Asian Japanese

Asian Japanese Asian Japanese

English, Caucasian faces, and Asian languages

Tiring of work and needing a break, I went out for a drink the other night just to find Fred discoursing as only Fred can. Fresh and wide awake in spite of his recent flight back from America, he was holding court on language choices, ethnicity, Asian languages, and English. Fred was impervious to jetlag, a fate only suffered by others. Having traveled around China, Korea, and other parts of Asia, Fred has watched the same paradigms repeated in different environments: beliefs that we Westerners cannot speak Asian languages, only speaking English, one should always speak English to a Westerner, and Westerners cannot understand the local Asian culture.

This time Fred was going on about a flight he took on Japan Airlines (JAL). Fred spoke Japanese pretty well, and he knew it. He wasn’t offended when Japanese staff at airports and on airlines and such persisted in speaking English to him, even when he spoke Japanese to them and his Japanese was better than their English. Fred just followed a different world view, believing that when people shared two or more common languages they should speak in whatever language offered the maximum understanding to both of them.

Fred’s world view differed from many of the Japanese he met though. They believed that they should soldier on in English, even when Fred’s Japanese was better than their English. Some did this because they liked to speak English, while others thought it was their obligation as people working in the travel service sector with Westerners. Japanese did not all believe this and some would speak Japanese with Fred.

Talking with a fellow expat, Fred was just moving to his key point as I walked in the room. “What is it that makes so many Asians see Caucasian faces and assume that they do not and cannot speak whatever the language of the country is?” I didn’t even try to reply as Fred went on, “Actually an even better question might be what makes many Asians see a Caucasian face and be unable to recognize that they are speaking whatever the language is. I remember once when I was hitchhiking between Tokyo and Osaka and a trucker picked me up. We had been talking for about 10 minutes, in Japanese, when he asked me if I could speak Japanese.”

Fred concluded with a sweep of his hand, “It never fails to blow me away when people have beliefs so strong that they can ignore reality. How could we have talked for 10 minutes in Japanese and the truck driver didn’t figure out what language we were speaking in?” And with that Fred took a large drink of his beer as if he had said everything worth saying.

I had heard his stories before of other Westerners in China and Korea who had had similar experiences. We Westerners all wondered why some Asians didn’t think more before saying things that totally ignored the reality in front of them. I guess it all just comes down to perception. Reality is as you perceive it to be.