Well...im new...

[dojoteef]

Besides the Japanese, Anime lovers consist mainly of white, teenage suburbanite Americans. Also termed "Wapanese" (White + Japanese). They pick up Japanese language as a subject of study not because it is a different language, or even that it is a difficult one to pick up or even for the sake of learning it. They learn it because they're entranced by Japanese culture, and in many ways, they're ashamed of who they are and wish they were born Japanese - believing Americans (not whites per se) to be of 'inferior' culture to the Japanese. They have the belief that all Japanese people are polite and honorable, and still follow the Warrior Code, or Bushido.

It's wierd I've never heard that term Wapanese before, because I actually know people who fit that description very well. One is my old roommate's girlfriend. She was a skinny ass white girl that LOVED everything Japanese. She was also in the same level Japanese courses I took. Most everything you mention in that first paragraph, she was entranced by. As for that second paragraph, well as far as I know she never did any of that crap, but she is a big fan of the LOTK movies.

The funniest thing is, before she started going out with my roommate, she was going out with this Japanese guy, who was the most uptight aloof person I've ever met. I think that's what she liked about him because he was similar to the stereotypical Japanese male. We all went spelunking and while we were in the caves my roommate started making moves on her, she didn't last too much longer with the Japanese guy.

Oh well, there are all sorts of people out there I guess. On the other hand I actually did take Japanese for much different reasons. I already know two languages English and Arabic so I thought it would be interesting to take a third language that had a different character set than the other two. Japanese did turn out to be more of a bitch than I expected, but the teachers were nice enough. They were mostly graduate students from Japan that I guess would have been counterculture over there. They just wanted to come to America because they couldn't stand how uptight it was in Japan, so in turn they were really laid back. If it weren't for that fact I don't think I would have made straight A's in those courses because I'm a lazy ass bum.

Oh and xemous, Hellsing does kick ass. I only wish it was longer than 13 episodes.

Hey Exitium, btw, how is it that you know so much about "Wapanese"?

 

[Sol Invictus]

INTERNETS!

 

[Nicolai]

Trust me, you don't want to know.

 

[Ortchel]

Dojo, you sure you don't live in that cave also? These kids are everywhere, it's the new 'culture'.

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

I miss being able to go spelunking.