Everyone knows that Americans always perfectly speak the native language of whatever country they might be in. It’s one of the perks of being an American.
Meet Mr. James; or for those in Japan, Mr. ジェームス. Apparently he’s a 43 year old American from Ohio who is promoting McDonalds for the Summer/Fall 09 set of burgers. From the ads in McDonalds and his blog he seems to really enjoy Japan, McDonalds, and Soaplands; actually, that last one might not be true, but let’s just say he does.
Captain Soap saves you from images of naked soapy Japanese women.
No problem with me so far, but some people have trouble with the next part. If you’ve been studying (I’m guessing no) and you’ve already taken a look at his blog you’ve probably noticed that he’s using a lot of Katakana. When someone uses Katakana it’s usually for a couple of reasons: non-Japanese words, emphasis, manlyness (yes, really), and showing badly pronounced Japanese. You can probably guess the reason why some people living in Japan, and the SF Chronicle, would frown on McDonald’s current campaign.
I can understand why a lot of people think that this is condescending, but I think a lot of people are going too far with this. I don’t feel this is any worse than some cereal commercials or another McDonald’s advertisement shown in the States. The campaign isn’t saying anything about people living in Japan or how good/bad their Japanese is so what’s all the fuss about? Another thing that I think has been forgotten about in all of this is that Mr. James studied Japanese from a phrasebook while he was still in the USA. Is it honestly that unrealistic to show someone who, until recently, had no real contact with a native speaker of the language they were learning and, therefore, had bad pronunciation? When you take into consideration how little people usually know about Japan/Japanese when they come to work/visit and also that there are people who live here for years without really learning any Japanese I’d almost say that this type of advertising should be encouraged.
Miyuki, meet your new father.
I know that things aren’t perfect here, nor anywhere else, but lots of people are overanalyzing this. Debito, a fighter for foreign rights in Japan is pretty zealous in his stuggle. However sometimes he goes a little overboard and I do believe this is one of those times.
So you believe that there should be more marketing campaigns like this to encourage foreigners living here to learn the language better?? You’re kidding right?
I’ve lived up in Hokkaido for the last 4 years and have only a very basic understanding of the language. Thing is I work in an area where there is a reasonably large foreign community and where a high percentage of the locals speak english. I live a great lifestyle, little affected by my lack of Japanese speaking ability.
You think I shoud be ashamed of this?
I try to watch my words carefully so that I don’t say something I don’t mean. I didn’t say that I encourage this type of advertising (that’s why I used “almost”), but it is not nearly as negative as many people are saying. Debito, among others, have complained for showing commercials with foreigners with a complete and utter lack of any knowledge of Japanese or Japanese culture; they go on to say that there are many foreigners living in Japan that can speak Japanese very well/fluently and follow many Japanese customs and that what they are protesting is discriminatory/racist; and in many cases this is true, but there are cases that happen because of the ignorance of one or more parties, or, in my opinion, overzealousness.
Do I think that this campaign is great? No, but it says more about Americans that travel/move to another country than it does any other group. Except for those that studied Japanese in university (and some self-studyers), there are many people who don’t really know any Japanese until they arrive in the country and start studying. Given how they’re promoting the character and the campaign, I see no way in how it is saying anything bad against those living in Japan.
Furthermore, I’m not sure why you might think that I said, or even implied, any anger or condescension towards those that don’t/can’t learn the language. There are many places (yours being one) where learning the language is harder because either no one will speak Japanese to you or just a lack of necessity to learn the language. Although I think it’s an extremely bad idea to not learn the language if you intend to stay in the country for a long time (not as many job opportunities, maybe some trouble communicating with your children/wife/husband, problems getting around), I in no way meant for anyone to think that I was chiding them for not learning Japanese.