love this. it’s so perfect.
I went to Japan on an independent study abroad to work on a farm one season many years ago. legit the only way I could afford to go was institutional affiliation and winning a big scholarship that covered airfare. I crammed some conversational Japanese the in the month prior, but otherwise was flying blind. total immersion works lol.
spent 99% of my time in a rural context, working outdoors in small teams and I had plenty of experience doing that already, including in cases with a language barrier so I knew what vocab to pick up. so I speak caveman Japanese and can’t read except like two kanji. I can verbally communicate basics, goof around, and make dumb jokes though.
before I left to go there, I knew this dude who had done a foreign exchange program for a year in high school and then some kind of long term language-cuktural exchange program in college. guy was fluent as hell had a very nuanced take on Japan.
he was excited like hell for me to go there and be there for a while, working, but warned me that when I got back, I would finally understand how intolerable weebs are, with their fixation on obscure cultural artifacts and totally non-functional, child-like, but extremely confident misunderstanding of life in Japan.
I remember thinking it was an odd thing to warn about, but Jesus… it’s so weird and lame how fixated some anglos are on some stuff. it all came into sharp focus when I was actually back and having to witness it. like sure, I wanted to be a ninja and jump kick everything with the honor of my grandfather… when I was 9. the way some people keep that vibe going into their 40s is extremely weird. it still throws me every time I see it.
This is just a yeehaw version of the ken-sama copypasta btw https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/ken-sama
https://hexbear.net/comment/5862507
The Weeaboo does not realize the Japanese also look down on their interests the same way Americans do, except the Japanese are too polite to say anything.
I feel like I see that cringe on here at times as well.
Japan is still Wakanda for white people but I think the sustained ridicule of weebs over the past decade or two has contributed to a sharp decline in Ken-Sama types. That and the huge boost in tourism in the past few years have made it much less of a mysterious, “exotic” place, a lot more people have firsthand experience that it’s a normal country with normal people like any other.
the huge boost in tourism in the past few years … it’s a normal country with normal people like any other
However, when going to Japan, you’re the customer/guest with high forms of honorifics (o-kyaku-sama), so a lot of problems just aren’t really visible to tourists.
I’m imagining Ameriboos using the Marlboro man as profile picture and typing racial slurs for people from countries that don’t even exist anymore
John Wayne pfp calling Irish people “micks”
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I moved outta the heartland this last year to a part of the country without those affectations and find myself throwing in a “yeehaw” whenever where I came from comes up.
gets a laugh like a quarter of the time. Lord, beer me strength.
I prefer sapukays
Okay I unironically want that eagle blanket though
Not a good look, mate
You’re gonna get Gen Z’d bro
Wait. What do you guys dream about?
Edit: yeehaw.
Moe Szyzlak (i have to be the first to make this joke)
yyyyyyyeehaw
Miss Naddy?
