Assumptions that gaijin cannot speak Japanese (at all)

[Elizabeth]

Actually, I'm a little at a loss here, because having read back through this thread, I genuinely find some of the things you have started to espouse quite disturbing (particulary your comments about your IQ, and your relationship to 'less intelligent' people). While it might sound a cheap shot, these types of comments are only one-step removed from the some of the less savory doctrines of nazism.

And this is actually a highly moderated expression of it compared with a select few of the back threads. I'll keep it in mind never to permanently settle in a place so aversive and at odds with my personality that I need the pretext of doing so to "educate" the people and "improve" the culture.

[Maciamo]

And this is actually a highly moderated expression of it compared with a select few of the back threads. I'll keep it in mind never to permanently settle in a place so aversive and at odds with my personality that I need the pretext of doing so to "educate" the people and "improve" the culture.

So you believe that all cultures on earth (including your own) are perfect or cannot be improved (for some reasons I cannot understand). Cultures evolve with time, and one of the causes that make them evolve is the contact with other cultures.

Anyway, it is off the mark, as I was not talking of improving Japanese culture (they know well enough how to copy the West, or China in the past). I believe that I am repeated enough times that this was all a matter of education that needed to be changed. Is it changing the culture of a country that to tell the people about other countries so that they understand them better and do not cause offense when meeting foreigners because of misplaced or prejudiced comments ? I just want to open their (and maybe your) eyes.

And I believe I also have work to do in my own country (for example, about Leopold II's atrocities in Congo, which many Belgians have hardly heard about, if at all). I am also a strong opponent of the monarchy in my country, and want to reform many things (including the education system, as explained here). My role is Japan is much more modest - just improve relations between Japanese and Westerners, as it directly concerns me.

[Elizabeth]

Anyway, it is off the mark, as I was not talking of improving Japanese culture (they know well enough how to copy the West, or China in the past). I believe that I am repeated enough times that this was all a matter of education that needed to be changed. Is it changing the culture of a country that to tell the people about other countries so that they understand them better and do not cause offense when meeting foreigners because of misplaced or prejudiced comments ? I just want to open their (and maybe your) eyes.

Aside from serious issues of education reform, I've yet to come across another foreigner as easily, or at all actually, offended by these so-called myths that are driving Japanese perceptions of Westerners. On the contrary, the most offensive and disrespecful comments have consistently been in the other direction.

Improved relationships on a personal level naturally involve compromises and change from both parties. The issues have been laid out ad nauseum over several months and years here -- let us know next time when you begin to see some real progress.