I'm getting around to answering messages and everyone is asking me about this video!! In the video people who look foreign try to speak to a Japanese waitress and the waitress acts like she can't understand them because she thinks they're foreigners. And everyone wants to know what I think/does it happen to me.
And my response is: Since I've seen the responses from a lot of other foreigners saying, "Oh yeah!! That happens to me!!" then it must be a real thing that people experience, for sure! I've also heard a lot in the past about foreigners who can speak Japanese getting upset that Japanese people will automatically try to speak to them in English, even if they respond in Japanese.
For me, personally, though--maybe it's just because Jun's city doesn't have many foreigners--this hasn't happened to me. The workers in his city have always spoken to me in Japanese. The ironic part is that my Japanese was never good enough to understand everything they said or respond! So I've actually had the opposite problem.
But yeah, Japanese people speak to me in Japanese, waitresses address both me and Jun when we're out, and if I talk to a worker they respond to me and not Jun! So I just haven't had much experience with these types of microaggressions. I'm just one person, though, and I always read about people having the opposite experiences.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLt5qSm9U80
-Rachel
