Well I stumbled onto this forum while I was looking for sources for my paper. I wanted to write about the Japanese language and how it shows the Japanese mindset. I read quite alot of comments already and so I suppose I can assume my experience is different. I only spent one year in Japan and now am back in America. I was an exchange student, lived under three host families, and attended a private school.

Yet I just wanted to give my two cents in since I've felt alot of the things everyone here has felt. Plus I lived in the same city as two other Europeans and often we've discussed *cough* (complained ) about the Japanese people.Sometimes our complaints were immature and other times they were valid.

I noticed they were more irritated about stupid questions than I was. This is probably because I am not a native born American, but instead was born in Philippines and went to America when I was 6 years old. I understand the stupid questions foreigners can ask. I could understand the traditions and the the mindset of Asians. Afterall I was raised under a filipino household. However there is no denying that I was still American at heart and there were times that I couldn't just accept all the differences and I just found the comments annoying and patronizing. Compliments too lightly given are rather demeaning. When I got complimented on something so simple, I couldn't help but start thinking of some of them as children. Despite the fact that I am a foreigner, I am still a minor and as adults I expected more maturity out of them. I don't really know how to explain. And really these complaints are only one side of the story because we all have a certain affection for the country.

But there are things that should change. The school system for one. The place I went to already specialized in high school. Alot of my classmates knew what they were going to be yet they either hated, sucked at, or were indifferent to the subject they are specializing in. A middle school student is too young to already have her path narrowed. Japan needs a more liberal education. I can't believe so many students hated to learn. As a student, I understand school can be torture, but to hate learning itself is just wrong. How could so many of my fellow classmates have been deprived of the desire to learn? My classmates went to school for so long even on Saturdays and afterschool on Tuesdays and then cram school, but they still had difficulty knowing the material. The Japanese education system and perhaps the whole economy has a problem with making efficient use of hardwork. Instead of just hamering things into the students brains, maybe they should try a better and more enjoyable method to learning.

Oh and yes my friend also got stopped by the police though me and the other guy just laughed at him. He looked japanese so we doubted it was because of the whole being foreigner thing.

Coming to Japan made me realize why the Aztecs thought the Spaniards were gods. The degree of strangeness of akwardness that a japanese person will exhibit does depend on how foreign you look. I was neither white nor did I have asian features. From the back of my head I looked japanese hehe. That made it easier for alot of people to come up to me and talk normally. For my other friend with his pale skin and SHOCK curly light hair, he received plenty of stares even from old ladies which was funny, but the japanese people were more distant with him. Though he did have the advantage in some cases cause of the shock factor. (Ofcourse we did not take advantage of that )Technically since he was the white guy in the group, me and my friend understood, that in japan, he is cooler. In that respects we can joke about it but there are times where it is disturbing like their potrayal of black people. My own home country- Philippines is just as guilty of such ignorant potrayals. That can only change with better communication and representation of certain groups to another.

I believe Japan, Philippines, America, and any other country can only progress and become more humane and understanding to oneanother. My host sister once said that Japan is like America from before in terms of mindset. Every country was at one point just as naive about other cultures. But Japan will get used to the diverse world we live in. Ultimately we will all learn to just be normal to one another.

And in the end I really thought Japanese people were so funny and at times cute in their naive ways. To find myself more mature than college students or adults was both disappointing and humorous. Questions or stares on a bad day ticked me off at times but usually they were pretty funny. Maybe it was because we were young and we found it amusing to observe or to complain about it. Afterall we all found certain flaws in all our cultures from European to America and as friends were frank in our criticism. Yet all our flaws and that of Japan is what makes the world both interesting and irritating and ultimately just the place I've laughed, cried, and simply lived in.