Forum - View topicAnswerman - How Common Is It For Japanese Kids To Spend Time Overseas?
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Blanchimont
 Posts: 3444 Location: Finland |
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But it does happen, at least on the exchange-student level. I go to a Japanese evening course once a week(very slow progress, but I hope to learn at least something ^^; ...), and both years I've been to it we've had an exchange student from Japan visiting our class and sometimes participating in it, an acquaintance of our teacher's(she's Japanese-born as well, but someone who moved permanently to here in Finland, as far as I have understood it.). |
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Cutiebunny
 Posts: 1746 |
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I think it's better to say "If you look Japanese, you're treated like a local". Like many societies around the world, in Japan, you are judged first on your physical aspect. If you look Japanese, great, people will approach you with open arms. If you look Chinese, they will stay away...even if you're fully fluent in Japanese. I've had this happen every time I've gone to Japan. I find people are more friendly and willing to accept differences the further away you are from Tokyo. |
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xchampion
 Posts: 370 Location: Idaho Falls, Idaho |
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When I was in high school we had a foreign exhange student from Okinawa, Japan. It must have been a big cultural shock especially since it was Idaho of all places. Lol.
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The Ancient Otaku
Posts: 11 |
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Japan Ai: A Tall Girl's Adventures in Japan by Aimee Major-Steinberger has an example of that, when her friend and fellow traveler A.J. received weird looks for having tattoos while they visited an onsen (she is apparently the last person one would think was a Yakuza member). If your Japanese is no good, I've heard that can only make things worse: cultural and language gaffs by an obvious foreigner be chalked up to being a foreigner. Cultural and language gaffs by a Japanese American can be interpreted as intentional clownishness, insensitivity, or stupidity. |
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manapear
Posts: 1525 |
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This is especially true. If you look Japanese enough, you're fine. If you look Korean or Chinese (or even mixed enough), that is a no go. Doesn't it also depend on where in Japan, and where they're partnered with? Here in my city, we're partnered with Osaka and we get a bare minimum of 30-50 students each Summer coming over. On top of that, it doesn't sound so uncommon for some students to visit Australia, or a country near Japan. At the same time in anime, isn't that more people are coming to Japan than the students going to other countries? I actually think the reverse is more common in reality, but interesting that I've noticed the pattern that way at least. Very small side note, but I don't really think the students come back so changed and Westernized usually, either? Maybe it also depends on how long one stays, but that wouldn't be exclusive to culture or students of any one country? When the students come here and go back, they're no more different than when they left. If they're using more Western phrases and body language, it's probably because that's something they were already trying to emulate or into. |
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ChrissyC
 Posts: 545 |
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"Stand to lose a few..."
I pity thee... |
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Paiprince
 Posts: 593 |
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This. Just because they stayed overseas in an extended period, doesn't necessarily mean they've transformed into gaijins. They may speak English a little better, but that's about it. There's going to be a few who'll flaunt their sojourn and act all Westaboo and annoy everyone like what your average Wapanese would do after his one semester trip in Japan, but for the most part they'll just treat it as a nice memory to talk about over lunch. |
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Pidgeot18
 Posts: 101 |
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I wonder if part of the reason for the higher frequency of this trope in Japanese media as compared to Western media couldn't be simply because it's an easy way to get a foreign character without having to actually make them foreign. In other words, a (possibly unconscious) result of Japanese xenophobia.
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Just-another-face
Posts: 324 |
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I wouldn't be surprised. They're still pretty xenophobic over there. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if there are some extreme cases over there who see a Westerner minding their own business, walk up to them and tell (or scream at) them to go home because they're not welcome in Japan. Last edited by Just-another-face on Fri Apr 08, 2016 4:16 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Wrial Huden
 Posts: 149 Location: McKinney, TX |
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Reminds me of Marmalade Boy when spoiler[Yuu accepted an offer to study in the US (New York, to be more specific). The American exchange student sent to study in Japan, Michael, told Miki he became so fluent in Japanese by watching old samurai movies]. Riiight!
BTW, it might be silly to use the spoiler disguise on something from a 20+ year old anime, but I realize some people may not have seen it before but are planning to. A bit of CYA, if you will.... |
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rizuchan
 Posts: 974 Location: Kansas |
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Eh, I think that sort of thing is sort of a hand wave/joke when they conveniently need a character that can speak Japanese, since there aren't a lot of good reasons an American would be fluent unless they lived in Japan for a number of years. Like in Lucky Star when Patti claims she learned Japanese from Anime. Or the number of anime characters that conveniently learned Russian/English/Japanese fluently from their grandparents. We're not really expected to believe that's typical. What I want to see is a character that learned Japanese from watching samurai movies/anime to talk like that's where they learned it from, ie speaking in antiquated Japanese or a girl using Japanese yakuza speech. I had a handful of embarrassing moments thanks to anime when I took Japanese and used words that were "childish" aka I probably picked them up from Moe girls trying to be cutesy. 
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RestLessone
 Posts: 1426 Location: New York |
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The question and answer is more specifically talking about kids who spent an extended stay--like a few years or so. In anime, the "student who spent time overseas" is often a stranger, or sometimes a childhood friend, so they've usually been out of the country for a long while. Semesters abroad are unlikely to change your mannerisms, but spending formative years in another culture will. Especially if the kid is fairly young and pretty plastic when they move. For them, it isn't a (relatively) brief excursion to another nation; it's where they live, have friends, and go to school. It's not exclusive to one culture, but I think the differences are striking because of how different culturally North America/Aus+NZ/Europe and Japan are. |
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tcdelaney
Posts: 169 Location: Mittagong, NSW, Australia |
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I was an exchange student many years ago (Australia -> Brasil), had multiple exchange students living with my family (including Yuko from Japan when I was 12) and was involved with the AFS exchange program for almost 20 years (and heavily involved for almost 10 years, including running hosting orientation camps).
Obviously I can't speak to people who have an extended stay overseas (multiple years, esp. as a young child) but I can speak to those who have a one-year stay (short exchanges such as 3 months tend not to have much effect). Many students have almost as great a cultural shock going back into their home country as they do when they first arrive in the host country. A year away as a teenager isn't enough to change fundamental characteristics for most people, but it is plenty to give a much more open perspective on many things that previously were taken for granted. Most students go back into their home high school and may be put into the year behind their friends which makes reintegration much much harder (imagine suddenly becoming kouhai to a group of people you've been with since infants/elementary school). From my own experience, a large part of it is that you'll be thinking in both languages (assuming you went to a country with a different language) and thinking in the host language tends to promote behaviours that you learned in the host country. I still find (over 20 years later) that I'll think in Portuguese and manifest some mannerism I picked up in Brasil. And my reintegration was much easier than most since I went between high school and university, so I was coming back to a very different situation compared to when I left. |
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NeoDude
Posts: 3 |
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Does anyone know The name of the anime from this articles picture? I feel like I've watched it before.
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Blanchimont
Posts: 3444 Location: Finland |
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Obtaining info by running the image url through various image searches, it should be from Bleach, specifically episode 169 (Episode title; New Development, the Dangerous Transfer Student Appears!). |
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