When the tables are turned...
The sin of being born an English speaker
Those who argue in defense of the bandits often refuse to apply their
arguments with consistency, resulting in a self-contradictory mess where the
English speaker always comes out "owing" the world for the sin of being born
into an English speaking family. When I tried speaking to Japanese people back home, they would inevitably reply to me in English. It was VERY hard to find someone willing to use Japanese with me. They'd always try to show-off their English, or give me a "push off" attitude.
Now I'm over here and the tables are turned. If someone tries talking to me and I brush them off I'm the jerk.
http://www.gaijinpot.com/bb/showthread.php?t=17265&page=2
Some of my Japanese friends said they had the same experience in America with Anime Otaku befriending them for language leeching and because they wanted a "Japanese" friend.....
http://www.gaijinpot.com/bb/showthread.php?t=17265&page=4
Well, for one thing, speaking Jpn in Japan is normal.
While I agree in spirit, remember that if you are out of Japan and try to speak
Japanese, a lot of Jpn can get very pissy about it. When it becomes apparent
that my Jpn is actually quite good, you can see them running for the door.
That's why I don't do it until we have made some sort of social connection.
http://www.gaijinpot.com/bb/showthread.php?t=17265&page=5
*In Barry Farber's book
How To Learn Any Language: Quickly, Easily,
Inexpensively, Enjoyably and on Your Own, he advises specifically against
(without actually using the term) banditry-type behavior. It is common
decency and manners that one does not get excited at meeting a speaker of the
target language and start firing at him like he is some sort of tool or teacher,
in the same way you don't meet a doctor or dentist at a party and start asking
for free medical advice. You treat a person as a human being, respectfully
address them in the national language, and then after you have established yourself
as an honest-to-goodness conversation mate you can mention your interest in the
language they speak and make an attempt at using it if they don't mind. This is
obviously something an English Bandit in Asia wouldn't have the decency to do in
a hundred billion years. And for me, this rudeness is alone is
sufficient justification to never humor such persons. This cancels out all
pro-English Bandit "if you had a conscience at all, you would be polite; they
studied English for 14 years" nonsense arguments as far as I'm concerned.
A few times in a coffee shop that I frequented I'd ask a Japanese person beside me for help with some grammar or something. One girl nearly spilled her coffee when she heard me speaking Japanese to her. Another day one got really pissy and upset.
http://www.gaijinpot.com/bb/showthread.php?t=17265&page=5
I think I'm probably a Japanese bandit. I was at a venue with a friend who was working at a Cinco de Mayo event and heard Japanese being spoken and went right over and started talking to the two ladies. The didn't seem to mind and we ended up chatting all evening. I guess it goes both ways. Boston is a pretty international community though.
http://www.gaijinpot.com/bb/showthread.php?t=17265&page=5
After being language humped for several years in Korea and China, I decided to
try out speaking Korean/Chinese on strangers who were native speakers of those
languages here in the US. Guess what? A majority would tell me in English that
my Korean/Chinese was good and continued to use English. I worked my buns off to
learn two Asian languages and don’t want to lose those hard-earned skills, but
that’s okay. No Chinese or Korean in America owes me language practice.
http://www.talktalkchina.com/index.php/2005/05/20/language-rapists/
I never forgot a bizarre anecdote in Boye Lafayette De Mente’s book “The Japanese Have A Word For It.” He described an incident in Tokyo, IIRC it was in the 1960s. A workman was carrying his toolbox home from his job, when he encountered a Japanese man speaking English to a foreigner. He took out an axe from his toolbox and murdered the Japanese man on the spot. At his trial, in his own defense, he said that a Japanese person speaking English was so offensive, it enraged him so severely he went insane.
http://eflgeek.com/index.php/eflgeek/comments/stonewalled-when-speaking-korean/