Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Pendleton" data-source="post: 1376164" data-attributes="member: 18309">There was a time when English teachers were rock stars? Sad. I first came to Japan around 2000. The &quot;charisma man&quot; was already a joke. I think it was always the case that the Japanese women chasing foreign men were the bottom 5% but that is clearly the case now. &quot;Foreigner&quot; is now more associated with third world migrants than wealthy Western professionals and &quot;American&quot; no longer conjures up images of the 1940s and 1950s powerhouse.I meet far fewer long term Western expats here now and they generally fall into the category you describe - outcast Western men who came here 20+ years ago, married below average local women and have been in unskilled jobs based on their status as foreigners (English teachers, editors, etc.).Which is a good thing. I&#039;m not sure what you mean by being accepted. I am treated well in Japan. I am also treated as a foreigner, which makes sense because that is what I am. If someone wants to be thought of as Japanese but isn&#039;t Japanese by blood, I just chalk that up as mental illness. Debito would obviously be the extreme case. I feel the same way about the Turk who calls himself German, the African who calls himself Swedish, the Mexican who call himself American, etc. Ethnicity is based on blood and determined by birth. You either have it or you don&#039;t. The rest is just paperwork. It seems sociopathic to move to a foreign country and then complain that they don&#039;t erase their identity so foreigners can pretend to be natives.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Pendleton, post: 1376164, member: 18309"] There was a time when English teachers were rock stars? Sad. I first came to Japan around 2000. The "charisma man" was already a joke. I think it was always the case that the Japanese women chasing foreign men were the bottom 5% but that is clearly the case now. "Foreigner" is now more associated with third world migrants than wealthy Western professionals and "American" no longer conjures up images of the 1940s and 1950s powerhouse. I meet far fewer long term Western expats here now and they generally fall into the category you describe - outcast Western men who came here 20+ years ago, married below average local women and have been in unskilled jobs based on their status as foreigners (English teachers, editors, etc.). Which is a good thing. I'm not sure what you mean by being accepted. I am treated well in Japan. I am also treated as a foreigner, which makes sense because that is what I am. If someone wants to be thought of as Japanese but isn't Japanese by blood, I just chalk that up as mental illness. Debito would obviously be the extreme case. I feel the same way about the Turk who calls himself German, the African who calls himself Swedish, the Mexican who call himself American, etc. Ethnicity is based on blood and determined by birth. You either have it or you don't. The rest is just paperwork. It seems sociopathic to move to a foreign country and then complain that they don't erase their identity so foreigners can pretend to be natives. [/QUOTE]

Verification