[Shinrei]

Hello everyone! People on this board come from a variety of 'intelligent' backgrounds so I'm wondering if you can help me out.

There is a phenomenon amongst expats in Japan that has been documented, but hasn't actually been studied/researched. I refer to this as "My Japan" syndrome. To put it simply, many non-Japanese people who live in Japan have a tendency to 'claim' Japan for themselves. They resent other foreigners intruding on their 'space' and generally wish/believe that their Japan experience is somehow more genuine/unique. This is referred to on another forum I frequent as (jokingly) "GET OUT OF MY JAPAN". I've even read diary accounts that indicate that there were foreigners doing this as early as the 1870's after Japan opened to the West.

I thought it would be interesting to hit the pavement with a survey for random foreigners in Japan to gauge the prevalence of this phenomenon. However, my research experience and study has not included the art of survey writing. I would like to cut and paste what I've made, but I don't really know if it is sufficient or well put together.

Any advice PLEASE! This could conclude any information on survey writing literature that I could get my hands on. Thank you all!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For the most part, all questions are Yes/No.

Age:　20-25 26-30 31-35 36-40 41-45 46-50 51-55 56-65 Over 65
Country of Origin:＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿ Time spent in Japan：＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿
Current Occupation:____________________ Former (Japan) Occupation: ___________________
Married Y/N:_________ Is your spouse Japanese Y/N:________
Currently reside in (circle one) a) Big City Medium City c) Small City d) Town e) Village
Size of the city in which you grew up: Big Medium Small Town Village
How would you describe your Japanese language level? Beginner, Advanced Beginner, Conversational, Advanced Fluency, Fluent/Business


Q1) Do you have Non-Japanese friends you regularly spend time with in Japan?
Q2) Do you have Japanese friends you regularly spend time with in Japan?
Q3) Are there many/some/few/none foreign residents aside from yourself in your city or town?
Q4) Does your city/town attract non-Japanese tourists?
Q5) a) When you see another (apparently) non-Japanese whom you don’t know, do you generally greet them? (This could include simply nodding your head or smiling).
do you generally ignore them?
Q6) Does it bother you if another foreigner greets you in English?
Q7) Does it bother you in another foreigner greets you in Japanese?
Q8) Does it bother you to hear someone complain about Japan or the Japanese, even if you sometimes agree with what they say?
Q9) Do you ever verbally defend Japan or the Japanese in these instances?
Q10) Do you ever read accounts written by others about Japan (in books, magazines, newspapers) where you think to yourself `that person doesn’t understand what they`re talking about.`?
Q11) Do you have a special place where you like to visit in Japan to where you are unlikely to encounter another foreigner?
Q12) If you were to suddenly find another foreigner there, would this upset you?
Q13)Do you ever experience any unprovoked irritation or animosity towards another foreigner who you don’t know?
Q14) Have you ever hosted a family member or friend who came to Japan as a tourist?
Q15) At any point did you experience any embarrassment or discomfort by their behavior?
Q16) For you, which is the more irritating experience:
a) Random foreigner attempts to engage you in conversation on the train in English. Random Japanese attempts to engage you in conversation on the train in Japanese. c) Random Japanese engages you in conversation on the train in English. d)None of these bother me. e) All of these bother me.
Q17) When you are with another foreigner, who speaks Japanese more fluently than you, do you never/seldom/sometimes/often/always feel embarrassed?
Q18) When you are with another foreigner, and your Japanese is more fluent than theirs, do you never/seldom/sometimes/often/always feel satisfaction?

[HoosierDaddy]

Shinrei no Shintai, on Jan 17 2009, 09:29 AM, said:

Hello everyone! People on this board come from a variety of 'intelligent' backgrounds so I'm wondering if you can help me out.

There is a phenomenon amongst expats in Japan that has been documented, but hasn't actually been studied/researched. I refer to this as "My Japan" syndrome. To put it simply, many non-Japanese people who live in Japan have a tendency to 'claim' Japan for themselves. They resent other foreigners intruding on their 'space' and generally wish/believe that their Japan experience is somehow more genuine/unique. This is referred to on another forum I frequent as (jokingly) "GET OUT OF MY JAPAN". I've even read diary accounts that indicate that there were foreigners doing this as early as the 1870's after Japan opened to the West.

I thought it would be interesting to hit the pavement with a survey for random foreigners in Japan to gauge the prevalence of this phenomenon. However, my research experience and study has not included the art of survey writing. I would like to cut and paste what I've made, but I don't really know if it is sufficient or well put together.

Any advice PLEASE! This could conclude any information on survey writing literature that I could get my hands on. Thank you all!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For the most part, all questions are Yes/No.

Age:　20-25 26-30 31-35 36-40 41-45 46-50 51-55 56-65 Over 65
Country of Origin:＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿ Time spent in Japan：＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿
Current Occupation:____________________ Former (Japan) Occupation: ___________________
Married Y/N:_________ Is your spouse Japanese Y/N:________
Currently reside in (circle one) a) Big City Medium City c) Small City d) Town e) Village
Size of the city in which you grew up: Big Medium Small Town Village
How would you describe your Japanese language level? Beginner, Advanced Beginner, Conversational, Advanced Fluency, Fluent/Business


Q1) Do you have Non-Japanese friends you regularly spend time with in Japan?
Q2) Do you have Japanese friends you regularly spend time with in Japan?
Q3) Are there many/some/few/none foreign residents aside from yourself in your city or town?
Q4) Does your city/town attract non-Japanese tourists?
Q5) a) When you see another (apparently) non-Japanese whom you don’t know, do you generally greet them? (This could include simply nodding your head or smiling).
do you generally ignore them?
Q6) Does it bother you if another foreigner greets you in English?
Q7) Does it bother you in another foreigner greets you in Japanese?
Q8) Does it bother you to hear someone complain about Japan or the Japanese, even if you sometimes agree with what they say?
Q9) Do you ever verbally defend Japan or the Japanese in these instances?
Q10) Do you ever read accounts written by others about Japan (in books, magazines, newspapers) where you think to yourself `that person doesn’t understand what they`re talking about.`?
Q11) Do you have a special place where you like to visit in Japan to where you are unlikely to encounter another foreigner?
Q12) If you were to suddenly find another foreigner there, would this upset you?
Q13)Do you ever experience any unprovoked irritation or animosity towards another foreigner who you don’t know?
Q14) Have you ever hosted a family member or friend who came to Japan as a tourist?
Q15) At any point did you experience any embarrassment or discomfort by their behavior?
Q16) For you, which is the more irritating experience:
a) Random foreigner attempts to engage you in conversation on the train in English. Random Japanese attempts to engage you in conversation on the train in Japanese. c) Random Japanese engages you in conversation on the train in English. d)None of these bother me. e) All of these bother me.
Q17) When you are with another foreigner, who speaks Japanese more fluently than you, do you never/seldom/sometimes/often/always feel embarrassed?
Q18) When you are with another foreigner, and your Japanese is more fluent than theirs, do you never/seldom/sometimes/often/always feel satisfaction?

A survey is a form of a poll. First things first, make sure that the questions aren't weighted in one weigh or another. Here is an example of a weighted question:

Quote

Q6) Does it bother you if another foreigner greets you in English?
Q7) Does it bother you in another foreigner greets you in Japanese?
Q8) Does it bother you to hear someone complain about Japan or the Japanese, even if you sometimes agree with what they say?

Your question is weighted towards being "bothered" by some degree. The Yes/No response doesn't allow for degrees, which makes it inherently biased towards "bothering" to a high degree. The better, non-loaded question is: "On a scale of 0 -5, to what degree would you say that a foreigner greeting you is bothersome..."

Here's a text-book on writing surveys and polls (it's a subject studied and used by political scientists...):

Method and Meaning in Polls and Surveys

[Shinrei]

Awesome, just the sort of thing I'm looking for.

My cut/paste survey is NOT something I would take the to the public without some opinion/input because it is very rough. Thank you "daddy".

[Coco with marshmallows]

to be honest Shin,

this isn't something unique to foreigners in Japan,

it happens a lot with immigrants all over the world. They adopt their new home country and become zealously over-protective of it.
The UK comedy show Goodness Gracious Me used to have a recurring sketch based around two Indian families trying to outdo each other
in how 'British' they were.

With regards to the survey, there are certain subset questions that depend on previous answers,
so you should consider altering the general layout. For instance, your question 14:

Q14) Have you ever hosted a family member or friend who came to Japan as a tourist?

is a yes/no answer, but question 15 is only valid if they have answered yes to question 14. So you might want to think about renumbering,
or setting up subsets, eg 14a, etc.
That's a very minor point, otherwise Hoosier covered the main concern - loading the questions.

Good luck though, and 'll be interested to see how it goes.

[Mezla PigDog]

The foreigners who are the most displeased when another foreigner greets them will not answer your questionnaire when you ask them! Therefore, you won't get any data at the most extreme end of your scale

[Dolorous Menhir]

No.

[Sparkimus]

Dolorous Menhir, on Jan 18 2009, 01:50 PM, said:

No.

So elegently put. I can do naught else but agree.

[Shinrei]

Dolorous Menhir, on Jan 18 2009, 07:50 PM, said:

No.

You writing both informs and mystifies me. Where can I subscribe to your newsletter?


cocoreturns, yeah, I realize that this phenomenon isn't unique to Japan. However, I dont think anyone has actually taken the time (at least in the Japanese context) to try to take a closer look at how widespread it is, or if certain factors fuel the MY JAPAN feeling more than others.

[Terez]

Shinrei no Shintai, on Jan 18 2009, 07:43 PM, said:

Dolorous Menhir, on Jan 18 2009, 07:50 PM, said:

No.

You writing both informs and mystifies me. Where can I subscribe to your newsletter?

Well, you did specifically address the "Smarty Pants Malazans", which is just a nice way of saying "Smartass Malazans" really, and that's right up DM's alley. Smartass is his specialty. And you did ask a question.

[frookenhauer]

I always thought dolorous Menhir was a woman...

Damnit! Another illusion shattered, thanks a bunch Terez.

[Terez]

Dolorous like Dolorous Edd, not like Dolores.

[Shinrei]

Right, and I was being a smartass right back.

[Terez]

Like a wet noodle.

[Shinrei]

Hmmm, when I wrote that exact same thing on a different forum, people thought it was a brilliant response. thbbbbbbbt