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Top Document: soc.culture.japan FAQ [Monthly Posting] [1/3] Previous Document: (3.5.1) Japan's involvement in World War II Next Document: (3.6) Why are there so few Japanese posters in SCJ? See reader questions & answers on this topic! - Help others by sharing your knowledge Last update: <11/95 This issue crops up occasionally as a heated debate in this newsgroup. Gaijin is a contraction of the word gaikokujin, and literally means "foreigner". The Japanese language has several cases of using "gai" (outside) with a noun to indicate one of <noun> from another country. Gaisha for foreign cars, gaijin for foreign people, gaika for foreign currencies. Some people are deeply offended by the word, saying that "gaijin" refers to outsiders rife with undesirable characteristics. There is no doubt that is one meaning of the word. "Gaijin" is also used in many cases where it is probably not intended as a negative statement. Consider that it is common in the Japanese language to address people whose names are not known, or even if names are known, by titles: omawari san, Mr. Policeman; sushiya san, Mr. Sushi Shop. It is not unusual for a Japanese speaker to call a non Japanese who is otherwise not known, "gaijin san". It should be noted that: The language also has much stronger words for cases where a speaker wants to discriminate or insult. and Non-Asian foreigners _will_ be called "gaijin" by many Japanese. User Contributions:Top Document: soc.culture.japan FAQ [Monthly Posting] [1/3] Previous Document: (3.5.1) Japan's involvement in World War II Next Document: (3.6) Why are there so few Japanese posters in SCJ? Part1 - Part2 - Part3 - Single Page [ Usenet FAQs | Web FAQs | Documents | RFC Index ] Send corrections/additions to the FAQ Maintainer: shimpei@gol.com (Shimpei Yamashita)
Last Update March 27 2014 @ 02:11 PM
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