gaijin


In japanese there is a word that means “foreigner”, a person that does not belong to this place.

It’s Gaijin, and if you will ever happen to stay in japan for a long long time (like 10 years), chances are you might still be called gaijin, because you will still be gaijin.

The curious thing about the japanese language is that when you talk directly to a person, let’s say Jon to Kate, you use a part of their “Mr”/”Mrs” that describe your relationship with them.

For example if Kate is simply an acquaintance of Jon he might greet her with something that resemble the phrase “Hi Mrs Acquaintance Kate”.

While if she sees Jon as a friend she might say “Hi Mr Friend Jon”.

This would happen all the times they meet. Which means they would always state the relationship each and every time.
And gaijin might be repeated that often, since you will always be a gaijin..

I love Japan culture, and I wanted to digress a little bit because in the last few days a friend of mine always write me sms such in Japanese Addresses form, like “Hi Friend”.
He never did that, and now he does this all the time.

And I must admit I was somewhat unsure what to think and a little nervous.
I realized in the end that my problem was that he was stating it all the time, making the word “Friend” less and less important, thus removing value from such word.

In japanese this wouldn’t happen because it’s the language itself that doesn’t allow you to change this format, but in other languages you’re removing power from your verb, and the more you write, the less it’ll be important.


%d bloggers like this: