It's just scientific fact that they love being slaves to corporations unlike us, the proudly independent and individualistic Westerners smuglord

Source: I was on a Discord with a Japanese dude

  • AsLeftAsTheyCome [they/them, any]
    ·
    9 months ago

    but a Japanese in the group objected

    This phrasing kinda has similar vibes to someone insistently calling trans people “the transgenders.” It’s such a weird, petty way to signal bigotry and ignorance.

    • Egon
      ·
      edit-2
      3 months ago

      deleted by creator

      • AsLeftAsTheyCome [they/them, any]
        ·
        9 months ago

        That’s a fair point!

        I think it could be the -ese at the end. “A chinese” has the same weird vibe whereas “a korean” sounds better, so I don’t think it’s (necessarily) the history of bigotry against East Asians that makes it sound off.

        To me, the -ese ending kinda implies that the speaker is referencing a group. Words ending in -ese seem to lean more plural by default and using them to refer to singular individuals feels off, at least in my opinion. English is a very strange language though and I could very easily be wrong.

        • Egon
          ·
          edit-2
          3 months ago

          deleted by creator

            • Aquilae [he/him, they/them]
              ·
              edit-2
              9 months ago

              You also can't pluralize -ese words without adding "people", while you can make the other ones plural with just an "s". Very inconvenient. English is weird.

    • PeeOnYou [he/him]@lemmygrad.ml
      ·
      edit-2
      9 months ago

      well I remember my grandma saying similar things but shortening Japanese to 3 letters... my grandpa was in WW2 and she never let go of that hatred

    • groundling20XX [none/use name]
      ·
      9 months ago

      This is also exactly the way someone who speaks japanese natively would talk in english as it’s a direct translation.

      • doublepepperoni [none/use name]
        hexagon
        ·
        9 months ago

        It's less that it's a direct translation and more that a natively Japanese person isn't likely to be aware of the vaguely racist vibes "a Japanese" has to a native English speaker

        There is no word that means just "Japanese" in Japanese. 日本人 specifically means Japanese person and is just the words Japan and person smashed together