🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <CLAUDE.92Sep8153236@tokyo.trc.mew.mei.co.jp> claude@trc.mew.mei.co.jp (Claude Huss) writes:
 >>Really, I would like to know... :-) However, when I say that
 >>I came from Brazil, everybody says: "Oh! Drink this and that
 >>coffee", when I say:"No, I don't drink coffee" eveybody get
 >>so surprised:"How can! You're a brazilian! (sic)". And the
 >>same thing for "soccer", "carnival", "samba", etc. etc.

Tendency of this sort of stereotyping is quite strong in Japanese
society. In Japan one is supposed to belong to a group and is supposed
to have the attributes or characteristics of the group - if you are
from Kanto you are not supposed to speak Kansai dialect, and vice
versa. :) In fact you can find a lot of exceptional cases.

 >>It's very
 >>interesting because when working and I say that I'm a brazilian
 >>everybody start to think different about me, because in their
 >>first thoughts they thouhgt I was american, and wonder how
 >>a "brazilian" can know all those things... (sic) :-)

Another weird tendency of Japanese is to guess all non-Japanese
residents are "Americans." (No offence intended to U.S. citizens)
Japanese tend to rank a person by where he/she is from. This is
nothing but a discrimination, although this sort of behavior can be
found everywhere in the world.

 >>Many times many japanese said to my
 >>wife:"Hey you cannot be american!" (she is a taiwanese-american)
 >>or "I think your english is strange" (god.. she is american!
 >>but how she doesn't look "american", many japanese say this
 >>kind of stupid things.)

This shows a typical recognition of citizenship in Japan. Most of
Japanese citizens are black-or-brown-eyed and have black-or-brown
hair. Quite a lot of people here misunderstand that your parents have
to be Japanese if you are Japanese. The idea of immigration itself is
still considered foreign here because of an illusion that Japan
consists of one ethnic group, which has not been dead yet since WWII.

 >>		Gaijin Touroku Card: Don't leave home without it!

Another discriminative action of our government to non-Japanese
residents - why not they force us to keep ID cards? :)

// Kenji