiest). Virtually no conjugation, few tenses, no gender, few metaphorical idioms, easy pronuciation... That's why I can't help smiling when a Japanese person says that their language is so difficult. Maybe they meant more difficut than Bahasa Indonesia/Malaysia (reportedly the easiest major language in the world).

The problem is the education system, the isolation of the country and the hierarquical structure of the japanese society where the old is the best and the boss. this makes that the old ideas and style survive and the yougn people adopt the old ideas and customs and perpetuate it.
Socially, Japan is a bit like Europe 50 years ago... The education system based on memory only is medieval.

They are failing to manage the inmigration matter. Sincerely (and i dont want to offend anybody) lot of the gaijin i see around tokyo are really henna gaijin, losers that even people of their same country dont want there.
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Japan actually is atracting a very low profile foreigners and this will create more problems and more racism. Due to the obvious increment of criminality and probelms between nihonjin and gaijin.
Yes, that's why I hardly frequented the "gaijin" community in Tokyo, apart from a few selected people. Maybe that is because of some of these people, who come to Japan to party and get girls, care little about the language and culture and have little respect anything, that Japanese cops think that Westerners are bicycle thieves.

Then you have the otaku type of tourists (who usually don't live in Japan, as they are mostly teenagers), who may not steal anything, but do not enhance much the image of Westerners in Japan either. I was surprised that quite a few Japanese people I know, who did not know much about the West, knew about the existence of these Western otaku, because they are obvious in places like Akihabara.

Other problem is that the government doesnt have any will tointegrate foreigners, or have no idea from where to start. But is soo easy THE LANGUAGE, if a gaijin learn the language, can be usefull for the japanese society and be productive and integrate.
I don't think that they don't know where to start, but just have no will to do it. Japan is a country that has learnt, and still learns a lot from other countries, and especially from Western systems. There is no reason they could not learn from Western countries in this regard. They just don't want to, because it suits them.

But almost all the language courses are in the hands of private institutions with really expensive courses that not all people can to pay. When in other countries like spain, that is supposed to be not advanced like japan, the government put lot of free full time courses for all the foreigners in all the cities.
There are also such free or very cheap "integration courses" (language and culture) in Belgium, France and Britain. In Belgium they are even compulsory for every immigrant.

Is a well know curious phenomenon that when an inmigrant become totally integrate in a country become more "nationalist" than the people that was born there. Like here in spain where people inmigrated from Andalucia (poor but beautifull region) to Catalunia (more rich and advanced region with its own language different from spanish) these inmigrants become more catalans than catalans!
I believe that this attitude is fairly normal in (Western) continental Europe. Foreigners are expected to become as knowledgeable and as well-adapted as natives, and often do, because of the help they receive.

For example, I know a family of Russian refugees who came to Belgium about 5 years ago. They now speak French like natives, have jobs, Belgian friends, are well-integrated. The children even speak some Walloon, a dialect that most locals can't even speak ! But this is what is expected of immigrants in Belgium, or France or Spain. English-speaking countries have a slightly different attitude. Rather than expect immigrant "to go native", they tend to allow a certain multi-culturalism. This works well with non-European immigrants (e.g. in the UK), but I believe that the Continental European system works better for European immigrants. Belgium has received many Italian immigrants in the early and mid 20th century, and all of them are as Belgian as the purest Belgian. The current minister-president of the state of Wallonia is even of pure Italian descent, but possibly the most respected politician of his party.

I think japan will change and advance a lot when will try to "japanize" more the foreigners.
I agree. I left Japan justly because the Japanese would never accept that a foreigner could become "Japanised", and would always look at me as a "curious thing", and ask me stupid questions (can you use chopsticks ? can you eat sushi ? Have you heard of Hokkaido ?) even knowing that I had been in Japan for years, was married to a Japanese, spoke Japanese (to them), and managed this website about Japan. It is very irritating for someone who tries hard to learn as much about the culture "to go native", and still be treated like the first newly arrived tourist by people who have known him for several years. Sometimes, in an occasional fit a paranoia, I wonder if the Japanese government has not instructed all Japanese to behave exactly as they do to discourage "Japanised foreigners" to stay in Japan, so that they will not try to change their "pure" country.