Yeah I experience this a fair bit to. Its sad when you hear these sentiments from otherwise intelligent people. I taught some classes at a school for under 10s, the first day I walked in they had the beginner shouting, "WE HATE JAPAN, WE HATE JAPAN."
Quote: (03-18-2013 09:48 PM)Osiris Wrote:
The hate Japan thing is in 90% of them. Last fall kids had to go into school on Saturday and Sunday so they could attend a special "fuck Japan" class for two days.
Last week my students had the word "intolerant" as part of their vocab. I asked them if they knew anyone who was intolerant, they all said no. Then I asked if they thought they were intolerant of Japanese people. They all responded no. I was pretty sure they didn't understand the word or they were blind to their own prejudices, when one girl clarified that they weren't intolerant, because that means you don't like people because they're different. Japanese aren't people, so they don't count.
My mind was blown, that's not even racist, that's how genocide starts.
I've had random people come up to me on the street with their phone where they've translated something like "Diayou islands are historic Chinese area. You agree?"
He'll, one guy I know got 100rmb for shouting, "Fuck Japan!", from a drunk Chinese dude outside a club.
I tried explaining to a friend that back in the states we view China and Japan as pretty similar. They look similar, they use chopsticks, eat rice and noodles, use the same script, have famous martial arts, etc... That conversation did not go well.