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It's a difficult nuance in the point I'm trying to make, so I apologise. It's probably not a great analogy but, I think that if you were in e.g. the USA and th
by markburns 9y ago
It's a difficult nuance in the point I'm trying to make, so I apologise.
It's probably not a great analogy but, I think that if you were in e.g. the USA and there was use of White American Judicial System, or White American Police Force or something along those lines it would really scream out at you.
I realise he is out of Japan now and the blog post is not necessarily targeting people in Japan, but a lot of foreigners in Japan will prefix Japanese things, people, institutions etc with the adjective Japanese, particularly when talking about negative experiences or encounters.
When really the adjective should be redundant in those environments.
And yes I agree that the Japanese penal system is terrible. But the problem is more the continual strong association and reinforcement with everything and everyone Japanese.
He could have explained why he chose to leave Japan and then stop the continual references. I'm positing that the continual references, throughout the article, to Japan and Japanese people etc are both overkill and could reflect inherent biases. I'm not saying they definitely do, but I think he'd have an easier time if he stopped associating the negative things in general with Japan and Japanese people and attributed them more to the specific situations, institutions and people.
Within context: "The police are awful" is better for your mental health than "The Japanese police are awful".
- brucephillips 9y ago> Within context: "The police are awful" is better for your mental health than "The Japanese police are awful". Except the entire purpose of that section of the post was to describe Japanese police.
- markburns 9y agoMy point is that the context there being 'in Japan' and so the adjective is redundant (and exhibits the problems I've mentioned earlier). And in that context he could say "The British police are awful" vs "The police are awful" To compare. And then, yes, when it becomes necessary then yes, prefix with the adjective. In some cases it does make sense and aid communication. I'm saying the blanket prefixing with the adjective is the problematic part. It's fine if you don't agree, it's just a communication pattern I have noticed that doesn't seem to benefit anyone.
- watwut 9y agoIsn't it just nitpicking? I have seen similar pattern when people talked about German police in context of Germany and Switz school system in context of Switzerland. People who switch countries often talk that way without it being an insult.
- markburns 9y agoI'm not asserting people should stop this communication anti-pattern for the sake of others or that it's an insult. I'm saying that framing things in this way can be bad for the mental health of the person who says it.
- Klockan 9y ago> It's probably not a great analogy but, I think that if you were in e.g. the USA and there was use of White American Judicial System, or White American Police Force or something along those lines it would really scream out at you. We definitely call it American Police, Canadian Police, French Police, Japanese Police, German Police etc.