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Top Document: soc.culture.japan FAQ [Monthly Posting] [1/3] Previous Document: (3.5.2) Is "Gaijin" a derogatory term? Next Document: (4.0) Bibliography See reader questions & answers on this topic! - Help others by sharing your knowledge Last update: 11/95 From: Michiaki Masuda (masuda@ncifcrf.gov) Some netters visit SCJ expecting that they may be able to find a number of Japanese netters to communicate with. However, they usually find that their expectation is rather betrayed. It would be safe to say that Japanese netters have never been a majority in this group despite its name. In 1991, when I started to read this group, there were only a couple of Japanese netters who post articles once in a while. Even though the number of Japanese SCJers has apparently increased since then, their number would be still too small for the group to live up to some netters' expectation. Since SCJ appears to have been initiated by some netters in the US as a mailing list for them to exchange information on Japan, its existence might not be known to many Japanese at first. However, this should no longer be the case. Today, a significantly large number of Japanese have USENET access, and quite a few of them are said to read SCJ. A number of Japanese are also actively communicating with each other in Japanese domestic groups, such as those under the "fj" hierarchy. There are probably three major reasons why they are not interested in actively speaking up in SCJ. [1] English problem Most of Japanese netters, like other netters, are under the impression that they have to use English in SCJ although there is no such restriction. In general, Japanese feel uncomfortable when they have to express themselves in English whether their English skills are actually passable or not. [2] Uninteresting topics Some of the topics often discussed in SCJ are not major interests or concerns of the Japanese netters, especially those living in Japan. They can find somewhere else to go to (e.g., fj groups) to talk about current issues more closely related to their life. It seems also true that some netters use SCJ to deliver their anti-Japan(ense) sentiment in a rather revealing manner. Whether those pieces of message are to the point or not, many Japanese may feel like staying away from them as a natural response. [3] Different argument styles Due to the larger number of American or European netters, it appears that the Western style of debate or argument is accepted as a general standard in SCJ. Although the Western style has its own virtue and merits, it may come out as something too straightforward, too explicit, too aggressive, or even too impolite to the eyes of Japanese netters. Obvioulsy, not many Japanese netters are willing to adapt themselves to a different standard. Since we cannot really hear from those Japanese netters who decide not to speak up in SCJ, we can only speculate about the reasons. However, those listed above seem to give us the most plausible explanation. Whether SCJ should encourage more Japanese netters to participate or not may be a controversial issue. If it should, however, netters -- both Japanese and non-Japanse -- may want to keep these factors in mind when they post an article or respond to others. User Contributions:Top Document: soc.culture.japan FAQ [Monthly Posting] [1/3] Previous Document: (3.5.2) Is "Gaijin" a derogatory term? Next Document: (4.0) Bibliography 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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