Numbnuts puts it very well. The sort of American tourists who are most disliked are the ones that have a loud-mouthed arrogant attitude. It goes down badly in other Western nations, so it would be even worse in Asia, where the culture particularly disapproves of drawing attention to yourself, and people are expected to fit in with each other.
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What's appropriate
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Actually, it might not be so bad in China, but it could be a real problem in Japan (I think, culturally, Japan has more in common with Germany than it has with China).If you have a conference with a Japanese, a Chinese, a German, and an Amerian, the Chinese and the American will do most of the talking and all of the handwaving.In other words, Japan's cuture is quite distant from America's.
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If you're talking about wearing that to Japan, you've got nothing to worry about. I've seen worse shirts there....believe me. :P
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I don't know if it's still true, but for a while the Japanese were fascinated with things American and in English. People were wearing shirts with nonsensical English words and phrases...but it didn't matter, since most Japanese are not too good at reading English. Tips for foreigners coming to Japan
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I wish I'd mentioned the Japanese fascination with the USA... oh wait, I did.Plenty of examples of those cookie and crazy shirts at Engrish
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"Being delicious is not everything." Truer words were never printed on a tee shirt.
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so they're saying I have to be a robot when I talk? I can't really do that. I always move when I talk. I'm not a quiet person. Especially with friends. I'll have respect of course but to supress who I am because of what they think? Nah uh lol. It just seems a little restricting. I'm starting to appreciate my country a little more lol.
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It depends on how much you care about fitting in. The the nail that sticks out of the board is hammered down pretty hard if you're Japanese, but as an exotic foreigner, your mileage may vary.
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eh so I have to be a clone! like it's not bad enough wearing those huge medallion things with the logo. eww.well in the hotel we will be partying. can't stay stiff for two weeks!!
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the Japanese have a fascination with robots too. In reply to: can't stay stiff for two weeks!! I can
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>>>>I don't know if it's still true, but for a while the Japanese were fascinated with things American and in English. People were wearing shirts with nonsensical English words and phrases...but it didn't matter, since most Japanese are not too good at reading English.
haha, yer, its still true. my mum went to japan last yr and its sum kind of status symbol to have ur shop sign in english altho not many of them make scence. there was a shop in one of the train stations there that was called "colon booth". and they do like enligh and american stuff, in sum of the more rural areas, um ppl have never seen blonde hair. my japanese teacher afue yrs ago talked about takeing his daughter there and all the japanese ppl would come up and touch her hair cuz she was blonde.lol.
anyway, japan is a great country,one id love 2 visit one day. have a great time.
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yeah thats still true. alot of things are written in English there. like the shirt i happened to see in a store window that said "NO FUCKING" with a nice little pic of two stick figures going at it.
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oh yeah DONT FORGET TO TAKE YOUR SHOES OFF WHEN YOU GO INTO A JAPANESE PERSONS HOUSE!!!!!!!!!! i forgot and i was pounced on. so DONT FORGET!!!! :P
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lol I know I know. I have to take a freakin shower to take a "holy purified" bath. I'm not buddhist. I don't give. But yeah yeah ok.Our delegation leader told us not to put our thumbs up in public because it means we want money.... you know what I'll be doing for the time being
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wtf??? thats weird. never heard that one before.i got so nervous when i got there, i forget like every etiquette thingy my japanese teacher taught me. it was actually pretty funny.
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oh great. now I know how it's going to go for me lol. I'm probably going to forget to say hi to begin with let alone to bow. my tip over fall on my face lol that happened before too when I had gone to visit my friend's Japanese Church. not one of my best moments.... AT ALL
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sorry. i dont mean to scare ya. hey, all that stuff happened to me, and i still had a blast., if that helps.