羽之助の帝紀

Sunday, October 16, 2005

Silly Patriotism and Don't Call Me Gaijin 馬鹿な愛国心と「外人」と言うな

It's stupid. And perhaps the horrible thing is, I know it's stupid.But I feel a twinge of pride when I see Canadian meat products for sale at Saty, the supermarket that I live beside. And I buy it. And I make yakisoba from it. And it is good.

馬 鹿だ。そして、一番悪い感じは、馬鹿だと知っている。しかし、僕が隣に住んでいるサティと呼ぶスーパーでカナダの肉の発売を見ると、なんか愛国の感じが 出る。そして買う。それからは焼きそばを作る。それで美味しい。By the way, I think the still-present self-sufficiency policy is stupid. By allowing in foreign food products, yes Japan's farmers will go bankrupt, but the consumer will save so much money that they can pour it into investments and make Sony and the electronics companies once again able to compete with impunity.

ところが、まだ生きている自給自足政策も白痴だと思う。外国の食品の輸入を許したら、日本の農家が倒れるけど、消費者はお金が一杯留まれるようになるので沢山投資してソニーとかその他の電器会社がまた罰を受けずに競争できるようになるはずだ。
Oh wait, no, they would just spend it on Louis Vuitton bags and designer Playboy shirts for their kids. So all the extra cash would go to France and Hefner. Not that that's inherently a bad thing, just self-defeating.
あ、待って、違うね。留まって金は必ずルイ・ヴィトンの鞄と子供の為のプレイボーイのシャツで使う。それで留まった金がフランスとヘフナーに行く。ま、本来は悪い事ではないけど、自滅的だ。

I also found this candy for sale. But I suppose it really isn't candy. It must be the opposite of candy. この硬菓子も見つけた。でも実は硬菓子じゃないでしょうね。硬菓子の逆でしょう。
One thing that Japanese kids do, especially the younger ones, is mob you. Japanese children are by the by more physical, or perhaps they are simply allowed to act out natural physical instincts. In any case they are not deterred by someone such as me towering over them. They will swarm and fight over who gets to hold the white teacher's hand. These seven-year-old girls all went nuts when I took a picture of them. I also received a purikura from one girl that I randomly met in the grocery store. Japan's hope is its children - up until they hit junior high, it seems.

特 に若い日本人の子供達がする事は僕に流れ込む事だ。日本人の子供達が大体もっと肉体的に遊ぶ、それとも世界中の子供達の皆の自然的で肉体的な本能は社会に 許されている。取り合えず僕みたいな背が高い人が居ると全然困ってない。誰が白人の先生の手を握ると皆が群がって喧嘩する。この七歳の女子達が写真を撮る 時発狂した。後は偶然的にスーパーで会った女子の生徒からプリクラをもらった。日本の将来は子供達だーま、中学校に入る前に、かな。

After the merger, I've got some really crazy coworkers. One girl just says Iyeyeyeyeye whenever something goes wrong and the sound is hilarious. They will also insert English into their conversation for no reason. I learned a new word for stupid from them - あんぽんたん。

合併後は本当に変な同僚達がいる。一人の女の人が間違えする時か唯したい時に「イエイエイエイエイエ」と言うし音は爆笑させる。そしたたまに会話に英語の単語を理由なしで入れる。新しい「馬鹿」の意味の単語も習ったー安本丹。

And now we come to the second half of this article - Don't Call Me Gaijin. The word gaijin is not used very much anymore, except by people who hear it for the first time. Gaikokujin is now the preferred word, but I don't like this either. Reinforces the in-out relationship that Japan has with the world. After all, in Canada you don't refer to non-Canadians as 'foreigners' all the damn time. Just "Chinese" or "Australian" or whatever. It would just lump everybody together into the same group when we are in fact all different. Still, as I said before you don't hear it much anymore. Actually, one day when I was at the School of No Discipline one girl said 'Whoa, a foreign teacher!' and another girl actually whapped her and said 'Don't say that, it's rude!' which made me rather happy. If I had a choice, I would like to be referred to as Canadian, or at least 'that white guy'. In my case, perhaps people should call me the Ketoujin, or Hairy Barbarian Foreigner.

よー し、只今よりこの記事の後半に着いたー「外人を言うな!」。「外人」はもうあまり聞かないけど、時々「外人」と 初めて聞く人がよく使うけどさ(僕も初 めて日本語を勉強する時は使っていた)。今は「外国人」が進まれているけどその名称もあまり好きじゃない。日本と世界の内・外関係を強化するだけだね。カ ナダで外国人をあまり「外国人」と名称しないでしょうね。ただ「中国人」か「オーストラリア人」とか。「外国人と言ったら皆が一つの団体に入るみたい;で も、皆は個人的に違う。ま、もう「外人」とあまり聞かないって言ったでしょう。実は無規律小学校に居る時、一人の女子が「あ!外人の先生を見て!」と言っ たけど、隣の女子小生が「何を言ってるの?失礼だよ!」と言ってから翌の子を打った!悪いけど僕はちょっと嬉しかった(笑)。選択が有れば、「カナダ人」 か「あの白人」と呼ばれて欲しいと思う。ま、僕の場合なら「毛唐人」は適当かな(笑)。

So what else is up? Well, the Minister for the Interior Asou Tarou said that Japan was made up of one people, one language, ein fuhrer. The Ainu, Zainichi Koreans, naturalized Japanese (i.e. Arudou Debito) don't count as 'real' Japanese, I guess.
じゃ、最近の他の面白い事?ま、麻生太郎総務相が「(日本は)一国家、一文明、一言語、一文化、一民族。ほかの国を探してもない」と発言した。一民族、一言語、エイン・フューラー。アイヌ、在日韓国人、帰化した日本人(例えば有道出人)はホンモノの日本人じゃないかな。

I found this amusing story about a woman who brought her dog onto a subway in Korea, and it shit on the floor, and she didn't clean it up. Just got off at the next stop. The dog thing is prevalent in Japan too.
韓国で或る女の人が小犬を地下鉄で連れてきて犬が大便してから全然片付けなかったの記事を見つけた。ただ次の駅で降りた。小さな犬を持つ事は日本でも多い。

Got more to say, but it'll have to wait for another day! もっと言いたいけど他の日までお待ち下さい!

3 Comments 論評:

  • Your blog gives me a reason to wake up in the morning. Keep on truckin'

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 10/19/2005 1:30 PM  

  • Oh, don't you worry. And the countdown to your return is ticking.

    By Blogger 羽之助, at 10/19/2005 5:44 PM  

  • Yeah, the dogshit girl! She was all over the internet, poor girl dropped out of her university she was so humiliated.

    still, what a dumbass.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 10/20/2005 2:07 AM  

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