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From: Drew Hamilton <drew@drew-hamilton.net>
Subject: Re: i hate being called "Tanaka-san" by a (racist) white American.
Originator: awhamilt@csclub.uwaterloo.ca (Drew Hamilton)
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In article <331560B9.2337@spam.diet>, Michael Cash  <no@spam.diet> wrote:
>Of course, the other bizarre thing is that almost every foreigner in
>Japan is addressed by FIRST NAME ONLY and as far as your average
>Japanese cares doesn't even have a family name.  It is weird to be
>called "Mr. Mike".  If you have enough respect to call me Mr., use it
>with my last name.  If were friendly enough for first names, don't call
>me Mister.

A lot of times, though, it's a pure mistake on the part of the Japanese.
I've only been here a scant 4 months, and already I can't count the
times that I've written my name down (in Canadian given-name-first
style, as I've been told to do by my office mates), and then been
called "Andrew-san", "Drew-san", "Mr. Andrew", whatever.  This happens
at the doctor, at the film developer's, at the hotel, etc.  The Japanese
have as little experience with our names as we have with theirs.  When
I accidentally called Kanno Shigesuke "Mr. Shigesuke" for a while, it
was a pure mistake on my part - I didn't know enough about Japanese
names to know which was the family name, and I expect that it's the same
case with japanese who call me "Mr. Andrew" until corrected.

 - Drew

