JJapanese

Can someone please help me explain to this dude that there is nothing offensive about the word “gaikokujin”?

I’m using romaji because it’s a bit quicker. Anyway, this Internet random keeps insisting that words like “gaikokujin” or “Amerikajin” should be “gaikokuhito” or “Amerikahito” because “jin” has negative connotations. As far as I know, this person is completely wrong but absolutely won’t listen to reason.

22 comments

  1. Don’t bother arguing with an idiot: they will drag you down to their level and beat you with their experience.

    The guy is simply wrong, and he’ll find this out when I tries to use these fake invented words in Japan or with Japanese people.

    You can’t fix stupid.

    Roll your eyes and move on.

  2. How about telling them that 日本人 (にほんじん) is neutral word for Japanese?

    also, you need の for 外国の人 (がいこくのひと) and アメリカの人 (あめりかのひと) if you want to read 人 as ひと.

  3. So you’re going to spend your time trying to convince a random person on the internet of something they don’t want to believe?

    Why?

  7. Totally anecdotal but I would say that I think if the question were explicitly asked, amerikabito (amerika no hito) does sound more respectful than amerikajin in a casual sense, but also… who the hell says that lol. Is there a possible future where that usage becomes normal? Maybe.

    But honestly the argument itself is pretty ethnocentric to the US.

    As a side note, “gaijin” (lit. outsider) can definitely be used distastefully, while “gaikokujin” is more respectful. What he might be talking about is as an extension of “kaigai no hito/kata” which is the most respectful and I think has seen more usage lately (honestly I prefer it, but I ain’t gonna correct nobody lol). The whole thing with “gaijin/gaikokujin” is that it has an (or at least lately, has come to have an) exclusionistic connotation (within the social groups I interact with), whereas “kaigai” is less “not from here” and more “across the seas”.

    Again, it’s neccesary to be aware that a lot of us young Americans have been brought up to recognize “discrimination”, so we’re a lot more sensitive I think to this kind of language usage on average than a Japanese person may be. Just because you’re not a native speaker, doesn’t mean that you’re not allowed to have opinions on the language and how it is used. Naturally, people are going to differ.

    Thing is, language continously evolves so it’s difficult to say what will or won’t happen.

    Personally I hate woke/appropriation/cancel culture with a passion. A healthy dose of cultural *awareness* is fine, too much is oppressive.

  8. So, I’m a native and have tried to convince people from other countries that gaikokujin or even gaijin is not an offensive word. These people are convinced they are and it’s no use arguing with this type of people.

    Though I would like to believe most Japanese people are sincerely friendly towards people who are from other countries, I have seen some Japanese being offensive towards them. It doesn’t show so much by what words they say, but by their attitude. Any word can become offensive if that’s what you’re trying to do. The government, I think, has been telling Japanese people foreigners take offence to the word gaijin, so many people have changed to using gaikokujin. It’s kind of like how they changed the sign for Buddhist temples. They’ve had to change words as well to make peace with some people’s ignorance.

    It’s sad but I recommend you follow the advice by the others and leave that guy to deal with it.it’s not worth your time and effort to try to change his opinions.

  9. well, narcissists tend to try to correct people AND won’t listen to shit. And narcissists are twits for the most part.

  10. He may be trolling you. I once had an argument with a guy who didn’t want to accept the fact that 恋人 can be translated as boyfriend/girlfriend/lover. He believed this word only refers to a family member.In the end, I just gave up and stopped wasting my time.

  11. You are correct. My ex boyfriend’s sister used to be in a pop band called Gaijin-a-go-go in Tokyo. She is a tall, blonde American. The name was definitely a joke, but it was all in good fun and not derogatory

  13. Ignore the dude. There are millions of people who are wrong on the internet.

  14. I’m caucasian. I lived in Japan for ten years and I speak the language. I have Japanese family. Japanese was my daily language.

    In my experience, “gaijin” is usually derogatory when coming from a stranger. It can even feel racist. Conversely, when coming from drinking buddies, “gaijin” can be a term of endearment, but friends and business relations usually use “gaikokujin” or in fact “gaikokuhito”.

    This is just my experience.

  15. If you want to be polite, you say 外国の方. “Gaikokuhito” sounds like kids’ speech.

  16. Gaikokujin is definitely not an offensive term, but gaijin could be depending on the context (But even so, it’s mild or just a bit cold, perhaps not offensive). The word “Jin” alone has no negative connotations whatsoever.

  17. Haha imagine telling describing a Japanese person as にほんひと to another Japanese person with a straight face. When I was taking Japanese in college the weebs really made the experience a bit difficult at times.

  18. Does anyone remember that David Aldwinckle piece where he argued that gaijin was equivalent to the n-word

  19. Wait till you tell him about the “Alien Registration Card”!

    No, actually, don’t.

  21. The only people who don’t like the term “gaikokujin” are whiney tools who are upset they will never be Japanese.

    It literally means foreigner. That’s it.

    These same tools who e about “ha-fu” as well.

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