Q. Aren’t Americans direct and straightforward? Answer: While to Japanese it seems that Americans are more open with one another, Americans do try to respect the privacy of others and refrain from saying exactly what they feel. A good friend living in Japan had been teaching English to a very kind, middle–aged Japanese woman for […]
Q. What do I have to watch out for with PC? Answer: America is struggling with of the PC (Political Correctness) movement, a wide–ranging movement by various groups that attempts to free American English of terms that are derogatory, insulting or condescending. Proponents sometimes go too far in trying to change society by changing vocabulary, […]
Q. What’s wrong with using the word “Negro”? Answer: The PC movement has also changed how we refer to various groups of people. What you learned in school may no longer be approved of. For instance, in America in the 1950s the accepted term for kokujin was “Negro.†In the 1960s it was “Afro–Americans.†At […]
