I haven't posted here because I didn't know how to word my opinion, but basically what magick said.

You think we all use english and think it's cool?

Heh, no.

It's quite embaressing, actually… half the world speaks english. We try to. We fail at it. Kind of makes us seem stupid…

Who said anyone thinks english is cool? It is our language. It's communication. That's it. Nobody said english was any better or worse than any other language.

magickmaker
Who said anyone thinks english is cool? It is our language. It's communication. That's it. Nobody said english was any better or worse than any other language.

According to most people these days the japanese think english is cool. I'm just stating that not all japanese people think this way.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned this. But in Japan if you really like anime you are called an otaku which is not what people here describe as anime fan, it means nerd or obsession with something. If you are in junior high and read Shonen Jump or Nakayoshi and talk to your friends about it its probably OK. But high school in Japan is the same as here. If you stick out in some way that is not ‘normal’ you'll hear about it. Basically to have any obsession with anything lowers your social status. I don't mean by being cool or a geek, I mean you generally are less sociable and would prefer to watch anime or read manga then go out with friends. There is nothing wrong with this for a time, but it can negatively affect your life. I was sickly in junior high and high school so I found anime and manga something nice to think about when I couldn't really socialize with other people. But then some people just aren't sociable and thats OK.

As for the English in songs almost all artists add it because of a fad, and Japanese will randomly quote English from movies or what they learned in school (like us with anime) But really anime and manga isn't that big over there. I'd say its bigger here. The fans are hardcore there and have specialty shops with cosplay cafes and such. Sometimes bookstores have a large selection of manga, but not all, and anime soundtracks were really hard to find. I had to order one. I wasn't in the sticks either. I was in a big city.
Oh, and anime is hardly ever on! I saw one show ‘Full metal alchemist’ then at 7am (if I was up then) there would be the little girl shows like Pretty Cure and Aishiteruze Baby. Things like Death note and FlCL would have been on late at night.

Like most artforms Anime has come and gone and experienced surges and retreats. It's in retreat right now, but that doesn't mean the it wasn't HUGE!!!! in the past.

As far as people labeling you for your interests, they don't know you. They can hide behind the anonymity of the Internet. And intolerance is universal. (Us-them, us/not-us is deeply ingrained in the human psyche. It's a useful survival mechanism. Now it's knee-jerk and still has to be overcome no matter what society at large believes. The anonymity of the internet encourages being negative because there's little chance of personal reaction and one can hide behind another name. You can claim anything. 40 year old cops pretending to be 14 year old girls to entrap pedophiles?)

My love of anime and Japanese culture (Asian culture too) is always tempered by certain events between 1936-1945 and seeing all those Japanese tourists rushing onto the U.S.S.Arizona memorial and knowing that they were thinking about great-uncle Hiro in his Kate torpedo plane. I didn't see a whole lot of them at the Punchbowl Cemetary.

Don't worry I also remember the Holocaust, the Stalin purges, America's treatment of the Native Americans and so many more examples of Man's inhumanity.

So, being sick of kids describing everything as “kawaii” is racial intolerance now?



Huh.

magickmaker
So, being sick of kids describing everything as “kawaii” is racial intolerance now?



Huh.

Kaua'i? (kidding)

I don't think it's racial intolerance. Expressing an opinion. And opinions are like anuses. Everyone's got them and they all stink.

Wapanese is the best I can do!

there's no japanese here and the other asian humans don't hang out with the white ones!

Yeah, its because we Americans are intolerant.:p

No, but seriously let me explain. I am a African-American female who have been into anime since I was 4. I wear my anime and Kanji written shirts outside and nobody comments on them. (Well except for this one dude who asked if I was Japanese.)

Over here it can be a pain ass to be a anime fan. Mostly because of the idoits who think Japan is the best country ever and Japanese people are the all-mighty-race. In fact your comment about americans make me laugh because you truly don't understand the anime fandom over here.(Not trying to insult you when I say this)A lot of people here don't think that westerners should cosplay because anime characters look like and should only be done by Japanese people. They hate english dubs and adore japanese subs despite the fact they don't understand language. And you don't even want to know what happens when they meet an actually Japanese person.

But I think I avoided your question. You want to know why people don't like it when you use Japanese words in your english sentences. Just go to gaia and click on the anime forum and you'll see why. Japan has come to a time where they mix english words with their language. We have not.

If a friend came to you and say

Konnichiwa, Joe-chan. Nice Neko you have demo think inu's are better.

Won't you go wtf?

I third magickmaker's comments. English is my first language and as such, I have no real reason to throw Spanish, Czech or French into the mix even though I speak them fairly well. I have always thought I would sound like a moron if I did so and one doesn't come off as sounding smart or snappy. In all respects, I'd probably come off as an uppity wannabe jerk.

I have friends that use plenty of asian terms and 9 times out of 10, KNOW JUST THAT AMOUNT, and could care less about further knowledge of appropriate usage, a deeper understanding of the culture or people. Things like that annoy me. Not because of their shallow take on it, but more because it seems to forced or trendy.

BUT, I digress and say that ultimately ANY observance of another culture or language can never be that harmful, so to even those who only wish to dabble into the Japanese language, more power to them.

I actually have the kanji for God of Death on my upper shoulder. I got it because I loved the Gundam “Deathscythe”. BUT I also got it because I had a job at a funeral home, and thought it was a funny reminder to myself of past days. With that fact, I think that there may be a fair amount of people that DO embrace an aspect of a foreign culture, no matter how small, out of genuine interest.

Hopefully this post made sense, :D it's 1:44 am.

Quick added thought: I think most of my hatred of “throwing in ‘foreign’ words” comes from my intense desire to punch people that say something in Elvish, nay, have ENTIRE CONVERSATIONS at cons or bookstores that way. If anyone here is ever at a con and there is a disturbance near some elves, you can bet money it involves me. :D

Heh! I love how this thread has turned around into a justification for putting people down and bullying them.

Whatever. Let them have their stupid slang words in whatever language they choose! people will always have some little subculture going on that you feel excluded from or that irritates you for some reason. No need to try and come up with a justification for why they're worse people than you so that you feel justified in despising them.

That's sad.



And in order now not to be a hypocrite I'll have to be nice to furrys, emos and fat fetishists. Ah well, if I'm to take the high moral ground it's a sacrifice I'll have to make :)

ozoneocean
And in order now not to be a hypocrite I'll have to be nice to furrys, emos and fat fetishists. Ah well, if I'm to take the high moral ground it's a sacrifice I'll have to make :)

LMAO!