How NHK views nikkeis

[thomas]

Never mind the stupid headline:

Soap stinker gets up nose of Japanese-Americans

=> http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/waiwai/0210/021002soap.html

[moyashi]

lolo ... for once what Tanaka A san isn't the same as what Tanaka B san thinks.

NHK runs really good programs normally but at times can be blundering insensitive fools. Oh well, at least they're batting average isn't that bad.

[rokurokkubi]

You know, the more I see articles showing Japanese-Americans complaining about this and that, the more I think the vast majority of them have a poker up their you know whats.


I'll probably get some protest about that, right?

you know you will lol...

or at the very least, should...

[mieboy]

I read on the news that they were shooting in Brazil... Well this is funny..American talking with British accent?!hillarious...
Well thats interessant because in Brazil most of the third generation can speak Japanese...Read and write too...
Since I was born I just talk in Japanese with my parents and my 2 sisters...Even to my two shepards DOGS?!?!Can u believe it?Even my dogs are bilingual...They can understand Portuguese and Japanese...LOL
But nikkeis from one country its totally diferent from others countries...I know some nikkeis from Hawaii, Peru, USA and we used to say that we're Brazilian, American, Peruvian minded but with Japanese SOUL...DEEP huh?!

[mieboy]

I read on the news that they were shooting in Brazil... Well this is funny..American talking with British accent?!hillarious...
Well thats interessant because in Brazil most of the third generation can speak Japanese...Read and write too...
Since I was born I just talk in Japanese with my parents and my 2 sisters...Even to my two shepards DOGS?!?!Can u believe it?Even my dogs are bilingual...They can understand Portuguese and Japanese...LOL
But nikkeis from one country its totally diferent from others countries...I know some nikkeis from Hawaii, Peru, USA and we used to say that we're Brazilian, American, Peruvian minded but with Japanese SOUL...DEEP huh?!

[Hachiko]

Stereotypes...defined. Excellent article on the indirect bastardization of san-and yonsei, Thomas. But shouldn't this be in the WaiWai section?

[nekosasori]

I read the article and found it interesting. Personally, I'm Nisei and speak Japanese flawlessly (only spoke Japanese with my parents; was an only child; have the equivalent of a minor in Japanese from university). While the reality may be that many Nikkei don't speak Japanese well (or at all), I personally put a lot of effort into learning and maintaining my Japanese because I think it's pathetic to look like a visible minority but only be monolingual (in English), even if culturally one identifies solely as "North American" (which at least in Canada is more of a tossed salad of cultures, rather than a melting pot).

If "Sakura" had been a realistic character, wouldn't the Japanese native audience have had a lower opinion of her (due to her inability to speak Japanese)? Wouldn't they have identified with her less (because of the language AND culture barriers)?

I don't see anything wrong with nikkeis striving to at least have conversational skills in Japanese - the language is inextricably tied to culture, and in order to really appreciate any culture one needs to grasp the language(s) associated with it, IMO.

[Jean-Francois]

I used to go to school with a girl who was Japanese + Korean but she could only speak English and Japanese (couldn't read or write Japanese). She told me when she went back to Japan during summer, she was very popular among the people at her age and she could make more friends in Japan for three months than she could in United States for three years.

Those Japanese people knew that she was half Korean and she was born in United States but they still adored her. And she asked me why she was MUCH more popular among Japanese guys than American guys (actually she preferred white guys). Hmm... I told her the reason she was so popular was because

(1) she looked like a 鈴木保奈美

(2) she was very quiet and being quiet was a virtue in Asia. And most important, since she rarely opened her mouth she wouldn't say something like," In the U.S.A. we did it like this way, or in America it is supposed to be that way..." et etc. .