The scary thing is we tried that twice already and it didn’t work.
I thought Cow and Chicken did that.
Not so unusual. I’ve heard of a lot of groups questioning racism in America while being blind to their own issues.
Try asking a German about the Turks.
Yep, story’s been retracted
Translation: Glorious Nippon is PERFECT you stupid white devils do not understand it’s perfection while I do because I watch Sailor Moon with my pants around my ankles oh God I wish I was Japanese oh Godddddddd why wasn’t I born soon enough to join Unit 731 and torture imperfect foreigners! BANZAI!!!
You know, I’m amazed there aren’t more posts in this thread defending Japanese racism, given the GLORIOUS NIPPON Japanophiles and “when stupid, uncultured, conservative redneck Americans do it, it’s bad, but when educated, refined and intellectual liberal Europeans/Asians do it, it’s acceptable” mindset I perceive here. I often see it on other message boards when another culture or country is called on their racism: responses of either “AMERIKKKA I$ WOR$E” or “They have their reasons, which are perfectly valid given their circumstances and history, and we shouldn’t impose our values on them”.
I think it translates more to “Japanese men don’t tend to talk to strangers.”
Except when drunk. 
But yes, the interesting thing is that the story has been pulled. There could be any of a number of reasons for that, not least of all that it was fabricated. But it could also be that he had second thoughts about privacy issues.
I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
Wait a minute. Are you telling me there are people who watch Sailor Moon with their pants on?
I wouldn’t know. I don’t even know what a Sailor Moon is besides being some anime crap with a bunch of teenage girls in it or something. Combine that with the typical anime fan and… well, it’s an image that never fades no matter how much Comet you douse your brain in.
Oh bullshit. I’m not claiming perfection anywhere.
You can easily get me on hours long rants of the stupid sides of this country. As I said, most Japanese are racist and have a strong pecking order of outside countries. White countries are seen as better, black and brown inferior.
Japan gets more than its share of odd, “this is how strange they are” stories being told about it and this one sounds like it.
If the other person was quite drunk, it makes a difference in that Japanese – and the rest of the world) are more likely to say really stupid things when that drunk. Drunks lose their inhibitions, so it is less unlikely to have a conversation there.
One of the reasons I question this story, is that discrimination is a taboo subject for most Japanese. Japanese have their own people they discriminate against, but it’s just not talked about. However, if the guy was completely shitfaced, then all bets are off.
It’s interesting that your friend says he could understand that level of vocabulary on the first day in Japan. Most casual learners of second languages don’t pick up words like racist that quickly.
I believe elmwood is suggesting it. Me, not a pedophile, preferred GEM
I thought that Whale and Dolphin did it…
-XT
[waxing into several WWII films I saw over the weekend]Jeeze, they are all Nips. Can’t tell the difference between Japs and Nips, but I thought the older was less offensive. [/waning]
These movies were made in the late 50s. Sure, “kraut” was used well into the 60s, but that left me thinking of pickled beef, potatoes, and pickled cabbage. I have long suggested that there is a long tradition of of, not-militarily, drawing cuisines into the Melting Pot. Food, even more so than sex, draws us together.
And yet you’re all defensive and claiming that your anecdotal evidence can beat up his anecdotal evidence. How many different pinku bento boxes and kawaii animu DVDs do you own?
It’s almost like he might have studied the language before he went to Japan! :eek:
Writer Neal Stephenson, as big a Japanophile as anyone, once made the case that “Nip”, being a contraction of “Nippon”, was no more offensive than “Brit”.
I think his handle may have misled you, young jedi. TP is a long-time American expat in Japan. He is not describing one anecdote, but cultural traits observed through many years; he is also neither Japanese, nor blindly enamored of a cartoon Japan.
Please refrain from attempting to insult people that you evidently don’t know at all, your barbs are going so far off the bullseye it isn’t even funny.
The issue isn’t it being a contraction, it is with how the word is used (or indeed has been used in the past).
“Paki” is a contraction of “Pakistani”, but I wouldn’t recommend using it anywhere a Pakistani might hear you in the UK.
I like Neal Stephenson as much or more than the next guy, but it has always bugged me that he uses the terms ‘Nippon’ and also, if I remember correctly, ‘Nipponjin’, so frequently in his books, even in books that are set in the future. It just sounds so antiquated to my ears. I hardly ever hear those pronunciations in every day life - it’s far more likely to be ‘Nihon’ and ‘Nihonjin’, by an order of magnitude.
I think maybe he either got some bad advice somewhere down the track or he’s trying to make a point that is lost on everyone but him. But I never bothered to find out - the rest of his writing was too good to really make an issue of this single point.
Anyway, if Nip is merely a contraction of Nippon* (*I think what you probably mean is ‘Nipponese’) , then Jap is merely a contraction of Japan(*ese).
So then why is Jap also offensive? I’m not sure it is, but you can certainly make a good case that it has been used in a derogatory way as colloquial label for people who were at one time an enemy, and that if we want to put those times behind us then we must also put aside those colloquial contractions that were common at the time. Kana?
>cough< We actually did that…