Comment by tmtvl
1 day ago
If I remember correctly, gaijin is just how you say 'foreigner' in standard Japanese. The rude slang is jingai.
And I also have the experience of people really appreciating it if you actually speak and read Japanese. Which makes sense, I can easily imagine it being a relief to find that you can just speak with someone normally instead of having to struggle with this absolutely bonkers weird language that one may be only vaguely familiar with.
I can imagine that people in, say, the United States wouldn't be very happy if I went around and only spoke Dutch.
> And I also have the experience of people really appreciating it if you actually speak and read Japanese.
100%. You don't even need to know that much. Even if you have to switch to English, showing respect by demonstrating some effort to learn the local language and culture goes a long way.
> If I remember correctly, gaijin is just how you say 'foreigner' in standard Japanese.
I think this depends on tone. It is a literal translation, but I don't think you have to call someone non-human for it to be rude.
> I can imagine that people in, say, the United States wouldn't be very happy if I went around and only spoke Dutch.
We do have a large amount of people (and an increasing number of businesses) who think it's fine to only speak Spanish.
Gaikokujin is the correct way to say it. Gaijin is slang but I'm not sure how rude it would be considered.