Being Japanese in a foreign country

It doesn't matter where you're from as long you are a visible minority in a foreign country...you are most likely to be asked silly questions in regards to your culture, your language, your traditions.  I call them "silly" questions now because, well, they are, and because I have stopped getting weirded out and hurt by some of the questions and comments.  

The fact is they don't know any better, therefore they ask.  And rather, I appreciate now that they ask me directly then to assume and judge otherwise.

Amongst many I have been asked and commented...here are a few of the silliest ones:

●  "Japanese, Chinese, Korean,...you guys speak the same language right?"

In response to my "no" answer..."what? Really? I had no idea!. They all sound the same."

● There was a little Korean boy who was crying hysterically at school.  When there were no traces of tears falling down his face, one adult in regards to that asked me, "I think he's Korean...or however you want to call him...you Asians don't have tear ducts? Is it a common thing amongst Asians not to shed tears?". 

I replied, "No we do tear up, tears do fall and we do cry", to which he responded, " Oh okey, I thought you guys were made differently".

● As I commented on a nice bathroom decoration at someone's house, this gentlemen responded, " Oh you Japanese people love to snoop around, right!"

● Do you guys put chopsticks into your hair bun after eating the food?

Hummmm.....silly right?...I know. :)

There are more.  And yah, they are just funny and silly.  

I do have to say, that with this Asian trend widely spreading thanks to the Internet, like anime, films and food, silly questions have subsided tremendously.  I think people are much more educated and aware nowadays.

Before, it was all new to them.  Heck, it was all new to me to be growing up in a country where all things normal for me was questioned and looked at funny by others...like using chopsticks, for example,  was so unfamiliar back in the day when I was a kid is now a habit pretty much everyone has grown accustomed to.

With this experience I, too, am extremely careful as to what I ask and to whom. 

Appreciating a culture is something we should all do.  We all do things differently and that's okey.

And it's okey to ask. ♥ 

It's okey to study, to learn, to question, to be curious.  

It's never okey to question through your assumtion and to judge based only on your imagination.

xo