racism

Japan is one xenophobic country- in a way.
I often don't like it when Japanese people talk about "foreigners", of which I'm one. There's just something about the word I don't like. Eg when students say (eg in uni entrance interview practice), "I want to speak English so I can communicate with foreigners", I'd much rather them say "English speaking people".

You get the impression that Japanese believe themselves to be a superior race. Well, that's not quite true according to the stereotypical generalisations- that's the American attitude. (no offense to any American or Japanese readers here of course!) Japanese rather think no other nation can ever be as good as them. Well it's hearing that kind of thing that makes you chuckle when you live here, because it does seem to have some truth to it...

Today the talk of the staffroom for a while was the recent engagement of my predecessor- to a Korean man. They seemed quite shocked at this... it made me really laugh when one of the teachers said, 'well, Love is blind'! oh dear...! Maybe you had to be there. Sorry if this comes across as a bit judgemental myself, I'm not really including much background and am generalising quite a bit (as many of you will acknowledge that is customary for me!). But this island is a nation, and doesn't it know it (says she from a different island no less).