re: #233 freetoken
Bit of Japanese culture: the word āgaikokujinā (å¤å½äŗŗļ¼means litterally āoutside country personā. So when I was in Japan I was a gaikokujin (which is the proper and polite word, the impolite is āgaijinā which is a word far too many gaikokujin use which they ought not if they want to sound intelligent. You will never hear an NHK talking head say āgaijinā.)
Anyway, I once tried to use that word here in the US, to a Japanese person (an instructor), saying that in the US they would in fact be the āgaikokujinā. Nope, I was instructed. Japanese are not āgaikokujinā. Even when they are in a different country.
Funny how we humans stick with our āinā and āoutā labels.
The same characters (å¤å½äŗŗ) in Mandarin are pronounced āwaiguoren,ā with the same meaning. Chinese agree with the Japanese (how rare!) in that Chinese living abroad are not referred to as waiguoren, but when they return they are called āhaiguiā (sea turtles).
The mandarin equivalent of gaijin is ę“鬼å āyangguiziā ā foreign devil, especially referring to Westerners ā or just āguiziā ā foreign invaders. I was referred to as a yangguizi only once (that I know of), by a friend of a student making some reference to me online. He didnāt know I could read some Chinese, and I told him in English that I was offended and he needed to apologize. He did.