• axont [she/her, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    4 months ago

    I mean there are immigrant areas in Japan. There’s a big Chinese community in Yokohama, which is reasonably close to Tokyo.

    But I guess that would involve interactions with working class Chinese immigrants, or second generation kids of immigrants. And that’s not the type of people some fancy rich kid would want to be around.

    What kind of racism do you need to assume Japanese people simply know how to speak Mandarin and also use it in their daily lives? And what kind of racism do you need to not even investigate this. They could have sent the kid to Singapore or Malaysia, a lot of people speak Mandarin there.

  • CloutAtlas [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    4 months ago

    Critical support to this guy’s large adult son, who is either:

    1. Offline enough to not know about Japan through manga/anime/Vtubers/Jpop/hentai/video games and genuinely didn’t know his father was making a huge mistake

    or

    1. Knows and opted not to tell his brain dead father for a free trip to Japan

    both are good bits.

    • Erika3sis [she/her, xe/xem]@hexbear.net
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      4 months ago

      Nice thesis and antithesis there, but I must propose the synthesis “offline enough to not know about Japan through pop culture soft power shit, but also totally knew his dad was being an ass but opted not to say anything in order to get a free trip to Japan”

  • CoolerOpposide [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    4 months ago

    Before all you holier-than-thou people jump in and call me racist, I am AWARE. That Japan also speaks Japanese.

    The author is right. How could we possibly assume from the context of this post that they are a racist who wouldn’t know that the Japanese people ALSO speak Japanese?

    • axont [she/her, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      4 months ago

      Japan also seemed like the better choice because the northern latitude coincided with China’s capital, Beijing.

      What is going on in this person’s brain? Do they think the magnetic poles impact a person’s accent? Being closer to the equator makes you sound more like a hick or what lmao

      Ah yes studying Arabic in Mexico will help me develop an Algerian accent because of the latitude

      • CloutAtlas [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        4 months ago

        Oh dear god I think he first learned Taiwan has a different accent, and separately learned that it’s in the south, so therefore there would be a southern accent and mentally melded the two together as Taiwanese have a hillbilly accent

        He then learned the University of Tokyo has a good Mandarin course, and it’s on the same level latitude as Beijing, so he would get a proper northerner accent.

        If this is real, this guy is incredible

          • CloutAtlas [he/him]@hexbear.net
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            4 months ago

            It’s like a few months ago when discussing the Napoleon film with my friend, she had previously learned that Napoleon was exiled to an island (twice) and also that he was defeated at Waterloo, so she assumed The Battle of Waterloo was either entirely a naval battle or naval with some aspects on an island. She then said she hasn’t watched the film but will eventually because she enjoyed the naval battles in Pirates of the Caribbean so she wants to see Ridley Scott’s take on the Battle of Waterloo.

            “You… You’ve conflated two completely unrelated facts about this one subject in your head. Waterloo was not a naval battle”

            “He was on an island when he lost?”

            “No he was exiled to an isla- wait, did you think Waterloo was on the water because “water” is in the name?”

            “He was defeated and died on the island? Was it not a naval battle?”

            “Those are two completely different events”

    • meth_dragon [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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      4 months ago

      i just wanted to point out that an exaggerated taiwanese accent is generally perceived to be more effeminate to your average mainlander. so their son was not in any danger of sounding like a hillbilly, at worst people might think he was gay or fem

      • alexandra_kollontai [she/her]@hexbear.net
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        4 months ago

        I was told that Southern Chinese accents do not sound good on men, and Taiwanese accents could come across as “feminine”-sounding. It seems like Taiwan is also the only place in Asia where gay marriage is legal, so there seems to be some logic in that. Not prejudiced or anything, but I’m not spending thousands to send my son overseas so he can sound gay.

        They are so prejudiced

        Northern accents are apparently more masculine, hence our choice in Japan, a northern masculine country.

        TO LEARN CHINESE

        I’m crying