JP Only

[Colino]

stating the obvious here but...this english-centric mentality is ridiculous.

So asking to be able to use english in a country that speaks english is english-centric?

Ok... We should all convert to glorious Nippon instead so we can capture all the chinpokomon.

[Antipika]

At least Pokemon games are kanji-less Could probably been done quickly.

[Keith_Dragoon]

Too bad on Japanese clients he basically stated he didn't speak the Japanese Language and what isn't shown was if 'Vivi' was shouting for a party or he just simply asked them, because they may have abbreviated Party as 'PT' in English.

It was all in Japanese, I was so desperate when I saw numbers in my range I popped up Google translate to see what it said.

The next day I did the same and got into an awesome party.

[AmyRae]

DNO with proposing regional servers you're being worse than "JP-onry". Not only do you do refuse to play with JP yourself, but you're forcing everyone else to not play with people outside of their region either. Why can't you just play on an international server and just ignore everyone you do not want to play with and let other people decide for themselves?

Regional servers are not going to solve the problem. It's just going to hide it for awhile.

But it's an understandable reaction to something that seems intentionally offensive. The thing is, it would quite simple to organize Japanese language only linkshells and parties by simply avoiding any use of the Latin alphabet and the auto-translate feature entirely. That would solve the problem perfectly. No offense perceived, and so none taken.

What makes it upsetting is that a person who wants nothing but to invite Japanese-only language speakers to their group has to take that extra step to use 6 Latin characters (letters they would not ordinarily use) strung together directed at English speakers that "you're not welcome." And this exact phrase gets repeated several times over and over the years among certain Japanese that want to exclude non-Japanese speakers. That seems intentionally hateful.

It would be as though North Americans learned the kanji (never using it otherwise) to make it clear Japanese weren't welcome in their group, and made it easy to cut-and-paste into all their in-game correspondence so that it was repeated over and over in the game for the Japanese to see. The thing is, we would not feel so comfortable doing that. In Canada it would be considered a hate-crime. In the United States they're taught that this sort of attitude stems from a horrible past of civil rights abuses in their own country. We're taught to give someone who wants to join you a fair chance like everyone else.

So, in that light, I think the oft repeated phrase "JP Only" is offensive because it goes against my values and the values of my country, even if those who use the phrase don't mean to offend.

[Antipika]

Oh come on Japanese people use Latin characters a lot in their daily life... Especially now with the computer/internet era... You don't bloody type https with a Kanji last time I checked.

I won't even mention all the acronyms they use, again made with Latin alphabet. Could it be in game, at work, etc. Latin characters aren't for Japanese what Kanjis are for westerners. Impossible to compare it this way.

[Mikita]

One day a Japanese friend was shouting for a party and included "JP Only" in the shout.

I know he is not a racist person, so I asked him why he said "JP Only".

He said he meant that he could only communicate in Japanese.

I asked him if he knew many English speakers feel it is discrimination and get upset when they see that.

He was shocked and felt ashamed.

He said would actually like an opportunity to play with English speaking players, but he could not communicate in English and he did not want to cause problems because he could not use the language.


This will not explain all situations of JP Only, but this is one side of the story.

[AmyRae]

Oh come on Japanese people use Latin characters a lot in their daily life... Especially now with the computer/internet era... You don't bloody type https with a Kanji last time I checked.

I won't even mention all the acronyms they use, again made with Latin alphabet. Could it be in game, at work, etc. Latin characters aren't for Japanese what Kanjis are for westerners. Impossible to compare it this way.

This has nothing to do with the issue. I'm simply saying if the intention is to "keep it Japanese" then certainly it's less offensive to stick with non-Latin alphabets than qualifying the Latin letters in your text with an oft repeated "JP Only" at the end.

[Spellbinder]

One day a Japanese friend was shouting for a party and included "JP Only" in the shout.

I know he is not a racist person, so I asked him why he said "JP Only".

He said he meant that he could only communicate in Japanese.

I asked him if he knew many English speakers feel it is discrimination and get upset when they see that.

He was shocked and felt ashamed.

He said would actually like an opportunity to play with English speaking players, but he could not communicate in English and he did not want to cause problems because he could not use the language.


This will not explain all situations of JP Only, but this is one side of the story.

I think this is the case most of the time actually. If I had a time for every time a word looked like something in English but meant something different in Japanese...

[AmyRae]

I think this is the case most of the time actually. If I had a time for every time a word looked like something in English but meant something different in Japanese...

I'm sure there are people who aren't trying to be offensive with "JP Only" and just don't know any other way to get their message across or don't realize it may offend some people. But you can't ever get this to change unless you make it known that it bothers you.

In the same way, I'm sure there are plenty of habits and phrases westerners have that are offensive going the other way. But communication is the key to ever settling these issues, not separating servers and ending communication entirely.

[Spellbinder]

In the same way, I'm sure there are plenty of habits and phrases westerners have that are offensive going the other way. But communication is the key to ever settling these issues, not separating servers and ending communication entirely.

+1 good sir or madam, +1...