Living in Japan, you pick up new terminology. For example, one common buzzword is “Gaijin Hunter” and traditionally it has been used to describe a Japanese guy or girl (let’s be honest, it’s mostly girls) who specifically seek out foreigners for relationships.
生活在日本,你会学到新术语。例如,一个普通的流行词“外国人猎人”,这个词习惯上用于描述一个只找外国人谈恋爱的日本男孩或女孩(老实说,多数是女孩)。
Gaijin hunters are regularly considered to be shallow by the expat community, since they only seek foreigners as companions in order to show off, rarely caring about the individual in question.
外籍人士通常认为“外国人猎人”很肤浅,因为他们找外国人当伴侣只是为了炫耀,很少考虑对方,关心对方的个人问题。
Another phenomenon we’ve dubbed the “English vampire” is someone who specifically seek out foreigners for impromptu English practice. Expats in Japan, particularly ones who’ve been here for many years and speak Japanese fluently (aka Secret Ninjas!) experience frustration when a random Japanese person comes up to them out of the blue and starts speaking broken, elementary-school level English at them and not with them.
另一个现象,我们称之为“英语吸血鬼”,这指的是那些专门找外国人进行即兴英语练习的人。日本的外籍人士,特别是那些在日本生活了很多年而且能说流利日语的人(又叫做秘密忍者!),对他们来说,当一个陌生的日本人突然靠近,开始用小学水平的蹩脚英语暗讽他们却不跟他们谈话的时候,他们会非常挫败。
Yuta asks interviewees what they think of Japanese people who specifically pursue only foreigners for dating. At first, the interviewees state that they “think it’s fine” but once Yuta points out that the term has negative connotations, the interviewees follow up by deciding that it’s not good to ignore a person’s individual characteristics in favor of pursuing an ulterior motive.
佑太询问被采访者,他们如何看待那些只和外国人约会的日本人。起初,被采访者表示他们“认为这是好事”,然而,当佑太指出这个术语有贬义的时候,他们接着就说,为了不可告人的目的而忽视一个人的个性特征不太好。
Yuta then asks what they think about Japanese people speaking English to all foreigners and why this may not always be a good thing. Some of the interviewees don’t quite seem to understand what Yuta is getting at.
然后佑太又问,他们如何看待日本人和所有的外国人讲英语这件事,以及为什么这可能不总是一件好事。然而,一些被采访者似乎不太明白佑太的意思。
Many people in Japan have trouble seeing situations from the point of view of foreigners. And, to be fair, I would assume that common sense should dictate that using people, “othering” them, and pushing your own agenda at their expense really shouldn’t be tolerated.
在日本的许多人很难从外国人的角度看待问题。但平心而论,我认为利用人、“他者化”别人、损人利己这些事真的不应该容忍,这是常识。