Kurt, you're bringing to bear your Western democratic eqalitarian ideals into a society which doesn't historically have those sensibilities. Enjoy the times where as a white you get treated just a bit better...because, inevitably, theres a down side just around the corner
And just 'cause I feel like it, this is what I've learned from listening to J-music for years with minimal studying: Ability to read very common kanji in song titles/lyrics, hiragana and katakana, pronounciation (though speaking with the accent is actually much different), and other tidbits. Because these are songs we're talking about, it's not a good way to become familiar with sentence structure or anything like that. Just gotta keep studying and hopefully living there will help me get it down
Why you specifically have not learned the language. Of course this isn't the place to talk about it, but there's another fear I have: not being able to learn and failing even though I may be treated with utmost respect like you did on this day. The language is difficult, but I'm wondering if you haven't learned because you have not devoted time to studying the language or not. I know you've lived there, but I've listened to Japanese music for YEARS and without studying, you learn next to nothin.
I'm glad you were treated kindly. I always get a bit worried when thinking about how they feel about me when I'm there; remembering past surveys hotels have participated in. Some saying they did not want foreigners because there's more chance of miscommunication and unfamiliarity with customs. Also, those "No Foreigners" signs and the vans that shout expel the foreigners(?, maybe I'm just making that one up, I forget if they do that). I am curious, though. (Cont)
Many chinese have been living in Japan for centuries, many koreans have been living in japan since Korean War as refugees, but they have to renew parmanent residency. Many japanese think these people and their descendants are like japanese, so they don't really need help.
How does this have anything to do with racial profiling? You're just assuming that you're being treated better because of racial profiling, but you said yourself you don't know if your being treated that way just because you're white... And you brought up the Chinese guy but you said he had no trouble, and did just fine. I'm a little confused.
i was in japan from 1995-2002 and you are right. Many times I was a celebrity. I am sure I could have started my own cult. If I choose to. Word got back to the family before I did, of what I did or have done.. 1984 surveillance state in high gear. I always heard about my mis deeds and even had photos of me leaving a can on a bench etc. I used to kayak all the time and the fisherman would tell on me for peeing on a island, once I even did number 2 and heard about it before i got home.
I disagree regarding you deserving less welcoming treatment. Your personal style, including the way you dress should not matter, if you are acting respectful, friendly and open. It's important that kind of service is extended to everyone else though, given they act similarly as mentioned.
Everyone is racist, on a dark moment, so no one can claim that never made a racist remark on is life. I tend to avoid racism by standard but my cultural differences to others sometimes wins the battle... and that even applies to my non alien 'white' neighbor.
So the question is, is the fairer treatment altruistic, and I'd say of course not, and you have a good reason to feel slightly uncomfortable about it. They are, perhaps even unknown to themselves, operating mostly on self-interest. They believe that by treating you better, they would get better and special treatments in return. A crude analogy would be well... a guy would buy her all sorts of gifts and do all sorts of special favors, in hopes that he would get laid.
I think that if you were to analyze this even further, then it gets more interesting. I think that some people may idealize others partly because they believe that they could do so much favors for them. By sucking up to the Gods they may receive some special favors, or so they believe. The typical attitude of Japan, and even the conservative attitude as which Japan is, is to attach themselves to the strongest person in the room. By attaching themselves to them they receive protection from them.
I really should take a leaf out of your book Kurt- Although I have some Japanese ability i'm worried about get my alien registration sorted out by myself next week. I guess like you say it will work out somehow so there's not point worrying! :p
@ScoundrelzNTwK No offense, but that was borderline racist. The "Japanese" do not believe in race differences, racists believe in race differences. The Japanese, like anybody else, potentially have the ability to respect anyone, even if they not have achieved "great things", which is a rather subjective term. What you said seems more like a projection of your own thoughts and feelings.
@eatcarpet The statement is based on historical facts/policies/treatment of pow's, as well as current policies on immigration, and refugees
But I hardly think anyone can argue the wests achievements are only subjective, electricity, nuclear power, moon landing ect. I think you are being a bit sensitive about the issue, in fact a statement about the robotics industry in Japan was made by an engineer that said "we want the robots to do things when we are old so we don't have take immigrants
@ScoundrelzNTwK You're missing the point, what you consider as "achievements" is thought differently by another, that's why it's subjective (e.g. you consider the industrial revolution as a great achievement). And things are not necessarily achieved by this race or that race, or by this nation or that nation, but as humanity as a whole. I hope you don't disagree that both great things as well tragic things are all achieved by humans as a whole. We are 99% genetically similar.
@eatcarpet No, you are missing the point, something is not personally subjective if the world considers it a great achievement. Humanity as a whole, has never achieved anything for that matter, and achievements are nation/ group of nations achievements. Your viewpoint is culturally marxist that much is clear, humanity is not credited with the moon landing, the USA is, and should be.
I don't know what you are trying to prove by saying we are 99% similar, we share 98.6% of our genes with chimps.
@ScoundrelzNTwK Subjective means that something exists only within the people's mind. I'm pretty sure an advanced alien species coming down on our planet would scoff at all of our "achievements" And sure the moon landing was a great achievement, but it was the people who put it there, such as the engineers, that achieved the moon landing. Why should the people who haven't really done anything take the credit?
"culturally marxist"? Are you by any chance Breivik? ;)
@eatcarpet "racists believe in race differences" Not necessarily true, it's called Biogeographical variation, for example Australian Aboriginals have better eyesight than other "races" and also a better spatial memory. There's also a tribe in Kenya who produce the worlds best long distance runners purely because of their genetics.
In the big picture of things, those genetic differences are negligible. Our DNAs are something like 99% similar. I've also actually read that Aborigines have better spatial memory because of their unique language. Some indigenous tribes say north, south, east and west, rather than left and right, and as a consequence have great spatial orientation.
@eatcarpet I also never inferred that anyone was better than another, you did. I stated why I think white people are treated better in japan, and gave examples of why. You (while accusing me of being insecure) turned it into a race debate from the standpoint of cultural relativism.
The statements made don't point to any insecurities in me, but in yourself. You read a statement and immediately said racism. Recognizing differences is no where near racist, i suggest you invest in a dictionary.
@ScoundrelzNTwK I did? Well you're gonna have to point out where I did, because I don't remember saying anywhere where I have said that one was better than another. In fact I was saying the opposite.
@eatcarpet I was just pointing out that it isn't racist if you recognise the differences between races. There's a great documentary called "The Difference" on the 4OD website, can't find it on here. It was saying that the IQ test, being designed by white Europeans, isn't up to the job when you try to test other races. They were saying that the IQ test should be tailored to each races abilities. It can actually help to recognise differences, it's our actions that count.
@tomwash1 I think that's BS, because we're all the same human species, and we all pretty much have the same brain. And I'm pretty sure the supposed IQ differences are either mostly BS or inconclusive, anyway. I don't think that there is any scientific evidence that says otherwise. If you have a high IQ then you have a high IQ, if you have a low IQ then you have a low IQ. I don't see how race should matter nor why should it help.
@ScoundrelzNTwK What the hell is "culturally marxist"? That's just some made up definition made up by the right. And where is your claim for "widely studied by the scientific community"? Where is your proof?
@eatcarpet "no adequate explanation for the racial IQ gap is presently available" right, they recognize an IQ gap, but can't explain it. Lets not forget that this is a funded agency subject to public opinion, i don't need to tell you they are subject to media scrutiny.
Wiki: There are no universally accepted definitions of either race or intelligence in academia, and any discussion of their connection involves studies from multiple disciplines, including psychology, anthropology, biology, and sociology.
@ScoundrelzNTwK right, keywords "you are wrong". There's not even a proper definition of a "race", as they are not biological differences, but merely the differences in skin color, whether they are more lighter or darker. I think that I'm going stop arguing over this as it will likely be pointless, and I just hope that you don't become another Breivik, as your obsession with "cultural marxism" is creeping me out ;).
@eatcarpet Right your inability to separate yourself from your ideology and insulting comments are equally infuriating, especially since i hold no religious beliefs. Skin color is also the last thing that anthropologists look at, DNA being the first, i'm sure you're also aware that definitions that cross all scientific fields are not that common especially since psychology (which you brought up) isn't even recognized as a science by other sciences. But you're american, you do know everything
@ScoundrelzNTwK Well dude, the scientific community says that there is no conclusive proof or evidence, which is what I've been saying all along. So why can't we just leave it at that.
Wiki: According to a 1996 statement from the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, although heredity influences behavior in individuals, it does not affect the ability of a population to function in any social setting, and all peoples "possess equal biological ability to assimilate any human culture" and "racist political doctrines find no foundation in scientific knowledge concerning modern or past human populations."
@eatcarpet What race were the test subjects for the human genome project? 8 white people of European origin. Not a very good benchmark for testing all of humanity imo.
If you have a high IQ it just means you're good at IQ tests.
@tomwash1 I believe the reason why they did this was because they wanted to try and keep the sequencing results fairly similar. It was early on when they did this and they didn't know what to expect, this takes into consideration that it took them 10 years to sequence one genome!! Then once this was done and sequencing became a bit quicker then they sequenced other races, like Africans, Orients, people from the middle east and so on.
Kurt, you're bringing to bear your Western democratic eqalitarian ideals into a society which doesn't historically have those sensibilities. Enjoy the times where as a white you get treated just a bit better...because, inevitably, theres a down side just around the corner
MargaritasAntesPorco 1 week ago
damn bro, give yourself more credit. your in japan, seems like success to me
PsychonautPower 3 weeks ago
And just 'cause I feel like it, this is what I've learned from listening to J-music for years with minimal studying: Ability to read very common kanji in song titles/lyrics, hiragana and katakana, pronounciation (though speaking with the accent is actually much different), and other tidbits. Because these are songs we're talking about, it's not a good way to become familiar with sentence structure or anything like that. Just gotta keep studying and hopefully living there will help me get it down
Ketsui 7 months ago
Why you specifically have not learned the language. Of course this isn't the place to talk about it, but there's another fear I have: not being able to learn and failing even though I may be treated with utmost respect like you did on this day. The language is difficult, but I'm wondering if you haven't learned because you have not devoted time to studying the language or not. I know you've lived there, but I've listened to Japanese music for YEARS and without studying, you learn next to nothin.
Ketsui 7 months ago
I'm glad you were treated kindly. I always get a bit worried when thinking about how they feel about me when I'm there; remembering past surveys hotels have participated in. Some saying they did not want foreigners because there's more chance of miscommunication and unfamiliarity with customs. Also, those "No Foreigners" signs and the vans that shout expel the foreigners(?, maybe I'm just making that one up, I forget if they do that). I am curious, though. (Cont)
Ketsui 7 months ago
Many chinese have been living in Japan for centuries, many koreans have been living in japan since Korean War as refugees, but they have to renew parmanent residency. Many japanese think these people and their descendants are like japanese, so they don't really need help.
109mytiger 7 months ago
How does this have anything to do with racial profiling? You're just assuming that you're being treated better because of racial profiling, but you said yourself you don't know if your being treated that way just because you're white... And you brought up the Chinese guy but you said he had no trouble, and did just fine. I'm a little confused.
patio87 7 months ago
that is why i gave myself the name unchie-kun for the time the fisherman told my mother in-law what i di on the island
unchiekun 7 months ago
i was in japan from 1995-2002 and you are right. Many times I was a celebrity. I am sure I could have started my own cult. If I choose to. Word got back to the family before I did, of what I did or have done.. 1984 surveillance state in high gear. I always heard about my mis deeds and even had photos of me leaving a can on a bench etc. I used to kayak all the time and the fisherman would tell on me for peeing on a island, once I even did number 2 and heard about it before i got home.
unchiekun 7 months ago
My opinion is, that this is not racial profiling, it's a special approach :)
VladPayne 7 months ago
I disagree regarding you deserving less welcoming treatment. Your personal style, including the way you dress should not matter, if you are acting respectful, friendly and open. It's important that kind of service is extended to everyone else though, given they act similarly as mentioned.
chevkoch 7 months ago 2
I understand feeling awkward when talking about this :) thank you for making a vid on this, Kurt!!
totaldramaqueen108 7 months ago
Maybe you just look like you need more help Kurt. LOL
perdomot 7 months ago
Everyone is racist, on a dark moment, so no one can claim that never made a racist remark on is life. I tend to avoid racism by standard but my cultural differences to others sometimes wins the battle... and that even applies to my non alien 'white' neighbor.
antbaiao 7 months ago
So the question is, is the fairer treatment altruistic, and I'd say of course not, and you have a good reason to feel slightly uncomfortable about it. They are, perhaps even unknown to themselves, operating mostly on self-interest. They believe that by treating you better, they would get better and special treatments in return. A crude analogy would be well... a guy would buy her all sorts of gifts and do all sorts of special favors, in hopes that he would get laid.
eatcarpet 7 months ago
Nice follow video. It's not only a real issue here, but even in our country... A shameful issue to admit and one that I have experienced as well!
LaJYankee 7 months ago
I think that if you were to analyze this even further, then it gets more interesting. I think that some people may idealize others partly because they believe that they could do so much favors for them. By sucking up to the Gods they may receive some special favors, or so they believe. The typical attitude of Japan, and even the conservative attitude as which Japan is, is to attach themselves to the strongest person in the room. By attaching themselves to them they receive protection from them.
eatcarpet 7 months ago
I really should take a leaf out of your book Kurt- Although I have some Japanese ability i'm worried about get my alien registration sorted out by myself next week. I guess like you say it will work out somehow so there's not point worrying! :p
hakushindreamer 7 months ago
There are a few things that point to the past good treatment of white people imo.
First, Japan has said it has been successful from 50's-now because of the west, and west=white. (General MacArthur deserves a lot of credit for that)
Second, Japanese seem to respect those who have achieved great things, and the west has, so they admire the things white people have done.
Third, I certainly don't mean anything bad by this next statement, but the japanese do believe in race differences.
ScoundrelzNTwK 7 months ago
@ScoundrelzNTwK No offense, but that was borderline racist. The "Japanese" do not believe in race differences, racists believe in race differences. The Japanese, like anybody else, potentially have the ability to respect anyone, even if they not have achieved "great things", which is a rather subjective term. What you said seems more like a projection of your own thoughts and feelings.
eatcarpet 7 months ago
@eatcarpet The statement is based on historical facts/policies/treatment of pow's, as well as current policies on immigration, and refugees
But I hardly think anyone can argue the wests achievements are only subjective, electricity, nuclear power, moon landing ect. I think you are being a bit sensitive about the issue, in fact a statement about the robotics industry in Japan was made by an engineer that said "we want the robots to do things when we are old so we don't have take immigrants
ScoundrelzNTwK 7 months ago
@ScoundrelzNTwK You're missing the point, what you consider as "achievements" is thought differently by another, that's why it's subjective (e.g. you consider the industrial revolution as a great achievement). And things are not necessarily achieved by this race or that race, or by this nation or that nation, but as humanity as a whole. I hope you don't disagree that both great things as well tragic things are all achieved by humans as a whole. We are 99% genetically similar.
eatcarpet 7 months ago
@eatcarpet No, you are missing the point, something is not personally subjective if the world considers it a great achievement. Humanity as a whole, has never achieved anything for that matter, and achievements are nation/ group of nations achievements. Your viewpoint is culturally marxist that much is clear, humanity is not credited with the moon landing, the USA is, and should be.
I don't know what you are trying to prove by saying we are 99% similar, we share 98.6% of our genes with chimps.
ScoundrelzNTwK 7 months ago
@ScoundrelzNTwK Subjective means that something exists only within the people's mind. I'm pretty sure an advanced alien species coming down on our planet would scoff at all of our "achievements" And sure the moon landing was a great achievement, but it was the people who put it there, such as the engineers, that achieved the moon landing. Why should the people who haven't really done anything take the credit?
"culturally marxist"? Are you by any chance Breivik? ;)
eatcarpet 7 months ago
@eatcarpet "racists believe in race differences" Not necessarily true, it's called Biogeographical variation, for example Australian Aboriginals have better eyesight than other "races" and also a better spatial memory. There's also a tribe in Kenya who produce the worlds best long distance runners purely because of their genetics.
tomwash1 7 months ago
In the big picture of things, those genetic differences are negligible. Our DNAs are something like 99% similar. I've also actually read that Aborigines have better spatial memory because of their unique language. Some indigenous tribes say north, south, east and west, rather than left and right, and as a consequence have great spatial orientation.
eatcarpet 7 months ago
@eatcarpet I also never inferred that anyone was better than another, you did. I stated why I think white people are treated better in japan, and gave examples of why. You (while accusing me of being insecure) turned it into a race debate from the standpoint of cultural relativism.
The statements made don't point to any insecurities in me, but in yourself. You read a statement and immediately said racism. Recognizing differences is no where near racist, i suggest you invest in a dictionary.
ScoundrelzNTwK 7 months ago
@ScoundrelzNTwK I did? Well you're gonna have to point out where I did, because I don't remember saying anywhere where I have said that one was better than another. In fact I was saying the opposite.
eatcarpet 7 months ago
@ScoundrelzNTwK I also stated why, and I happen to think that my explanations are better.
eatcarpet 7 months ago
@eatcarpet I was just pointing out that it isn't racist if you recognise the differences between races. There's a great documentary called "The Difference" on the 4OD website, can't find it on here. It was saying that the IQ test, being designed by white Europeans, isn't up to the job when you try to test other races. They were saying that the IQ test should be tailored to each races abilities. It can actually help to recognise differences, it's our actions that count.
tomwash1 7 months ago
@tomwash1 I think that's BS, because we're all the same human species, and we all pretty much have the same brain. And I'm pretty sure the supposed IQ differences are either mostly BS or inconclusive, anyway. I don't think that there is any scientific evidence that says otherwise. If you have a high IQ then you have a high IQ, if you have a low IQ then you have a low IQ. I don't see how race should matter nor why should it help.
eatcarpet 7 months ago
@eatcarpet Right, another culturally marxist statement.
No matter that it has been widely studied by the scientific community, and yes there is plenty of evidence supporting racial differences in IQ.
Notice no one said anything about one being superior, just different.
ScoundrelzNTwK 7 months ago
@ScoundrelzNTwK What the hell is "culturally marxist"? That's just some made up definition made up by the right. And where is your claim for "widely studied by the scientific community"? Where is your proof?
eatcarpet 7 months ago
@eatcarpet right so go to google and type in "cultural marxism"
then, google again, "racial IQ gap"
you may want to bone up on genetic terms, specifically "regression towards the mean" so you understand it better.
ScoundrelzNTwK 7 months ago
Comment removed
eatcarpet 7 months ago
Comment removed
eatcarpet 7 months ago
@eatcarpet "no adequate explanation for the racial IQ gap is presently available" right, they recognize an IQ gap, but can't explain it. Lets not forget that this is a funded agency subject to public opinion, i don't need to tell you they are subject to media scrutiny.
ScoundrelzNTwK 7 months ago
Wiki: There are no universally accepted definitions of either race or intelligence in academia, and any discussion of their connection involves studies from multiple disciplines, including psychology, anthropology, biology, and sociology.
eatcarpet 7 months ago
@eatcarpet right, keyword "universally"
ScoundrelzNTwK 7 months ago
@ScoundrelzNTwK right, keywords "you are wrong". There's not even a proper definition of a "race", as they are not biological differences, but merely the differences in skin color, whether they are more lighter or darker. I think that I'm going stop arguing over this as it will likely be pointless, and I just hope that you don't become another Breivik, as your obsession with "cultural marxism" is creeping me out ;).
eatcarpet 7 months ago
@eatcarpet Right your inability to separate yourself from your ideology and insulting comments are equally infuriating, especially since i hold no religious beliefs. Skin color is also the last thing that anthropologists look at, DNA being the first, i'm sure you're also aware that definitions that cross all scientific fields are not that common especially since psychology (which you brought up) isn't even recognized as a science by other sciences. But you're american, you do know everything
ScoundrelzNTwK 7 months ago
@ScoundrelzNTwK Well dude, the scientific community says that there is no conclusive proof or evidence, which is what I've been saying all along. So why can't we just leave it at that.
eatcarpet 7 months ago
Wiki: According to a 1996 statement from the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, although heredity influences behavior in individuals, it does not affect the ability of a population to function in any social setting, and all peoples "possess equal biological ability to assimilate any human culture" and "racist political doctrines find no foundation in scientific knowledge concerning modern or past human populations."
eatcarpet 7 months ago
@eatcarpet What race were the test subjects for the human genome project? 8 white people of European origin. Not a very good benchmark for testing all of humanity imo.
If you have a high IQ it just means you're good at IQ tests.
tomwash1 7 months ago
@tomwash1 I believe the reason why they did this was because they wanted to try and keep the sequencing results fairly similar. It was early on when they did this and they didn't know what to expect, this takes into consideration that it took them 10 years to sequence one genome!! Then once this was done and sequencing became a bit quicker then they sequenced other races, like Africans, Orients, people from the middle east and so on.
DuckHeadlolz 6 months ago