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Ending up disliking a TL and its culture | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Itikar Groupie Italy Joined 4674 days ago 94 posts - 158 votes  Speaks: Italian* | Message 49 of 84 19 February 2012 at 11:35am | IP Logged | |||||
Yes, I suppose also the habit of NOT doing direct question to not-so-acquainted people. As well as other things I listed. Yet I found myself at unease several times with foreigners asking direct questions, that I believe people are not accustomed to this everywhere. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6602 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 50 of 84 19 February 2012 at 11:40am | IP Logged | |||||
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| fabriciocarraro Hexaglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Brazil russoparabrasileirosRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4720 days ago 989 posts - 1454 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishB2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French Studies: Dutch, German, Japanese | Message 51 of 84 19 February 2012 at 2:50pm | IP Logged | |||||
Maybe, but I don't think that's the case, since my wife did all the talking =P I was just telling her things in Portuguese and she would speak in Russian to the attendant. That happened in all stores, both when we were well or badly attended. Edited by fabriciocarraro on 19 February 2012 at 2:52pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| IronFist Senior Member United States Joined 6442 days ago 663 posts - 941 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 52 of 84 20 February 2012 at 3:22am | IP Logged | |||||
Hmm, maybe it was her sales tactic all along. She ended up getting the sale, right?
What country was that in? That was rude. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Chevalier Diglot Groupie Brazil Joined 4712 days ago 53 posts - 104 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English | Message 53 of 84 21 February 2012 at 12:31am | IP Logged | |||||
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I have already been to Ireland and France. I spent some months in Ireland and people where a bit distant and seemed cold at first, but I think that they were shy. Every time I needed help, they would always help me with a smile in their faces. I met several people there and I can remember just two rude examples, both guys in the post office. Everywhere else was nice. Walking on the streets with an open map in your hands was enough to get someone spontaneously stop and ask you if you are lost and need directions. For some reason adults and older people were friendlier.
In France, I thought that people would be rude based on what I read on the internet. I just stayed there for 5 days to celebrate a birthday so I didn't meet many people, but the ones that I met where helpful. I remember when I was looking for the metro in the Louvre, then I asked a guy in English and he just stared at me trying to understand, then I just said 'Metro?' with a French accent and he smiled, and called a girl who could speak French, English and Spanish. Also, I was on a train and I wanted to make sure that it was going to the airport, so I asked an Indian guy who unfortunately didn't know. Then a French guy told me not to worry because I was on the right train, in broken English just like mine, but very helpful. Maybe I was lucky, but I didn't have any bad experiences there and even if I had I wouldn't judge France for visiting Paris for five days. Edited by Chevalier on 21 February 2012 at 12:34am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4712 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 54 of 84 21 February 2012 at 12:57am | IP Logged | |||||
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I have never had this, and in fact, I can only, as far as I remember, realize that everywhere I went, people have treated me in friendly manners, almost all of the time.
I will say though, that despite the Scandinavian reputation for being overly reserved, I have found Icelanders to be extremely helpful, hospitable and kind on almost every account ever. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4894 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 55 of 84 21 February 2012 at 2:04am | IP Logged | |||||
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I think that if we over-romanticize anything, if we swing too far towards an unrequited
love for a thing, that we can end up hating it when that love isn't reciprocated, or when the object of our affection turns out to be quite normal in the end. The pendulum swings in the opposite direction. Japan is known for having a strain of xenophobia, and outsiders cannot become "Japanese" in the same way that outsiders can become "American" or "Brazilian" or "British" ... or any of the other more cosmopolitan nationalities. I read the first post, and I wonder if the OP wasn't hoping to be Japanese, and some of the anger is from not being allowed to? It takes a lot of work to become fluent, and I can see that it would be frustrating if you put in all that work and yet were still kept on the outside looking in. 10 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Lucky Charms Diglot Senior Member Japan lapacifica.net Joined 6954 days ago 752 posts - 1711 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: German, Spanish | Message 56 of 84 21 February 2012 at 4:07am | IP Logged | |||||
Yes, this is widely believed about Japan, but this is overwhelmingly not true. I've discussed this in detail in a controversial post a while back (remove any spaces in the URL): http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?T ID=21390&PN=21&TPN=2 Khatzumoto once said something like, "Japanese people aren't xenophobic. They're xenocurious, with a tinge of xenonervousness." My favorite blog about Japan explains in this very interesting post where this hesitation to become a multicultural society might come from: http://thisjapaneselife.org/2011/04/06/on-the-psychic-abilit ies-of-japanese-salarymen/ I agree with the rest of your post, though. It's very hard to get to the point where Japanese people stop seeing you as "the foreigner", and this definitely causes frustration for some. I'm not sure how different this is from the experience of a Japanese person who moves to an English speaking country as an adult and wants to be seen as a real, authentic American/Brit/etc., though. For what it's worth, Asian- Americans often talk about being constantly asked where they're "from", and being treated as the perpetual "other", even if they were born and raised in the U.S., so the gap between the way racial minorities are treated in each country (while it definitely exists) might not be so great after all. Edited by Lucky Charms on 21 February 2012 at 4:47am 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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