On Sun, 23 Nov 2003 22:31:32 +0900, Eric Takabayashi  ...
>
>I would like to know if anyone in other countries would clap and
>compliment Japanese if told "Hello" or "Thank you" in their language or
>when their skill with a fork is demonstrated.
>

Me, I often say "fo-ku ga jouzu" and express surprise that Japanese can read
"Chugoku no ji".  And to people who think calling me "pan" or "bureddo ando
ba-ta" get the same treatment back; "why are you called shiotani? is your valley
full of salt? that's pretty funny".



> And I liked it when the guy at
>the licensing center, who only spoke Japanese and had Japanese forms,
>said I could fill out the application "in English". I guess he thought I
>could speak, understand and read Japanese, but miraculously be too
>ignorant to write my own name and address.
>

When I had to first buy my monthly train pass I was travelling to gyo-en-mae.
When I started to fill out the form one of the station attendants came out to
help me. I got most of it but I asked me to write gyo-en-mae for me. He asked
his mate what the kanji is and I told him the O in Ocha, he smiled at me
politely but patronizingly. I insisted but he refused to believe me pointing out
that it was gyo-en-mae not go-en-mae. I whipped out my electronic dictionary and
showed him gyo is a reading of that kanji. When his friend found out I was right
they were both rather embarrassed.




.

----
"You don't bang it at 11:00pm but on the other hand, you don't play tribal house
when you're headlining a tech-house party"

DJ Mike McKenna talking shit