Current Events > There's a loud foreigner living on my street in Japan >_>

(+) Yeah! (+)

Aside from me being a foreigner as well, theres another guy who, every few days, talks loud as fuck on his phone in the evening on the sidewalk outside his apartment. Its also on loud speaker and its another woman speaking Nigerian (I think?) really loudly. This is in the middle of the road right near other residential houses.

He also randomly plays church music full blast for like 30 mins to an hour. I don't want to get involved, but I live I think two houses down from the guy so if I hear it, the whole street definitely hears it.

Id imagine the locals arent impressed. You get the odd foreigner like that here too.

Geesus Christ..For sure he talks, and on speaker on the train

I know a foreigner like that who plays loud music and when I tried to explain to him it annoys people around him he got super defensive. Some people are not capable of considering anyone but themselves and unfortunately it makes us (foreigners) all look bad.

Eh, could be worse, TC. You could have JapanHatesXbox living on your street having these longwinded rants about Microsoft and their console to himself and his imaginary fanbase while wandering aimlessly down the road.

You do yourself no favors if you buy into the concept of Japanese vs foreigner, they'll lump you in with every annoying person or criminal who isn't Japanese, because you're all "foreigners" instead of Americans or Chinese or Korean or whatever.

sfcalimari posted...

You do yourself no favors if you buy into the concept of Japanese vs foreigner, they'll lump you in with every annoying person or criminal who isn't Japanese, because you're all "foreigners" instead of Americans or Chinese or Korean or whatever.

I've read this three times and still kinda stumped on what you're trying to say lol.

Are you trying to say that I shouldn't buy into the Japanese vs foreigner concept, or that there IS a concept of Japanese vs foreigners?

His deleted post earlier included racist stereotypes of Chinese and Koreans so maybe he just wants you to know you're one of the good foreigners or something.

SpiritSephiroth posted...

Aside from me being a foreigner as well, theres another guy who, every few days, talks loud as fuck on his phone in the evening on the sidewalk outside his apartment. Its also on loud speaker and its another woman speaking Nigerian (I think?) really loudly. This is in the middle of the road right near other residential houses.

He also randomly plays church music full blast for like 30 mins to an hour. I don't want to get involved, but I live I think two houses down from the guy so if I hear it, the whole street definitely hears it.

Have you spoken with your neighbors about this?

The Japanese categorize everyone as either Japanese or foreigner. Koreans do the same thing in South Korea. They do this because they are homogenous cultures that intentionally have very low levels of permanent immigration, but it means they have a real us versus them mentality. And a LOT of economic immigrants buy into it, and after a few weeks start categorizing people as "foreigners," whereas back home they'd refer to them as Chinese, African, French, whatever.

That's my experience with recent African immigrants as well. They're always on the phone at night, always on speaker and I don't think they even need the phone as they speak loud enough to hear them several countries over.

sfcalimari posted...

You do yourself no favors if you buy into the concept of Japanese vs foreigner, they'll lump you in with every annoying person or criminal who isn't Japanese, because you're all "foreigners" instead of Americans or Chinese or Korean or whatever.

Uhh.. You will go a long way in Japan if you respect their culture and learn to communicate in their language. You won't have the same respect as being a native Japanese person, but it's much closer to being one vs an ignorant foreigner who chooses not to learn and respect the culture.

TheSavageDragon posted...

That's my experience with recent African immigrants as well. They're always on the phone at night, always on speaker and I don't think they even need the phone as they speak loud enough to hear them several countries over.

In fairness, I know plenty of African immigrants that are sound and dont behave like that.

ssjevot posted...

His deleted post earlier included racist stereotypes of Chinese and Koreans so maybe he just wants you to know you're one of the good foreigners or something.

I thought it would be too confusing and maybe it was. I have literally seen a news story in South Korea about "foreigners arrested for human trafficking" just above another article about "foreigner festival celebrates foreign teachers." A few days later a more informative news story mentioned that the human traffickers were from a Chinese criminal gang.

Maybe it's because the Korean media was trying to be unbiased for once, but they basically lumped criminals and teachers into the same weird category, and they do it constantly.

Glob posted...

In fairness, I know plenty of African immigrants that are sound and dont behave like that.

Oh I wasn't trying to generalize or anything. Just an anecdote.
It's probably dependant on what culture they came from. Because when I confronted several in the building I used to live in for doing so, they seemed oblivious as to why it was disrespectful to everyone around them. Most of them took notice and toned it down once I explained I had to get up for work at 4:30 AM.

TheSavageDragon posted...

Oh I wasn't trying to generalize or anything. Just an anecdote.
It's probably dependant on what culture they came from. Because when I confronted several in the building I used to live in for doing so, they seemed oblivious as to why it was disrespectful to everyone around them. Most of them took notice and toned it down once I explained I had to get up for work at 4:30 AM.

I wasnt trying to suggest that you had an agenda or anything. I just think with stuff like that its important to acknowledge the good and the bad because some people will see a comment like yours and generalise, but thats because of their existing biases more than anything else.

4:30 sound like a killer. Im up at 5:30 every day during the week and I cant imagine going an hour earlier.

sfcalimari posted...

I thought it would be too confusing and maybe it was. I have literally seen a news story in South Korea about "foreigners arrested for human trafficking" just above another article about "foreigner festival celebrates foreign teachers." A few days later a more informative news story mentioned that the human traffickers were from a Chinese criminal gang.

Maybe it's because the Korean media was trying to be unbiased for once, but they basically lumped criminals and teachers into the same weird category, and they do it constantly.

Do you live out there??

Arcanine2009 posted...

Uhh.. You will go a long way in Japan if you respect their culture and learn to communicate in their language. You won't have the same respect as being a native Japanese person, but it's much closer to being one vs an ignorant foreigner who chooses not to learn and respect the culture.

Sure if you have no self respect and want to end up like this guy

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=L_wv8hNCYK0&pp=ygUZU2FtIGhhbW1pbmd0b24gZ3JlZW5saWdodA%3D%3D

Glob posted...

I wasnt trying to suggest that you had an agenda or anything. I just think with stuff like that its important to acknowledge the good and the bad because some people will see a comment like yours and generalise, but thats because of their existing biases more than anything else.

True, I'll keep that in mind when posting something like that in the future. It's also why I added "recent" to that post as that isn't my experience with African immigrants who have been here for a while. Think it's likely an acceptable thing to do in their native land and it's just a bit of cultures clashing.

Glob posted...

4:30 sound like a killer. Im up at 5:30 every day during the week and I cant imagine going an hour earlier.

You get used to it. Many blue collar jobs here operate on a 6 AM to 2 PM system with the following week being a shift from 2 PM - 10 PM.

TheSavageDragon posted...

True, I'll keep that in mind when posting something like that in the future. It's also why I added "recent" to that post as that isn't my experience with African immigrants who have been here for a while. Think it's likely an acceptable thing to do in their native land and it's just a bit of cultures clashing.

You get used to it. Many blue collar jobs here operate on a 6 AM to 2 PM system with the following week being a shift from 2 PM - 10 PM.

In fairness, if I finished at 2PM I dont think Id struggle too much.

Humble_Novice posted...

Have you spoken with your neighbors about this?

I don't know my neighbours well enough yet unfortunately.

sfcalimari posted...

The Japanese categorize everyone as either Japanese or foreigner. Koreans do the same thing in South Korea. They do this because they are homogenous cultures that intentionally have very low levels of permanent immigration, but it means they have a real us versus them mentality. And a LOT of economic immigrants buy into it, and after a few weeks start categorizing people as "foreigners," whereas back home they'd refer to them as Chinese, African, French, whatever.

I usually classed many people as foreigners and immigrants back in London >_>

And the us versus them mentality is with every culture. I don't know why people single out Japan or Koreans for this. Go to a majority of any country and their families will see the foreigner as an outsider, no matter what you do. It happens in other Asian countries like Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, even African families do the same for white people.

Yeah you may see the occasional "White foreigner in country" video where they bend over backwards for them, but thats to keep to their values of treating guests like King. Get deeper into the levels of family and community, and they will definitely be treated differently. Trust me, I'm Asian and I know this on a fundamental level.

Its not just a Japanese or Korean thing and its kinda annoying people just keep pointing those two cultures out as if they're the only ones that do it. Hell, the only reason why its not seen more in the publics eyes in places like America or Britain is because those countries are more multicultural now due to their more relaxed borders and people's desire to live in a first world western country. But I guarantee you, put a black family into a gentrified neighbourhood or vice versa in the west, and see how they're looked at differently.

TheSavageDragon posted...

That's my experience with recent African immigrants as well. They're always on the phone at night, always on speaker and I don't think they even need the phone as they speak loud enough to hear them several countries over.

I've had that back in North London. The only difference was there were other loud neighbours. We had a bunch of Polish people on the street with their kids constantly in the front garden.

Google Japan Ombudsman System

TC, how did you end up moving to Japan? Did you find a job that gives you a work visa?

He's outside again. God he talks so fucking loud and on speaker phone >_>

Holy_Cloud105 posted...

TC, how did you end up moving to Japan? Did you find a job that gives you a work visa?

Yup

SpiritSephiroth posted...

And the us versus them mentality is with every culture.

I've observed this on a lesser scale in the Philippines and Singapore.

SpiritSephiroth posted...

I usually classed many people as foreigners and immigrants back in London >_>

And the us versus them mentality is with every culture. I don't know why people single out Japan or Koreans for this. Go to a majority of any country and their families will see the foreigner as an outsider, no matter what you do. It happens in other Asian countries like Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, even African families do the same for white people.

Yeah you may see the occasional "White foreigner in country" video where they bend over backwards for them, but thats to keep to their values of treating guests like King. Get deeper into the levels of family and community, and they will definitely be treated differently. Trust me, I'm Asian and I know this on a fundamental level.

Its not just a Japanese or Korean thing and its kinda annoying people just keep pointing those two cultures out as if they're the only ones that do it. Hell, the only reason why its not seen more in the publics eyes in places like America or Britain is because those countries are more multicultural now due to their more relaxed borders and people's desire to live in a first world western country. But I guarantee you, put a black family into a gentrified neighbourhood or vice versa in the west, and see how they're looked at differently.

What's your ethnic country out of curiousity?