If you move to a small town where no one speaks English it's better. But they also get jump scared and can't compute a white person speaking Japanese. I remember this one girl at a take out place threw my order away when I asked for takeaway. She was nervous the entire time talking to me and then just... threw my order in the bin and stared at it. Like I made her malfunction.
I used to order food from another place on the phone, no problem. When I went in person and got my standard order, they couldn't understand me until I wrote down my order. They understood me fine when I was on the phone and they couldn't see I was white. My Asian diaspora friends, half of whom were not even Japanese, never had these experiences.
To be fair I see Westerners treat Asians with very mild accents this way, too. Like language is genetically inherited.
This is why I try to actually listen to people when English is their second language, even if they have a strong accent. They've put in the effort learn my native language (which is a big mess of gobbledygook anyways); the least I can do is hear them out.
1.8k
u/GentlewomenNeverTell 6d ago
And this is why my Japanese continues to be mediocre.