Ok, from reading everyone’s responses, I have come to realize I did an absolutely terrible job explaining what I am going to do at school in my last post.
So basically the structure of the lesson is like this
Present a story of a situation that seems totally harmless to a Japanese person, but could actually be perceived as offensive by a foreign person.
Then ask the students why someone might be offended.
Then explain a little. Then move on to the next thing
I used “nihongo jouzudesune” in my last post, just as a quick example of something simple and patronizing that could annoy some people. But a more in-depth explanation of what I want to tell my students is, saying things like that, is absolutely fine. I live and work as a regular “Japanese English Teacher” (who isn’t Japanese, but you get what I mean) so I read,write, and speak Japanese more than I speak English now…..and I don’t give a fuck when someone says Nihongo Jouzudesune because I said konnichiwa
The simplest thing I want to point out is, stereotyping people can be hurtful.
And one example of a thing that DOES bother me after living here for 10 years is conversations like this
Japanese person: So do you like sushi?
Me: No, I don’t really like fish.
Japanese: Ah of course, Americans really do only eat meat.
Me: No, I personally don’t like fish, the vast majority of my American friends, do in fact eat sushi
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Basically, I (and I think most people) don’t like having my personal identity erased, and every single thing about me being interpreted as ‘The American Way’
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Anyways right now, here are some scenarios I am thinking of presenting the kids
A – ALT walks into a classroom with a half Russian/Japanese student and 4-5 other Japanese students. The Japanese students all look at the half Russian student and say “come on, speak English, look he’s a foreigner too, come on speak English!” half student gets embarassed/annoyed – Why do you think so?
B – The situation I just mentioned up there, about saying everything I do “must be because I am American”
C – Explaining crime rate of foreigners in Japan vs Japanese in Japan. But what I want to explain isn’t “SEE, JAPANESE PEOPLE ARE DANGEROUS” what I want to explain is “You know how hard it is to get a visa to come here? You think I am going to piss away my entire life, job, family, and get deported back to America just to steal a fuckin bicycle?” (I have been accused of stealing bicycles many, many times.)
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Let me know what you think, and if you have any other ideas, I probably have enough time in the lesson for a fourth scenario.
Also the grade that will be doing this lesson is 中3
27 comments
Stinky Ojisan comes on the train, foreigner gets blamed.
Someone farts, silent but stinky, foreigner gets blamed.
If this is the Jackie Robinson text … something I found really helpful for a warmup (a few years ago) was downloading the movie trailer for the Jackie Robinson movie. I told the students to watch the trailer, and asked them a few questions. Starting soft.
1) What’s something you SAW in this trailer? Anything is okay. (“Baseball! Jackie Robinson! Baseball player! Lady! Punch!” Etc.)
2) What’s something that SURPRISED you?
3) Why?
The trailer is only 2ish minutes, this worked well with playing it twice, but the shock of having things translated from the textbook to actual violence and danger and a threatened riot shocked and really hit home for a lot of the students. The trailer includes some violence and signs saying “whites only” etc, so the students themselves will pick up these racist moments and generate some dialogue about it. You might be able to transition (depending on your class’ general willingness to engage of course) to defining racism and asking them “What racist things do you think happen in Japan?” Before transitioning to your lesson.
I think making people understand that generalizations are harmful is a good start. There are many subtle and overt ways foreigners are discriminated against so I’m sure you’ll be able to think of scenarios for rp/work sheets etc
A big one for me is not being able to find somewhere to live
It has to be things people say, only? Otherwise my first example again. People moving on the train when I sit next to them.
To be honest teaching this topic sounds like it could end up as an absolute shitshow. Even if you somehow manage to pull this lesson off coherently you really need to think about how the students will react to it and also if they tell anyone outside of the classroom who might also throw a hissy fit later.
Hmm conversation wise, as an Asian American, I get a lot of “you don’t look American.” I find offense in this a lot but just usually try to shrug it off now.
Edit: To add more context, the conversation usually goes like this:
(Meet new person at some meet up event and introduce each other in English)
Me: Hi, my name is XXX. Nice to meet you.
Them: Oh wow! Your English is *so* good!
Me: Uh, thanks? I’m actually from US State so yeah I’m American.
Them: Heeeeeh, you don’t look American!
So, while people don’t seem to think it’s a harmless thing, yeah it can be pretty annoying. Again I’ve learn to not take it personally.
Emphasizing that a “half Japanese” child is still 日本人 because Japanese is a *nationality* and there is no such thing as “half a citizen” is something you can do, too. Like, calling them a “half student” is honestly just so weird. I know everyone on this sub insists their children LOVE being called “halfs,” but my kids found it insulting and hurtful. The kid is just Japanese, and it’s kinda odd that schools aren’t teaching kids that.
Re: generalizations, this is a tough one because generalizations are necessary for human speech – e.g., “The sky is blue” is a general statement. General statements can be ok, it’s ok to ask something like, “In America, do a lot of people eat rice?” But “Ah, yes, you’re the way you are because of course all Americans do not eat fish” is weird. *Over*generalizations or *unfair* generalizations are what you need to avoid, and there’s a balance to be struck there.
Something my wife has pointed out is that people are straight up rude to her when they find out her husband is an immigrant. They ask questions they would absolutely never ask someone with a Japanese husband. So one angle to approach is, “Is this a polite question? Why do you think it’s ok to ask *this* person?” The *vast* majority of things immigrants complain about are straight up inappropriate *in Japanese culture,* and don’t even have anything to do with racial differences.
For sure housing. I was turned down for multiple apartments solely because I’m foreign despite speaking Japanese fluently. Sat beside the real estate guy calling landlords, awkwardly explaining I “don’t have a Japanese passport” and being turned down because of that.
Well how about Japanese supremacy? Like how Japanese people have some supernatural, mythical abilities that foreigners just don’t have that makes them “special”. “Four distinct seasons” “nihonjinron” etc.
I would use examples so that they can actually understand. For example, if they go abroad and are asked, “Can you eat bread?” It’s not a big problem, but it can become annoying when asked many times, especially because bread is common in Japan. People may come up to them and say hello in Chinese, which may make them feel uncomfortable because they are not Chinese and do not speak that language. These kinds of examples are usually a bit better in helping them actually understand.
> The simplest thing I want to point out is, stereotyping people can be hurtful.
I believe when you’re 15 or so and the only foreigners you’ve actually ever had a conversation with are probably teachers, stereotyping is all you got. Those kids have got a really small sample size to work with, so assuming everyone is like that becomes natural. Best you can do in this scenario is get them to think a bit more openly, but I don’t think that realistically anyone is going to have a eureka moment unless you are extremely charismatic and the kids adore you.
The example you gave of sushi: would you consider that “hurtful”? I wouldn’t. It’s a casual comment from someone who had zero intention to cause harm and just doesn’t know any better. If something like that had any effect on me I’d probably be spending a lot of my time unhappy for no good reason.
It’s a difficult subject. A lot of racism here is institutional and criticizing institutions prone to racism like the police in the classroom is not going to go well.
If you need further examples of racism in Japan, former resident Debito has a ton on his website:
http://www.debito.org
Idk if it’s cause we’re asian but we noticed that my SO who has native level japanese rarely gets Nihongo jozu, while my not so great Japanese gets jozu somewhat often.
When someone finds out my SO isn’t Japanese it’s often met with confusion or amazement, followed by questions like “how’s your japanese so good”, “how long did you study Japanese for”, “are you a hāfu”, etc.
While people we know would occasionally pop comments like “wow! You actually know how to use that phase.”, “how do you even know how to write this kanji?”, “I forgot you’re not actually Japanese” but almost never a simple jozu.
I also noticed while learning something at work, I sometimes get jozu if I can do it but not well. But if I do something really well or perfectly on my first try, I don’t get jozu. Instead I get “yaru janai ka!”, “Yoku yatta”, “is this really your first time?”
It feels like jozu is like a light praise and is used more like “well done” than ” holy shit, that was awesome!” or “good job” rather than “you nailed it!”
I’ve lost count of the times when I’ve explained that I’m… just … me. I don’t represent any country or organisation. Just by the fact that I’m in Japan doesn’t make me a typical example of a my nationality.
If I give an opinion, it’s my opinion. And, more importantly, if a westerner on tv gives an opinion, that’s their opinion. I might agree with it or I might disagree with it. Just because we have the same tone of skin doesn’t mean we agree with each other.
My kids are half-black, but born and raised in Japan. Socially they’re 100% Japanese, but ethnically they don’t look it, which I guess get magnified anytime they’re out without their mother.
I went out with both kids separately this weekend. Each day was filled with Japanese people simply assuming that we were all foreigners who couldn’t speak Japanese, and bending over backwards to try and speak broken English to the kids, or going into “I can’t speak English!” panic mode and not even addressing them directly.
I talked to both of them separately about it, and they both said “It’s okay, we’ve gotten used to it.”
Imagine being born and raised in a country that treats you different from everyone else just because you don’t look the same. That’s racism. It’s not malicious. It’s not full of hate. But it’s still racism. And when I have this conversation with a Japanese person, a lot of the time they’ll try to explain it away/justify it. Oh, it’s actually the person being nice, trying to accommodate. It is still a snap judgment on who a person is and what they are/can do based on nothing other than what they look like. And in the case of my kids, it’s a wrong call.
Maybe explain to them that white people can have a red face for many reasons other then alcohol. Like if it’s hot, cold, sunny, just stood up, just ate something salty, fresh razor blade day, etc. I’m so tired of the assumptions about my ruddy complexion.
Big one that bugs my african friend is that everyone assumes he is American, that he is in the us military, and that his most comfortable language is English(it’s french). Dude is just an otaku who likes hiking and speaks solid Japanese. He did get really happy when we went to a french cafe and the waiter offered him a french menu.
How about that video from way back when the coronus virus panic started and they were telling people why English spread the virus more than Japanese? The one with the tissue and the exaggerated “p”.
> Then ask the students why someone might be offended.
Personally, I *hate* the notion of framing negative responses to stereotypes as “being offended”. Stereotypes do harm. Stereotypes disrespect the people being stereotyped. Stereotypes deny the full and complex humanity of the people they stereotype. Framing the problem as “offense” seats the problem in the person reacting to the stereotype. It naturally leads to the defensive response, “you should stop being so easily offended.”
Now I think there’s good reason to believe you won’t even use that word when you’re presenting to 中３ kids anyway because most of kids that age at schools I’m used to wouldn’t know it. But I raise this point to highlight how careful teachers have to be in how they approach this topic.
When I look at your scenarios so far, the thing I notice is that they depend on your students being able to empathize with the victim of stereotyping. Perhaps you’ve taken care to prepare for this and just haven’t communicated about it here. But for example, if the half-Russian student is not popular in your class or if students can’t empathize with your other scenarios, I’m concerned your message is going to fall flat or worse, go in one ear and out the other.
If you’ve never been the victim of a microaggression because you’ve never been a minority in your community, it can be very hard to get why American-sensei is so annoyed about people assuming he loves hamburgers. What’s the big deal?
Of course, inventing a scenario stereotyping the students to get them to understand how it feels would solve this, but that option is fraught as well. Carelessly done, you might end up reinforcing stereotypes or accidentally insult your students, making them defensively hostile to your entire premise.
I think this probably needs so thought and refinement, but the idea that just popped into my head is you pick a stereotypically Japanese hobby or skill: photography, judo, baseball, even kokugo. And you ask everyone in the class to raise their hand if they do it or are good at it, and then dismissively say, “oh, it’s because you’re Japanese.” Then end the scenario, and ask the students how they felt when you said that. Ideally, you’ll have tailored the question to your class, so you can pick out the kid who raised their hand for whatever you asked about who is an absolute fanatic about it and ask them how much time and effort they put into being good at that thing. Probably hours and hours of practice, whatever the thing was. Then ask if you are respecting that effort when you just assumed the skill came from being Japanese.
You could also look at how foreigners are portrayed in Japanese media and fiction. I was watching Sanctuary on Netflix and there’s a character who’s entire personality and reason for being can be summed up as “they’re Black and constantly horny”.
If I were given this assignment, I’d try to connect it as much as possible to their first-hand school environment, their class, and the students themselves in order to humanize and make the subject matter as relatable as possible. I’d also teach this lesson with the aim of opening up greater discussions around power and solutions for generating equality on a local scale with an international awareness in mind. I wish you the best with this material as it’s quite endearing to generate high moral and ethical values within our students, while also being empathetic to the current sociohistorical climate. ✌️
I think you keep conflating cultural ignorance/generalizations and discrimination (+ other things) under racism as an umbrella term. That was what caused the most confusion in your last post and a bit in this current post too.
I think you should teach about not generalizing and learning more about getting to know people individually versus assuming things about them due to their appearance or (possible) culture.
A lot of what you argue as racism falls under ignorance and most children don’t mean to be racist. They just aren’t educated about foreign cultures since it isn’t an overwhelming presence here.
If I had the chance to do this – I would use the difference to enlighten them on Nationality and Ethnicity.
In Australia for example – you can be any ethnicity- and be an Australian – because being an Australian is a nationality.
In countries like Japan the word Japanese is inextricably linked to race/ethnicity. Whereas in the rest of the western world we hav adopted an idea of nationality seperate to race.
Japan needs this shift if they are to overcome their society wide inbuilt racism.
I think structuring what racism is and how the definition changed in times is a good start. Many Japanese people think “there is no racism in Japan” because when they think of “racism”, they think *aggressive racism* like “whites only” “blacks to the back of the bus” in USA back in the day. Or hate crimes. These things still happen in Japan (as with anywhere else) but not widespread and the average Japanese person would be against it.
However things that have slight racist overtones in the west now probably were not perceived as such back then. It took time for it to evolve, and Japan is lagging behind. Find some examples suitable for this and explain that maybe in the past people might have found them ok, but nowadays it is not.
Go from there.
I actually had the A situation in elementary school when I was an ALT; a new student joined the class and he was half German half Japanese (and basically looked “white”). He got really embarrassed because all the kids assumed he could speak English and tried to make him speak it during English class. The home room teacher and I spun it around into a lesson about the world, different countries have different languages, but we also have things in common. Kids around the world love soccer, love cartoons etc. I told them I watched Pokémon on tv as a kid and we joked about the different Pokémon names etc. Took the focus off the kid and put it on me and warmed up the kids to the idea that we all have things in common.
I personally wouldn’t mention crime or other negative things, if the kid goes back and tells their parents that Japanese people are criminals (because you know if things can be misinterpreted they will) then it’s gonna be bad.
I still find it hilarious you think “nihongo yozudesune” is patronizing lol, I don’t think many Japanese understand what being patronizing is nor I believe they are being patronizing, just ignorant. Many of the post I’ve read have been mostly people getting their feelings hurt rather than blatant racism such as someone lashing out at you for being foreign or telling you to go back to where you come from.
I’ve experienced racism in the US for example(I’m Swiss Japanese) people often told me to “go back to Mexico”, “did you get here illegally?”, “Do you pay taxes?”, “Speak English this is murrica”, now that’s racism. I’m fluent in Spanish, I have brown hair and a fairly tanned skin but in Japan people think I’m from Okinawa and out of my many years here, I’ve mostly experienced xenofobia rather than racism.
Maybe the definition of racism to some people is different to others but in Japan I find xenophobia being the main issue and there are plenty of very ignorant Japanese people. What people don’t talk about is racism in the foreign community which I think it’s probably more harmful than a random Japanese not sitting next you in the train, and I know that’s not the topic of your thread but you wanna explain racism that’s a good place to start.
When Obama became the president fella of the Americans, I recall that the mayor(?) of Obama celebrated by getting blacked up and celebrating.
Folks here might not have seen the harm, but black folks in America might not have thought it in good taste.
This type of caricature could possibly be compared with the “Slap a Jap” propaganda from WWII. Not sure.