Comments by "Yo2" (@yo2trader539) on "TAKASHii"
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@misakamisaka7203 It really depends on your line of work. Most international students who graduated from Japanese universities will have N1. Many students who have studied Japanese or Japan Studies in the former Soviet Union, Mongolia, Taiwan, South Korea, or the UK achieve N2 by the time they graduate. In terms of living in Japan, N2 will be more than enough to get by for daily life.
However, if your work requires you to read and write at a professional level, N1 will not be sufficient either. (N1 is about junior/senior high school level fluency for a native speaker.) When you have to read and write business proposals, contracts, manuals, or administrative documents...it's actually not an easy task for native speakers too. Each field has unique technical jargon and qualifications that need to be specifically studied and understood.
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My English professor back in college used to say that read if you wish to write, and listen if you wish to speak. Language learning is everything from reading your favorite novels to listening to your favorite musicians to watching your favorite movies.
Both the Korean and American girls speak in a certain manner that makes native speakers realize they are fluent. That only happens because they read, watch, and listen to the same Japanese YouTubes, TVs, music, newspaper, or novels that native speakers do. Their word choice, pause between words, intonation, expressions, and mannerism is near native. Actually, I suspect the Korean girl was partially raised/educated in Japan.
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There is a translation issue, since "Japanese" can mean both ethnicity and nationality. In the most narrow definition, when we say 日本人, it refers to people with Japanese citizenship. So we don't call Nikkei-Brazilians, Peruvians, Americans, Canadians, Colombians, Mexicans, Bolivians, Argentine...as 日本人. Rather, we use 日系人, and we differentiate them with Japanese citizens who live overseas, who are referred to as "邦人" by the Japanese government and media.
Children of Japanese nationals who were born/raised overseas are not considered foreigners, provided that they receive Japanese education. But even if both of your parents were from Japan, if you don't have Japanese citizenship, you're legally a foreign-national (or 外国人) in Japan. And in Japanese media and government, it's common practice for names of Nikkei-jin to be written in Katakana instead of Kanji. This rule also applies to those who have emigrated abroad and lost Japanese citizenship. (Japanese citizenship is automatically revoked when that person obtains a foreign citizenship.)
In terms of ancestry, there is no doubt you are Japanese. But having Japanese ancestry is not the same as being 日本人 in the Japanese language. For most people in Japan, being "Japanese" means sharing a language, culture, values, norms, history, and identity. As such, if you're fluent in Japanese language and culture, it would be impossible for a Japanese person to consider you as a fellow Japanese. There are many Nikkei-Jin who adapt to Japan and naturalize to Japanese citizenship too.
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@arturohull14161 We do see a clear behavioral and mindset difference with foreigners who are accepted by Japanese society and those who get rejected. You're not wrong about cultural compatibility.
The more traditional, socially conservative, responsible, and educated segment will feel comfortable living in Japan, since their behavior mannerism tend to align with Japanese preferences. So it's not a surprise that some people from Eastern Europe and Russia find it far easier to assimilate and integrate with Japan than liberal/woke people from Western Europe, Australia, or North America.
Frankly, we find some Americans to be loud, disturbing, and disgusting with their behavior and mindset. And Americans are seen as quiet, introverted, and reserved in some Latin American countries, which should tell you how Latinos will feel or be perceived in Japan. But we have see Italians and French who have mastered Japanese language, culture, and mannerism and have integrated with Japan.
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@sharoneicher4131 Acceptance in Japan entirely depends on the person, education, upbringing, mindset, mannerism, etc. And an American perspective is rather useless for Japan, as your country was founded as a European transplant colony by eradicating the indigenous people, you mostly inherited British language/culture/customs/religion/education/history, and most of your ancestors are foreigners/immigrants in the past few centuries. In contrast, the first people who settled in Japan are from 40,000-50,000 years ago.
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I believe the best method is still to have both parents talk to the children in their own languages...only in their respective languages, because it's really tragic if your children cannot communicate directly with all of their grandparents, cousins, uncles/aunts, etc.
If there is a Japanese school in your neighborhood, please make sure they attend it on Saturdays. It will impact their future. The focus is always about expanding the possibilities of your children's future. Building a foundation of both French and Japanese when they're young, so that when they actually start studying it will be easier to master.
Naturally, fluency in language is just an entry-level problem, because the real challenge will be how to make them bi-cultural, so they will be completely accepted as natives in both French and Japanese societies. The brutal reality is you're neither useful to France nor Japan, if you're not perfectly fluent in both languages and cultures. So a fully-French person who has studied Japanese in highschool and university is more valuable to both France and Japan, than a Half-Japanese/French person who only knows one language.
I cannot speak for the "identity" issue because this will depend on where your children grow up. Growing up Half-French Half-Japanese in Japan is a very different experience from growing in France or even third-country like Singapore or the UK. As you're probably aware, there are many Half-French celebrities in Japan.
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Central Asia to Russia to some parts in Eastern Europe...they all have varying degree of Eurasian genetic mixture, since people have migrating in all directions for thousands of years. But they are in their countries and cultures. I find it confusing that half-Japanese kids who are not raised in Japan, never received formal Japanese education, and aren't fluent in Japanese language and culture...somehow expect that they will be treated the same as locals. Does an Italian American assume he/she will be viewed as an Italian in Italy? How can you be Japanese if you don't the share the language, culture, norms, history, mannerism, and identity with the rest of population. And yes, we have had many famous half-Japanese celebrities, politicians, athletes, etc.
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For us, it's not about whether you're half or not, it's about how you're raised. The famous Yokozuna TAIHO was half-Ukrainian, Gold Medalist MUROFUSHI Koji is half-Romanian, DARVISH Yu is half-Iranian, and Governor of Okinawa TAMAKI Denny is half-American.
There are many half/mixed people who are successful and well-respected in Japan. And nobody would consider them to be foreigners or outsiders because they were raised in Japan, educated in Japan, and behave/think like the rest of us. (We also have naturalized politicians who have no Japanese heritage like ARIFYA Eli who is half-Uyghur and half-Uzbek...but again she has Japanese mannerism and identity because she went to Japanese school in Japan.)
Conversely, even if both of your parents are from Japan...if you were not raised in Japan or attended Japanese school overseas, you will not be considered ethnically Japanese by most people, because the language/culture fluency is missing. In a way, we can sense who is Japanese and who is not from mannerism, behavior, mindset, etc. The way we talk, walk, sit, laugh...everything is different.
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@Motivational-Mango I beg to differ. It really depends on the cultural upbringing and education. We have half-Japanese politicians, athletes, celebrities, etc...but they're treated Japanese because they share Japanese language, culture, mannerism, and identity.
Some Japanese people are also really sensitive with labeling and identity. They fear that "hafu" implies that they're not real Japanese or won't be full members of Japanese society. Some people like "double," others like "mixed." Interestingly we never use "hybrids."
The reason why Japanese media tend to use "hafu" instead of "mixed" is because historically it had the same connotation as a "pure breed" vs "mixed-breed or mutt." These days people tend to avoid using "Mixed-breed" or "Mixed-blood" because it sounds derogatory, but "Thoroughbred" is still used in every-day Japanese language to mean "pure" outside of the context of horse-breeding.
And things got increasingly more complicated after Citizenship laws changed in 1985 because children of foreign fathers were also issued Japanese citizenship. Before that only children of Japanese fathers were legally and socially Japanese, while children of foreign fathers were legally foreigners (unless they come from single mother families). The classification was clear and simple; they were foreign-nationals with Japanese mothers. But when legal boundaries were revised, I think media/society started using "half" to refer to the half/mixed kids with Japanese citizenship.
To be honest, I don't remember Japanese kids with Taiwanese, Korean, or Chinese mothers to referred as "mixed blood." So I think it only referred to as biracial kids.
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I know many foreigners with N1 level fluency. Social acceptance and integration is entirely based on ones's personality, mannerism, mindset, skill-set, education, etc. Being fluent in a language is only a bare minimum to survive in any society.
I have a friend with whom I went to highschool and university. She's ethnically Russian & Ukrainian and was educated in Japan. Her parents speak to her in Russian, but she speaks to her parents in Japanese, as she's a native speaker. She'll always be accepted in Japan because she understands Japanese language, culture, history, traditions, customs, mindset, and mannerism, etc....like any other local. Her parents both teach at university in Japan, and her entire family is now naturalized Japanese citizens.
I suspect the primary reason why you're rejected by Japanese people has very little to do with your Japanese fluency. It's how you carry yourself, dress, talk, walk, sit, eat, and think. In case you don't know, we've always had naturalized citizen serving as elected officials. They're not native speakers. But they have assimilated culturally and integrated socially, which is why people are comfortable enough to vote for them.
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