4 ms·

I certainly get the sentiment. However, my reaction to 9nGQluzmnq3M's coment is mainly this: Why judge an article or opinion on what it's not instead of what it

I certainly get the sentiment. However, my reaction to 9nGQluzmnq3M's coment is mainly this: Why judge an article or opinion on what it's not instead of what it is? In this particular case, the article reads to me like someone sharing their emotions and feelings, achieved by contempaling some minutiae of experience in Japan. Does that explicate an experience that generalizes? Apparently not, but this certainly seems like a different matter. Put a bit extremely, the article is also a pretty terrible recipe for turducken. I doubt many would flay the article for this failing, but the point is that judging an article or opinion's failings says just as much about the reader's personal expectations as it does anything else. Pretend for a moment that the article was written in the form of a poem. I seriously doubt it'd be getting the same kickback for "lack of objectivity." I would guess this is because we culturally learn to approach written language with different expectations, based on the form of its presentation. Heck, I'd not be surprised to even see some interesting anthropological theses on this very phenomenon. Anyway, winding back the meta-levels a bit, I do get where the author is coming from, myself having lived in Japan for ten years. It's possible to find poetry or meaning in certain minutiae of daily experience, and when thinking in Japanese I certainly do interpret, feel, and use silence differently than when my brain goes into English mode. Think for a moment about the "magic" of watching a Good ol' American Superbolw game with your friends and family, or how about drinking at Ye Olde pub down the road with yer mates. The experience is singular in a way to the particular culture it's in, and after accumulating many memories of this experience, it's common for those memories to achieve some "special" emotional quality that's diffilut to transfer to others who haven't done the same. I read the original article as an attempt to share some similar kind of feeling.

sdrothrock 7y ago
> However, my reaction to 9nGQluzmnq3M's coment is mainly this: Why judge an article or opinion on what it's not instead of what it is? To me, I'm judging the article based on what it's claiming to be. He starts it with a faux linguistic analysis including numbers, faux cultural comparisons, and an analysis of the Japanese language -- which he professes not to know. > I read the original article as an attempt to share some similar kind of feeling. The way he opened his article and continued trying to pick at linguistics is what kept me from feeling that kind of thing. His own credentials and the location of the article also contributed to that. If it were a personal blog and he were talking about subjective feelings, that's one thing -- but when he is writing an article on lithub and starting with numbers and apparently scholarly linguistic analysis, that's a completely different thing to me. Edit to add: And one other point is that this is all to publicize a book of his called "A Beginner's Guide to Japan," which sounds very authoritative.
- xelxebar 7y ago
  > To me, I'm judging the article based on what it's claiming to be. Rather what you, the reader, are judging it to claim to be. > He starts it with a faux linguistic analysis including numbers, faux cultural comparisons, and an analysis of the Japanese language -- which he professes not to know. There's a lot of flexing that goes on with expats here in Japan. Whoever speaks the best Japanese has the most social cred in many ways. Nonetheless, speaking a languages and performing linguistic analyses on the same are quite different tasks that require less overlapping skills than one might imagine at first blush. Are you a linguist in Japanese? If not, then why does your opinion on his linguistic analysis matter? Are you an anthropologist on modern Japan? If not, then what are your credentials for judging his ability to make "cultural comparisons?" Those are intended as rhetorical questions. I dunno. Your and 9nGQluzmnq3M's comments just stike me as meta-inconsistent. I'm trying to inject a little self-awareness into the discussion. In particular 9nGQluzmnq3M's comments about the Japanese language don't line up with my own experience, having used it as the primary language in my personal and professional life for several years. Someone with only a beginning grasp of Japanese flaying someone else with a tad less Japanese; that just strikes me as... harmful.
  - sdrothrock 7y ago
    > Rather what you, the reader, are judging it to claim to be. Sure. I'm picking up what the writer is putting down; he puts down numbers and linguistic claims, so I pick those up and say "hmm, this looks like a scholarly article" -- that's the tone I perceive and I can't say for sure whether that's what the author intended. > In particular 9nGQluzmnq3M's comments about the Japanese language don't line up with my own experience, having used it as the primary language in my personal and professional life for several years. Someone with only a beginning grasp of Japanese flaying someone else with a tad less Japanese; that just strikes me as... harmful. I'm not sure where this comes from at all -- now it seems like your judgment of our opinions is stemming from your judgment of our Japanese ability, but I'm not sure how you're even doing that.
    - xelxebar 7y ago
fenomas 7y ago
> Why judge an article or opinion on what it's not instead of what it is? I think that's an uncharitable take. We all get that TFA is trying to be poetic, but poetic sentiments can be profound or shallow, and if someone finds this article shallow (as I do myself) that doesn't mean they're attacking it for being poetic. Also, suggesting the commenter might be having a bad day doesn't come off at all the way I think you intend.

sdrothrock 7y ago

> However, my reaction to 9nGQluzmnq3M's coment is mainly this: Why judge an article or opinion on what it's not instead of what it is? To me, I'm judging the article based on what it's claiming to be. He starts it with a faux linguistic analysis including numbers, faux cultural comparisons, and an analysis of the Japanese language -- which he professes not to know. > I read the original article as an attempt to share some similar kind of feeling. The way he opened his article and continued trying to pick at linguistics is what kept me from feeling that kind of thing. His own credentials and the location of the article also contributed to that. If it were a personal blog and he were talking about subjective feelings, that's one thing -- but when he is writing an article on lithub and starting with numbers and apparently scholarly linguistic analysis, that's a completely different thing to me. Edit to add: And one other point is that this is all to publicize a book of his called "A Beginner's Guide to Japan," which sounds very authoritative.

xelxebar 7y ago
> To me, I'm judging the article based on what it's claiming to be. Rather what you, the reader, are judging it to claim to be. > He starts it with a faux linguistic analysis including numbers, faux cultural comparisons, and an analysis of the Japanese language -- which he professes not to know. There's a lot of flexing that goes on with expats here in Japan. Whoever speaks the best Japanese has the most social cred in many ways. Nonetheless, speaking a languages and performing linguistic analyses on the same are quite different tasks that require less overlapping skills than one might imagine at first blush. Are you a linguist in Japanese? If not, then why does your opinion on his linguistic analysis matter? Are you an anthropologist on modern Japan? If not, then what are your credentials for judging his ability to make "cultural comparisons?" Those are intended as rhetorical questions. I dunno. Your and 9nGQluzmnq3M's comments just stike me as meta-inconsistent. I'm trying to inject a little self-awareness into the discussion. In particular 9nGQluzmnq3M's comments about the Japanese language don't line up with my own experience, having used it as the primary language in my personal and professional life for several years. Someone with only a beginning grasp of Japanese flaying someone else with a tad less Japanese; that just strikes me as... harmful.
- sdrothrock 7y ago
  > Rather what you, the reader, are judging it to claim to be. Sure. I'm picking up what the writer is putting down; he puts down numbers and linguistic claims, so I pick those up and say "hmm, this looks like a scholarly article" -- that's the tone I perceive and I can't say for sure whether that's what the author intended. > In particular 9nGQluzmnq3M's comments about the Japanese language don't line up with my own experience, having used it as the primary language in my personal and professional life for several years. Someone with only a beginning grasp of Japanese flaying someone else with a tad less Japanese; that just strikes me as... harmful. I'm not sure where this comes from at all -- now it seems like your judgment of our opinions is stemming from your judgment of our Japanese ability, but I'm not sure how you're even doing that.
  - xelxebar 7y ago

fenomas 7y ago

> Why judge an article or opinion on what it's not instead of what it is? I think that's an uncharitable take. We all get that TFA is trying to be poetic, but poetic sentiments can be profound or shallow, and if someone finds this article shallow (as I do myself) that doesn't mean they're attacking it for being poetic. Also, suggesting the commenter might be having a bad day doesn't come off at all the way I think you intend.