In which Prim pontificates on his particular peculiarities.

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Primarch
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Re: In which Prim pontificates on his particular peculiariti

Post by Primarch » Thu Oct 26, 2017 9:12 am

Thanks for the links.

I read an article a while ago about English teachers in Japan and how living here magnifies our quirks.

As Ex-pats, we are outside the norms for our home countries anyway. The average person may travel overseas, but the number who emigrate are fairly small compared to the population as a whole. In countries with large scale immigration, integration becomes important, but in Japan, foreigners aren't really expected to conform to social norms. Sure we should behave ourselves and not kick up a fuss, but we aren't expected to act in the same manner as locals.

In my experience of eikaiwa and corporate classes, students want an English teacher who doesn't behave like all their other teachers. That's part of the reason for hiring us, we act and think differently. They want to learn about culture as much as about the language.

When out and about, I've encountered situations where people expect me not to fit in. I'm not Japanese, so I can't or won't act like a Japanese person would. I think back home, we would be expected to fit in with society a lot more, there would certainly be pressure to do so.

So, we're already non-conformists just for being ex-pats and we are given license to be different from those around us, sometimes we're even encouraged to be so in our work place. This leads to a tendency among our little community where peoples' traits and quirks are more pronounced than they would be had we remained in our home countries.

I'm not sure how accurate the article was, but I feel that it rang true for the most part. I'm not saying that living in Japan is a bad thing, far from it, but it certainly has changed me to somw extent. I have always been an all or nothing person with my hobbies, but being here, running this site and organizing events have had an enabling effect on that part of my character.
Painted Minis in 2014: 510, in 2015: 300, in 2016 :369, in 2019: 417, in 2020: 450

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