Aug 24, 2018
The tale of the newspaper salesman
We had a guy come to our door yesterday trying to sell newspaper subscriptions. Fairly normal and benign, right?
He opens the door, takes one look at my husband, and says in Japanese..."oh...you're foreigners...so I guess you can't read the newspaper anyway".
Excuse me?!
Now look, he may have been accurate if he was talking to me, but my husband answered the door, spoke to him in Japanese, and for the record can read the language just fine.
Have you ever had experiences in Japan where generalizations have ticked you off?
2 Comments
edthethe
on Aug 24
So many times. There was a funny video about this where a group of non Asians were trying to order and the only Asian looking one couldn't speak Japanese, the rest were fluent. The server still only talked to the Asian looking one. It was a funny skit.
Lyssays
on Aug 30
Many times! Admittedly, I never want their Japanese newspapers anyway, so the quick "AH NIHONGO GA YOMENAI NE" actually suits me well, but I get so tired of the assumptions.