From: sakimura@sscl.uwo.ca
Subject: Re: Who started all this gaijin myth?! (was Re: Genitals in Japan)
Organization: Social Science Computing Laboratory
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 16:20:12 GMT

Judging from Crispin-san and Brooks-san's article,
it seems I need a little more clarification on what I
have said.

How the meaning of a contracted word is determined
--------------------------------------------------
I know that "Japs" or "Nips" are "Warui-kotoba." I also 
suppose that there is a tendency for anyone to contract a 
word into shorter syllable words. Whether that kind of 
contraction makes a derogatory word or not, however, 
depends upon the cultural background of each language.I 
suppose that, in English, a contraction of this kind 
ingenral is belittling. However, this is not true in 
Japanese.

Examples of Contracted Words in Japanese
----------------------------------------
Let me give some more examples of contractions.

"Amerika Gasshuukoku jin" -> "BeiKoku Jin"

This needs some explanation, I suppose. "America" is written
as "A" of "Asia" + "kome" + "Ri" + "Ka". From it, we are 
taking out "kome", of which on-yomi is "Bei." Thus, 
"Bei" + "Koku" + "jin" = "Beikokujin", and this is not at all
belittling. 

"Tokyo Gaikoku-go Daigaku" -> "Tokyo Gai-go Dai"
"Tokyo Daigaku" -> "To Dai"
"Nihon Telebi" -> "Nittere"
"Nomura Sougou Kenkyuu-jo" -> "Nomu-so"
"Tsuusho Sangyo Shou (MITI)" -> "TsuuSan-Sho"
"Nihon Ginkou (Bank of Japan(" -> "Nichi-Gin"
etc.

None of them are belittling. 

Danger of Judging Outcomes of another culture by one's culture
--------------------------------------------------------------
It seems to me that you are judging the meaning of a Japanese
word from the cultural background of an English speaking person. 
(And this sort of attitude, i.e. judging other culture's outcome
by the measure of one's culture, seems to be pretty common among 
all nationalities. Refer to the next section.) 
It is not quite right, I think. To interpret a word of a language, 
you have to assume the cultural background of that particular
language. In this case, it is the culture of Japan. That's why
I posted this article in s.c.j. I thought this misunderstanding
of contraction illuminated one aspect of Japanese culture well.

Danger of Enforcing the Measure of one culture to another
---------------------------------------------------------
I wrote another post in s.c.j. pointing out the danger of judging 
outcome of another culture by the measure of yet another culture. 
In that paragraph, I called the enforcing of one's measure to 
another the "Colonialism." The word may seem provocative, but I 
certainly didn't mean that. The word came quite natural to me
after spending my junior and senior high school years in Africa,
in a predominantly African school. Colonialism which enforced 
European kind of measure to the local people was quite a bit of 
disaster, I think. Hence came MY definition of "Colonialism." 
I wrote another post in s.c.j. pointing out the danger of judging 
outcome of another culture by the measure of yet another culture. 
In that paragraph, I called the enforcing of one's measure to 
another the "Colonialism." The word may seem provocative, but I 
certainly didn't mean that. The word came quite natural to me
after spending my junior and senior high school years in Africa,
in a predominantly African school. Colonialism which enforced 
European kind of measure to the local people was quite a bit of 
disaster, I think. Hence came MY definition of "Colonialism." 

And I hope...
-------------
I hope this article clarified what I meant a little more.

--
Natsu Sakimura
 












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