I thought this survey was highly amusing: http://whatjapanthinks.com/2008/06/22/ho...-japanese/

Q: What behaviour by foreigners in Japan surprises you? (Sample size=1,072)
Rank Action Score
1 Writing difficult kanji 100
2 Bowing on the telephone 88.1
3 Using dialect 86.0
4 Speaking Japanese fluently 82.5
5 Using proverbs, idioms 77.1

Wow, kanji writing is #1. Hard to say what 'difficult kanji' refers to, though. Non-常用? Many of the situations after the top 5 are quite hilarious.

nest0r Wrote:I thought this survey was highly amusing: http://whatjapanthinks.com/2008/06/22/ho...-japanese/

Q: What behaviour by foreigners in Japan surprises you? (Sample size=1,072)
Rank Action Score
1 Writing difficult kanji 100
2 Bowing on the telephone 88.1
3 Using dialect 86.0
4 Speaking Japanese fluently 82.5
5 Using proverbs, idioms 77.1

Wow, kanji writing is #1. Hard to say what 'difficult kanji' refers to, though. Non-常用? Many of the situations after the top 5 are quite hilarious.

You left out #6: eating 納豆!

I'm not sure what #16 is talking about though:
After a bath drinking fruity milk with one hand on hip.

I guess I'm just not that familiar with Japanese culture.

"after a bath drinking fruity milk with one hand on hip."!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OMGosh! I think I had this experience with my host family! Every night, we all took a bath (not together, duh). Then, they had this drink that I liked so it became like, a nightly thing. It was called "mami". Has anyone heard of it? If I had to describe it, I'd have to say it is like a fruity milk. Weird...

lol, dang and I got the natto down too. I LOVE natto.

wow, and you have to click the link on that page and watch the video on youtube with the bicycle bell. THAT is hilarious...

igordesu Wrote:lol, dang and I got the natto down too. I LOVE natto.

wow, and you have to click the link on that page and watch the video on youtube with the bicycle bell. THAT is hilarious...

I need to get me a bicycle bell. I should try that in NYC.

That's pathetic. I don't know if it's them or us, but it's pathetic.

igordesu Wrote:OMGosh! I think I had this experience with my host family! Every night, we all took a bath (not together, duh). Then, they had this drink that I liked so it became like, a nightly thing. It was called "mami". Has anyone heard of it? If I had to describe it, I'd have to say it is like a fruity milk. Weird...

マミ : Cambodian breast milk

Being able to write とても（迚も） and other really rare stuff in Kanji seems to surprise anyone here. Teachers, university students, exchange students alike.
Also, from my experience, people are really surprised and pleased if you can read their names.


Sitting in seiza is a lot harder though if you ask me.

igordesu Wrote:"after a bath drinking fruity milk with one hand on hip."!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OMGosh! I think I had this experience with my host family! Every night, we all took a bath (not together, duh). Then, they had this drink that I liked so it became like, a nightly thing. It was called "mami". Has anyone heard of it? If I had to describe it, I'd have to say it is like a fruity milk. Weird...

I think it has to do with an old Japanese add campaign for flavored milk that became very famous, obviously featuring a guy drinking milk with his hand on his hip after stepping out of the Onsen. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Muppy FTW!

I've seen that beverage/public bath thing quite a bit in Japanese media--sometimes with the hip stance, but I never bothered checking to see where it came from...

I think it's interesting that communication-related events are what most surprise the folks who took the survey.

Below are pics showing the proper pose for drinking milk:

http://wataiken.kitaguni.tv/e574465.html

http://www.wire.co.jp/hibiki/0610/161.jpg

15 Using a toothpick 31.8

Yep, I've got skills.

kioku3 Wrote:Below are pics showing the proper pose for drinking milk:

http://wataiken.kitaguni.tv/e574465.html

http://www.wire.co.jp/hibiki/0610/161.jpg

Here's a trifecta for the anime nerds (I'm not one of them!!) -
http://randomc.maximum7.net/image/To%20A...e%2004.jpg

Not to mention! It's even referenced in Majora's Mask! :O
[when being given a bottle of milk] "Here's Romani's thanks. When you drink it, put your hand on your hip and take a big gulp like we do here at the ranch!"
Man, I wish I had seen that ad campaign if it got popular enough to invade freaking Zelda games.

This is a fairly interesting though not-all-that-surprising survey, though. Although the toothpick thing is a little weird. D:/ Are toothpicks just considered to be "odd" in Japan or something?

Jarvik7 Wrote:

igordesu Wrote:OMGosh! I think I had this experience with my host family! Every night, we all took a bath (not together, duh). Then, they had this drink that I liked so it became like, a nightly thing. It was called "mami". Has anyone heard of it? If I had to describe it, I'd have to say it is like a fruity milk. Weird...

マミ : Cambodian breast milk

I hope you're kidding?

kaoskastle Wrote:Although the toothpick thing is a little weird. D:/ Are toothpicks just considered to be "odd" in Japan or something?

I think it's because using a toothpick is considered to be bad manners / ojisan-kusai, whereas gaijin are generally stereotyped as having good table manners (with 洋食 anyways) / and being cool.

nest0r Wrote:2 Bowing on the telephone 88.1

If I ever become this Japanese, somebody shoot me!

igordesu Wrote:

Jarvik7 Wrote:

igordesu Wrote:OMGosh! I think I had this experience with my host family! Every night, we all took a bath (not together, duh). Then, they had this drink that I liked so it became like, a nightly thing. It was called "mami". Has anyone heard of it? If I had to describe it, I'd have to say it is like a fruity milk. Weird...

マミ : Cambodian breast milk

I hope you're kidding?

Well, all Mr. Japanese Wikipedia is giving me is a redirect to some article about raccoons or something. So maybe?

bodhisamaya Wrote:

nest0r Wrote:2 Bowing on the telephone 88.1

If I ever become this Japanese, somebody shoot me!

I second this.

stehr Wrote:

bodhisamaya Wrote:

nest0r Wrote:2 Bowing on the telephone 88.1

If I ever become this Japanese, somebody shoot me!

I second this.

Wouldn't that be interesting? To be so immersed in a different culture that you forget your old habits? I wonder, if one were to completely stop using their native tongue after becoming an adult and went live in a foreign country for 20 years, would they forget their native tongue?

My dad did something like that, he immigrated from Egypt at around 13 and now he's forgotten Arabic.

What's really interesting is that while bowing on the telephone is no. 2, they'd still be more surprised if I wrote out Jarvik7's kanji from memory (which I accidentally learned how to do).

stehr Wrote:

bodhisamaya Wrote:

nest0r Wrote:2 Bowing on the telephone 88.1

If I ever become this Japanese, somebody shoot me!

I second this.

I sort of bow when I say thank you now. But it's hardly noticeable XD It looks more like a nod.

But if I were -speaking- in Japanese, I think I'd be bowing on the phone too

I bowed when saying thank you before I even studied Japanese. Weird no?

activeaero Wrote:I think it has to do with an old Japanese add campaign for flavored milk that became very famous, obviously featuring a guy drinking milk with his hand on his hip after stepping out of the Onsen. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

I just saw this while watching Kamichu.
Do you have a link to the original video ad?

I bow on the phone when speaking Japanese over it. It comes automatically if you live in Japan since you bow so much while speaking Japanese. It comes out naturally even when you're on the phone... hell, I even think it happened when I was chatting once.