I agree with Eric M. Skier ("Fluent Japanese does not compute," Sept. 6 letter) that Japanese is less difficult to learn than speaking with Japanese people is. When I arrived in Japan and studied Japanese, I quickly learned that the more I understood and could speak, the more I realized that the Japanese had little to say. Or, maybe I just wasn't listening properly. Or, maybe they just had little to say to me. It doesn't mean that the Japanese are not friendly. They are exceptionally friendly, and I admire them for it.
I discovered that despite the myth of social harmony and the social custom of sympathetic listening — pretending to accurately guess or anticipate others' feelings, needs and desires — the Japanese misunderstand each other as much as anybody. The vagueness of the language, the regard for form over content, and a common inability to properly comprehend their own written language contribute to a camouflaged social disharmony that people, when it occasionally erupts, appropriately pretend to be dismayed about.
Despite my language ability I agree with Alexander Ross ("Show same courtesy to foreigners," Sept. 6 letter) in that I never expect the Japanese to change their mentality about foreigners, even though some of us are not foreigners at all but naturalized citizens.
It is on this point that Debito Arudou ("Meet Mr. James, gaijin clown," Sept. 1) is unbending because he correctly sees nationality as solely a matter of citizenship, not of race, and is persistent in his quest for equality. His detractors see him as a professional complainer for his persistence. His detractors accept that unequal and discriminatory treatment are natural and inevitable considering the Japanese mentality, so we should get used to it and stop denying that we are different.
Arudou is working to push Japanese thinking to a new level. And if you consider that no change has ever occurred here that was not the result of external pressure, then Arudou might be in a good position. Usually, Arudou's writing hits the nail right on the head. He is entertaining, enlightening and a little frightening.
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