Types of Japanese friend

[Thunderbird2 0]

OK this is NOT a bashing thread, K? Not meant to be anyway. Bit of fun. It isn't just a Japn thing, but there are some specific situations here.

 

I'm just a bit sad that someone I thought was a real friend turned out to be pretty much one of those "practising English" friends.

 

So, for a bit of fun, let's listing some common types of friend you get here. Apart from the genuine, real friend of course.

 

1

The "I am your friend because I can practice my English" friend;

 

2

The "It's cool to have a foreign friend" friend.

 

More?

[kintaro 0]

3

It's "cool to be seen snowboarding with a foreign friend" friend.

 

4

It's nice to have a "friend that has more money than me and often buys the lunch - most likely regardless of his nationality friend" friend.

 

*Not joking, I've got a J-friend that is somewhere near 30 years old and claims to only make 2-man per month. He says he's a kohai in a specialty trade. Ever watch that bimbo tv show? He's bound to be on it one of these weeks...

[gamera 0]

5

I am one of your best friend gamera coz while I am with you, I look like nice coz you are a japanese with short legs and a wide face.

 

6

I will never get lost while I am with you gamera coz you read all kanjis in signboards

 

[indosnm 0]

 Quote:

Originally posted by gamera:


6
I will never get lost while I am with you gamera coz you read all kanjis in signboards

Ha!
Take that back!
I wen to Osaka with my J mate and even he got lost on that crazy subway system...

All my J friends are cool regualr people. They don't give a shit about me being a gaijin and they don't give a shit about english.
Personally the "english" school type friends always turned me off as they were just so fake!

[gamera 0]

lol Indosnm, if you got lost on Osaka subway system, you'll definately get lost on Tokyo subway system. Pretty much harder.

[damian 0]

The best friend I have ever made in my entire life is Japanese. I'm pretty happy with that. I think that they are in fact Japanese has a lot to do with it. So there is a sunny side to this 'Japanese friend' thingy.

[Ocean11 0]

"Japanese wives of foreign friends" friends.

 

Sometimes I've sat at parties and gazed around, and all the males are foreign and all the women are Japanese. The weirdness occasionally leaves me speechless. In only maybe one case have I actually had a comfortable conversation with the Japanese wife of a foreign friend.

[misorano 1]

Best J Mates = Rugby team mates

They give you sh_t for being a gaijin, but it's done in the same way as they hassle the young guys and the guy who go the clap 3 times.

Good thing is they can take it as well as dish it out.

 

Only prob is that they are all 20-35 so you have to go to too many damn weddings.

[sakebomb 0]

I have learnt to recognise the "practice my english friends" so I don't deal with that any more.

J friends- drunken sukebe's?

 

 Quote:

They don't give a shit about me being a gaijin and they don't give a shit about english.

And these kind of friends!

[maoriboy 0]

How about the "Im your friend until I find a boy/girlfriend then I wont even return your emails or calls" friend? Had a few of them I have.

and yeah misorano...my Japanese rugby playing friends are the best guys to hang out with.

[Yuki's Passion 1]

My J-mates dont speak English, dont care about speaking it, and probably dont even give a $hit that Im a foreigner...having said that I have a few J-mates who speak really good English but they hardly speak it around me. Ill speak English some and they will for a few mins but would rather save English for foreign women I think...

 

Having said that, I do know the feeling of people wanting to "use" you to speak English. But, how is that different from me wanting to "use" them to speak Japanese...at least that was my thinking 5-7 years ago when I was really making an effort in learning Japanese.

 

Why not speak both with J-mates? If you have to, then ask them to use both or to speak Japanese with you too. Whats the problem?

[scouser 4]

 Quote:

Sometimes I've sat at parties and gazed around, and all the males are foreign and all the women are Japanese.

That sounds interesting. I know a few but not one of my 'genuine' close Japanese friends has a foreign spouse/boyfriend.

[gamera 0]

 Quote:

Originally posted by Ocean11:
"Japanese wives of foreign friends" friends.

Sometimes I've sat at parties and gazed around, and all the males are foreign and all the women are Japanese. The weirdness occasionally leaves me speechless. In only maybe one case have I actually had a comfortable conversation with the Japanese wife of a foreign friend.

Exactly!.
Sometimes I have chances to get in that situation, then I am in most case only J-man and can seldom find any Foreign women there. I feel out of place sometimes especially when I can't follow the English conversation going there. Sometimes I feel as if I were speachless. People speak slow with me, but fast when they speak to other English speaking people which is totally difficult for me to understand.


But I guess it's okay 'cause I am there to enjoy the time, not for a business meeting.

[rach 1]

How about the "wants to sleep with you but isn't too upfront about it but never gets the message and never gives up".

[misorano 1]

 Quote:

People speak slow with me, but fast when they speak to other English speaking people which is totally difficult for me to understand.

Gams:
Usually it's because I don't get to speak English too much and it's great to be able to speak. However I speak much faster to other Kiwis (and Ozzies)than I do to Americans etc.
A couple of Kiwis going with full accent and slang must be almost impossible to understand.

When I first got here I had all sorts of probs with the word "today". All the Japanese would ask "what is todei?".

[gamera 0]

I have less problem with NZ accent, but still have difficulties with OZ accent.

When I had an Auzzie guest for the first time, he told me "I came to Japan today"

but that "today" sounded like "to die" to me whose English base is on American way, so I wondered like

 

"Awwww.. why this person has to die? Please do it somewhere else, not here!"

 

But after a while I talked with him, I learned that was Auzzie way to pronounce "today".

 

I think all [ei] pronounciations turn into [ai] when Australians pronounce them

 

e.g.

 

Maybe --- sounds like Mibi

Eight --- sounds like Height minus H

Baby --- sounds like Bye bee

 

But the hardest problem is I can't pronounce them in Auzzie way.

The other day when I had an Auzzie person as our guest, I had the difficulty again and

asked him to show how to pronounce them. His upper lips got tight and the one edge of the upper lip

got pulled upper towards the cheek when he pronounced ay for "today".

When he pronounced "die", it was like Spanish "doy ( the present form of "Dar　=　to give” for the first person)

 

Hard to explain

[Yuki's Passion 1]

 Quote:

Originally posted by rach:
How about the "wants to sleep with you but isn't too upfront about it but never gets the message and never gives up".

Do you have that problem a lot rach? It must be rough having to beat them off with a stick

[Siren 0]

Jeeze, I didn't know we share something in common, Rach.

 

Some of my Japanese friends are just cool. One of them knows so many lonely, lunch-buying paralegal jokes that it is incredible!

[nagpants 1]

Here's one:

 

The "I hate gaijin and I want to be argumentative with a gaijin" friend.

 

Met a few of them, strange as they are.

[gamera 0]

nagpants, there's someone like that everywhere.

Not friendly, aggressive to anyone anything.

Keep them alone.

[bettyx 0]

how about the 'i'm yr best friend until i find out you have a boyfriend (or girlfriend, as it may be)' ? this happened again on the weekend. had lunch & spent the day with two new friends, both guys, thought it was great as i haven't got many jap guy friends at the moment, and seeing as there was two of them i knew there was no chance of it being mistaken as a date.

 

however, the minute they found out i had a boyfriend (this was after about 5 hours) they both kinda went cold, & since then i haven't heard a word. crazy.

 

& gamera, you've gotta meet some normal australians. sounds like you've only met those from 'the bush'!

[snobee 0]

Gams - those crazee Ozzie accents you're talking about could only come from east coasters (banana benders, sydneyites etc) or real country folks.

 

Us civilized Auzzies would never speak like that.

[bettyx 0]

oi~

i'm an east coaster.

 

maybe.

 

what's a banana bender?

[misorano 1]

And the winner is:

 

The "lets invite a token gaijin to the (insert event here) and call it international" friend.

[gamera 0]

What's token gaijin?