Imagine laughing at someone over the name they were born with, and then accusing them of being the rude one! Some people need a lesson in manners, and a reminder of the age old advice “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”
That was the situation when this user with a traditional Japanese name was introduced to her roommate’s friend, who accused her of appropriating Japanese culture.
When she responded with fluent Japanese, her roommate demand that she apologize!
She turned to Reddit to explain the situation, and see who users thought was in the wrong.
Backstory: I (F20) have a Japanese name even though I am not ethnically Japanese. My mom is Korean & my dad is British.
They met and fell in love while studying in Japan, and had me there after marrying.
We lived there until I was 14 before moving to the States.
This will be important later on.
Today a group of my roommate’s friends came over to study with her, and I happened to be in the living room when they arrived.
And just like every other meeting between someone and their college roommate’s friends, things quickly went off the rails!
They were introducing themselves to me and when I said my name.
I have a pretty common Japanese girl name so it’s pretty hard to be mistaken about the origin.
One of the girls made a disgusted face and laughed at me saying that was so dumb.
She said that she was Japanese American and I was “culturally appropriating her country as a white person.”
I tried to explain that I lived in Japan for a while and that was why but she kept insisting I was lying and that if I was telling the truth I would be able to speak the language.
Since she put it like that I started talking to her in Japanese. Basically explaining where I lived there and asking which prefecture her parents were from, etc.
She ends up stuttering through a sentence in an awkward manner before leaving in a huff.
This would be the part of the story where the friend takes her foot out of her own mouth! But instead, she has the nerve to get offended.
Later my roommate told me I embarrassed her by “pretending to be more Japanese than an actual Japanese person and appropriating the culture” and her friend expected an apology.
My roommate doesn’t think I did anything wrong but now I feel kind of bad.
She feels bad, if anything, she should be the one waiting for an apology! And reddit definitely agreed, with this user commenting that if anything, the roommate’s friend was the one being disrespectful!
Another user responded by pointing out her history.
And this user pointed out how ridiculous the friend’s outrage was…
Looks like reddit has come out in strong support of this person.
Honestly, she has nothing to apologize for. That other girl was being such a zoomer.
If you liked that post, check this one about a guy who got revenge on his condo by making his own Christmas light rules.
Source: https://twistedsifter.com/2023/12/girl-called-out-her-japanese-name-for-cultural-appropriation-she-then-proceeds-to-speak-fluent-japanese-and-shuts-her-up/
