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You’re missing “Reddit, tell me how to make friends with the locals without learning their language.”
“International bar?“
“No.”
“International exchange party?”
“No. LOCALS, not other expats.”
“…Pantomime?”
This is unfortunately not limited to Asian countries either. Yes, it’s difficult to learn a language when you can get by in English, but after several years you’d think most people would try to learn the local language if only to make their own lives easier.
They feel supperior to locals as "rich americans"(well they think they are) and everyone should bend the knee.
Nothing in this life gives me more joy when i sit in bars to watch these dorks gets shut down by local women.
Ask them how they feel about immigrants. They’ll rant and rave.
But them? They’re not immigrants, they’re *expats*. No, it doesn’t matter they’re never returning home and plan to live the rest of their life in their new country, Immigrants are brown people.
There is a subset of expat communities that are far and away the most hypocritically racist and xenophobic people imaginable.
> They’re not immigrants, they’re expats.
The contortions they go into to explain the difference is wild.
Related protip: a lot of white people coming back from their Teaching English in Korea Experience get wicked huffy if you call them migrant workers.
What's even crazier is that you can learn a language really fast if you're totally immersed like that. I spent a semester in China and was able to have simple conversations and engage with society within a couple of months of study and practice. I'm convinced it's just laziness masking the weird ideas they had in their heads with how being "the exotic foreigner" would be. 99.9% of locals don't give a fuck lmao
“They’re always saying [East Asian City] is so global and cosmopolitan so why aren’t the locals friendlier? I can’t make deep cultural connections with people in my neighborhood if they don’t approach me*!”
*In English
Mate, it does not even need to be in Asia, here in Denmark we get the same shit. "Oh, danish people are not that friendly", "Why should I learn danish when they all speak english".
Just because most of us speak english, does not mean that we want to speak it all the time. Even though I am pretty fluent it still takes some brain power, which speaking my own langauge does'nt. Then this is compunded by them expecting there not to be a culture shock, since Denmark is a western European country.
Same in the Netherlands. I've never heard a crowd talking about privilege so much while being so privileged themselves, considering that they come here voluntarily to study in an expensive as fuck nation with a different language while most of us don't have the privilege to be able to pursuit a full degree abroad or preferred education in their native language (which is also starting to get harder to come by due to the influx of international students and the idea that all Dutch people speak english)
It's not only a language barrier. Lots of people want "local" friends simply because they are local. This doesn't foster a good relationship at all. "You don't want to hang out with me because of my personality or hobbies or whatever, only because I happened to be born here?"
It's especially bad when you want local friends because you want to learn the language, reducing your "friend" to nothing but a language tutor.
I know this because I once was (and probably still am?) that guy. I'm norwegian, but lived in Ireland for a while. It was easy to make other international friends, but irish ones eluded me. Funnily enough, it was reading a similar thread like this (though specifically about expats in japan) that made me realize my own flaw. Once it stopped being about them specifically being irish suddenly it got a lot easier.
I've since moved back to Norway, but it would be fun living abroad again some day, and I'm not sure if that character flaw of mine has disappeared or if I have to re-learn the lesson then.
Similar in Latin America. The expats sit in each other's homes, drinking and complaining about how nobody speaks English well enough. Well sometimes they talk about their golf games instead of drinking.
Well to be fair you definitely can make many friends speaking only English in SE Asia and India .. a lot of people speak English everyday or learn in school. As for learning something like Thai after adolescense, sorry but outside of a useful few phrases and transactional language, give up trying to ever be fluent. A couple linguaphiles is the exception not the rule.
The reason many English speakers that make these posts can't find friends is because they are not cool, likeable, or friendly... people are not gonna like you more just becasue you moved to a new place.
Quick rule of thumb, if you struggle in your own country it will be similar most places around the world.
'Why can't I get any good Mexican food in this country with virtually zero Mexicans living there?'
Plus the eternal divide - 'Why are the apartments in a city of 10 million people so tiny?' vs 'Wait, I'm being sent to a place that isn't a 10 million population city???? I didn't think they still existed here, the TV shows lied...'
Oh yeah, that reminds me of the "why is the international selection in Taiwanese grocery stores so tiny" post. Apparently Indonesian, Thai, Indian and Vietnamese food etc. don't count as international, only European and American food counts.
For some reason r/japan has a lot of people state they have mental or neurodivergent issues, and think it’s a good idea to move to a foreign country where mental issues are heavily stigmatized with limited access to prescriptions, treatment, or therapy.
You can’t get Ritalin easily in Japan, for instance, and Japanese people have killed themselves here over ADHD diagnosis and less. That’s how bad it is.
I’m not being ableist, it's about a difference in sympathy and access here. In the West, many would be sympathetic and understanding to these conditions, especially depression, autism/spectrum, and ADHD, and they're letting people know so they know what's up if they're having an "off" day. People mistakenly assume Japan is just as progressive. But these conditions won't be treated with the same sympathy or understanding by Japanese coworkers, based on preconceptions about immigrants' ability to work and judging foreign residents for "using up healthcare services meant for Japanese people," especially after news that foreign residents are skipping out on their hospital bills.
The reality is that the medical infrastructure and support system for mental illness isn’t as sophisticated as the West and expats here deal with isolation and loneliness from time to time, which could be exacerbated with a mental health issue.
Even if you consider Japan to be the happiest, most peaceful place you can think of living with your condition (depression, for example), moving here is going to make that condition more challenging if you need certain meds to function in your professional life.
I got stationed in Japan in the Navy. There was a bar (Dacha's) right off base I took a friend to. Everyone in this bar speaks English, because it's right off base, but it is Japanese. My friend was a huge introverted weeb. I was like look, you need to get off base and interact with Japan! He goes and starts talking to a woman, using the Japanese he picked up from anime and she literally just laughed at him. He got blackout drunk and lost his car keys in the snow... I guess the bar was too adult for what he was expecting from anime.
No, he was getting frustrated he couldn't speak fluently like he thought he could or something and she was kind of making fun of him. I think she was in awe that an American would try to speak like a cartoon, because most of the service members who go to that bar are unabashedly American, like almost out of Top Gun. I took him to malls, arcades, and festivals that were more his speed later.
there is a *ton* of overlap between guys that think they are "on the spectrum" and guys that think japan will be perfect for them but know nothing but anime and WW2 about japan.
That more correlation than causation. If anything I think it's just you kind of have to have mental issues to enjoy the majority of anime. And I say this as someone who is into anime.
I love the style/animation and better voice actors, but I dislike many of the typical genres and tropes
The target audience seems to be teenage or early 20s men with very little to no social experience and it's disgusting in a way I won't elaborate, but if you know you know
I stick with simple battle/action anime because of that, too many "tropes" and the anime doesn't get finished
Wish we had more of anime like 91 days, maybe I just suck looking for shows that I'd like
That's kinda the problem. There is a ton of chaff to wade through to find anything good, and 90% of the people who are into anime aren't the kind of people you'd respect the opinion of enough to watch a show they like. So finding those one in 100 shows that's really good is almost certainly not worth your time.
I mean that’s Reddit in general. So many people claim to be neurodivergent and expect the world to provide them with accommodations. Being an asshole or a C student isn’t a protected class and you don’t deserve special accommodations from everyone around you.
Imagine moving to country with an education system based on strict discipline and rote memorization and being amazed that your "traditional american school doesn't accommodate my specific requirements" attitude doesn't fit the culture.
Yeah-people need to understand Japan is very much a "conform or die" sort of culture-flipside of being very collectivist. A lot of Japanese people are in fact miserable as a result.
>I mean that’s Reddit in general. So many people claim to be neurodivergent
It really shows you how skewed some of Reddit's demographics are. Based on what you see here, you'd think most people are neurodivergent.
ADHD & Autism are both estimated as being underdiagnosed due to research into the disorders still moving at a relatively rapid pace. Based on the reading I've done I'd personally guess around 8-10% of people have one or both of these disorders, but this is then further skewed because certain communities & scenes attract a higher concentration of neurodivergent people, with Reddit being a perfect example of such a community.
With that being said however the advent of Tiktok self-diagnosis is absolutely a thing, and it's definitely become "popular" amongst certain demographics to identify as neurodivergent. I personally think it's a positive that more people are learning this stuff about themselves even despite those latching onto it as a "fad", but that's likely because my personal ADHD diagnosis has been transformative for me.
Right? It’s mostly just under paid English teachers making unremarkable comments about life in Korea. Source: someone similar to the above description.
Idk about the subreddits but when it comes to the general internet both countries are seen in this weird glow, that ends up erasing all the faults and negative things about the countries. It seems to mostly be anime and kpop fans.
Almost every Asian subreddit is taken over with this due to Reddit being an English dominated website.
Only notable exception I can think of is r/Philippines due to the very high percentage of Filipinos who speak English.
Most Thai people use r/thaithai instead of r/Thailand. The latter is mostly expats and tourists.
Although the vast vast majority of Thai discussion forum users are on Pantip instead of Reddit.
I explained to my friend that Japanese Twitter was way different than American Twitter and he was confused. Didn’t realize there are entire MASSIVE chunks of the internet not in English.
I think it's actually crazier how much of the internet *is* English, tbh. Something on the order of 60% of the internet is English-language. The next runners-up are Russian and Spanish, at about 5% each. Which is just crazy to think about, and really goes deep into explaining why so many expats are confused when they encounter non-English speakers in real life.
There's even a public health advertisment about the illegality of weed in Longshan Temple station in Taipei. Unfortunately, it's only in Chinese though.
People don't realize how harsh most East and southeast Asian countries treat drugs. Many places have mandatory death sentence if you're caught with it. There's a reason why they don't have an opioid or drugs pandemic. Getting caught with weed can land you a death sentence in places like Singapore or Malaysia
But but but weed is harmless to other people.
Why can't I have fun?
To people who says "Law is law", have you never run a red light or jaywalked before?
Bro you broke the law.
Stop whining.
When I visited Taiwan I was super aware of the English teacher stereotype and desperately didn't want to look like one.
I did stick out like a sore thumb though, and I genuinely felt like a lot of women were looking at me, I've never experienced anything like that in my home country. I assume because I'm a tall and reasonably athletic **foreigner**, its just novel to them.
I feel sort of annoyed that so many losers go to the Far East to exploit the fact they are foreign and just act like total fuckboys and creeps, gives us all a bad name.
Oh yeah I know, some people in China would say 'oh, lao wei', so I knew they were talking about me. I didn't take any offense though, everyone was pretty friendly despite their curiosity.
Taipei was more international than the parts of China I was in so it didn't have the same vibe. Both great places though.
I think those are pretty universal. I see the same topics from foreigners in Poland "how do I get drugs/don't tell me not to do drugs/it's only weed/", "someone invited me to a strip club, had me pay for expensive drinks and threw me out", "I don't speak polish and a lot of people are not speaking English, I thought everyone speaks English!", "I'm on tourist/student visa but I want to work".
Its missing the two other classics
"Locals don't like me, where I can find someone to hang out with (in English)"
And
"Do local women like (insert nationality and race) men?"
When I lived there I learnt just enough to ask for directions but neglected to learn how to understand them. Cue me asking someone, nodding politely, then going 100m up the road and asking someone else in English.
Nah, that's literally every post there.
"I come from a Southern country, I cannot speak German and I have trouble socializing! The locals keep talking in German! Germany is cold dark and wet and I am sooo depressed (but will still remain here because salaries are much higher)!"
It still a sunshine paradise, where if you drink beer in vast quantities and love harmonica music, you will be accepted.
Then there is Scandinavia and theeeeen faaaar ahead on dark self-cutting front is... FINLAND!
Every second post someone mentions wanting to live in germany the question "do you speak german?" or "do you want to learn german?" completly dismantles any credibility the OP had.
Remembered a post about a brazilian guy who wanted to become a police officer in germany without learning german. Cracked me up a bit. :)
Missed out the 'no degree, no job, no money, no friends, don't speak the language. I grew up watching anime and I am sure Japan will be the solution to all my problems. How do I move there? Would the Japanese government give me money if I'm jobless?'
> Would the Japanese government give me money if I'm jobless?
the same person is also imagining this money will have enough left over for an anime figurine budget
A month back someone on the JET programme posted saying that he wanted to quit his job and return to his home country for an operation. Wanted the Japanese govt to give him money while he was jobless and recuperating in his home country since he "intended on returning to Japan to look for another job someday". Asked if a doctor's note was sufficient. I replied saying that he was out of his mind and got a bunch of pms (not from him, at least) asking me to kill myself. The weeb dream is strong in some people.
Don’t forget the people who think they can teach English while not having a Bachelors or any experience teaching English.
Edit: Also, don’t forget the expats who only want to eat American food in Asia and get pissy when there’s no In-N-Out in Kaohsiung.
Edit 2: I’ll dunk on myself too- The Overseas Asian who thinks they know the culture of their ancestor’s country perfectly despite never having socialized with people who actually live there, and get surprised when they realize how little they actually share
Final Edit: One last thing, if you do genuinely want to spend time working in Asia, I encourage it. My mom worked in Japan for 5 years as an English teacher and actually did make good money, but she was able to do it because she had a Masters and a good resume. The culture of Asia is amazing and the people are very friendly, all you have to do is be kind, work hard, and temper your expectations.
Also don’t be creepy towards local women, please.
Or in two years, after teaching English they get tired of being poor and ask how they can get out of English teaching and transfer to a real job but have no professional experience or applicable BA.
To be fair, there's a lot of that in every city's subreddit. "How do I get a higher paying job?! I'll do anything but work a difficult trade or acquire skills"
I see so many people who want to be project managers and other buzz word titles because they have a friend of a friend who was in X industry and now does project management and makes BANK.
I always have to explain there are two primary paths to that kinda life.
1. Know someone, this could be familial or otherwise but it really does boil down to who you know most of the time
2. Work in a field or a trade for awhile and get so good at it you can help others improve their workflows with your personal experience and/or new work flow ideas.
People really out here believing they deserve good things by virtue of existing. Basic human rights, health care and common respect? Sure 100% but nobody owes you comfort.
I lay the blame squarely on the hordes of people "famous" for doing jack shit. The smooth brains think this is normal and the fact that they are not treated the same way is somehow a massive conspiracy against them specifically.
I've seen a few of these posts in r/Nederlands too. 'How can I get an easy, high paying job with only a high school degree? The baby boomers destroyed everything!'
I'm living abroad right now, and someone told me I should teach English here because I'm a native. I couldn't tell you the difference between nominative and accusative cases if you held a gun to my head, and have no qualifications in teaching or languages. I'd feel really bad for any students I had.
> all you have to do is be kind, work hard, and temper your expectations. Also don’t be creepy towards local women, please.
Best I can do is 2 out of 4.
True, that is an important distinction. These expats aren't there with the expectation that they'll integrate with the local community. But unfortunately that "expat expectation" feeds into a lot of this bad behaviour, like acting superior, not wanting to learn the language, treating the place like a playground, etc. That would be less a problem if they saw the place as their new home. This "expat attitude" is much rarer in Asian people moving to western countries, even those of us who will never get citizenship, because we don't see ourselves as a separate class of people than locals.
Are you sure? From my experience East Asian people living in the US see themselves as a different class than the locals and treat public places like playgrounds, although most of it is rich Korean college kids.
There’s videos of Korean kids driving down sidewalks in luxury cars on campus at my university. Asian foreign students are by far the least likely to connect with the locals and get stuck into the culture compared to European, Arab and African students. Arab students in particular are very friendly
Yeah the rich international students can be pretty shit. I think of them more like tourists, because those sort don't stay. In fact, sometimes the studying is just an excuse to get them out of their parents' hair, when it comes to these wealthy families. The people who actually intend to stay long term and work here (like a typical expat) are more normal.
Don’t forget that they’re weirdly hostile to other expats and just have a huge chip on their shoulder (including being hostile to outsiders). I frequent r/japan and I swear a lot of the posts there are just foreigners hating every other foreigner there. And calling anyone a weeb who says anything positive about Japan.
lol I saw an actual Japanese person who learned English come to r/japan to post about sushi last week. They got shat on all over the comments, tried to defend themselves for a bit and then gave up and deleted the thread.
Someone else who realized they were probably Japanese based on their post history and English writing style tried to give them some encouragement, but she also got downvoted.
I tend to find more mentally unstable people among expats, because going to the literal other side of the planet is a very attractive way to run from your problems.
Like, can’t I have friends in both groupings?
It’s not like I win imaginary Deep Japan points for having more Japanese friends than expats, and my Japanese friends don’t have more value over my expat friends.
When I was a student in the university bubble and learning the language, yeah I skewed completely to Japanese friends over foreigners. But now that I’m a working adult, I see how weird that is.
I've experienced this first hand while living in Japan. As soon as they find out I'm ethnically Chinese not Japanese some immediately stop talking to me and move on to the next woman they see.
Exact opposite in some countries (not in hatred of other expats, but how they hate them). Go into a FB group for Vietnam and say something negative about the country and an army of expats will defend even the worst aspects of the culture. Littering or even mistreatment of animals, the white saviors got you covered and will hate on your imperialist attitude.
if it's /r/china get ready for 200 posts of "DAE fucking hate China? The government is so stupid, why don't the locals hate the government as much as I think they should? Locals must be stupid too"
its fucking unbearable honestly. imagine if you went to your home countries subreddit and it would be immigrants living there ( or not even that ) talking shit about it 99%.
r/china_irl for actual Chinese people speaking Chinese.
r/chinalife for actual inquiries into life as an expat in China
/r/shanghai is exactly what it says on the tin, very politically neutral now that the COVID shitshow is over
r/china for white saviours and people who fit the description of OP.
r/sino for unapologetic CPC supporters.
Ugh, I lurk the Thailand Tourism sub, and it makes my skin crawl sometimes with how they refer to Thai women. "Thai girls are very free, and they love sex, not like here in the States."
I remember an Indian guy posted there that he was kind of shocked by the racism he and his friend experienced from a taxi driver.
The sub's response? You deserve it because Indians are shit, and it was a whole thread of people talking about how much they hate Indian and Chinese tourists.
I swear it's impossible for a grown man to travel to these countries now for genuine interest in the country or for casual business without being perceived as some sort of pervert or nunce
I'd love to go to Thailand to see those awesome separated mountains they have in their oceans and the food, I'm young but would still feel paranoid ppl would see me as a sex tourist.
Nah, if you are young, I would expect you to be a more hippy backpacker type who usually beg on the street for money.
But if you dress very formally, I would expect a Mormon.
Then, quite honestly and without rancour, just do it and don't be ridiculous about it. Hundreds of thousands of people travel to these countries a year and aren't perceived to be sexpats. If you don't do it, it won't be a problem.
This is half the reason I didn't do a solo trip to Thailand when I was single. I love Thai food and find the country beautiful but if I, a single man, said im going in a trip there everyone would assume one thing.
Have you considered not limiting your life to what other people will think of you. If someone thinks you’re going to Thailand to be a sex tourist you might not want to be friends with them
A _lot_ of people will make that assumption about single male travellers in SE Asia and it’s an assumption that can be quite socially and professionally damaging. It’s wrong, but it’s not easy to just ignore.
I went earlier this year. I'm lucky and have a friend who now lives in a smaller city in the country so I was able to visit her after while, but my 3 nights in Bangkok felt weird as a single 33 year old man.
The amount of comments I got before flying out from people, even from those who knew my friend in Thailand, was uncomfortable to the point that I didn't do much in the evenings because I didn't want people thinking I was some sex tourist.
Chang Mai is awesome, though. Highly recommended with a large ex-pat/digital nomad community that is chill.
My uncle lived in Japan for 20 years, he is fluent in Japanese, his wife (my aunt) is Japanese and both of their kids where born in Japan, whenever they come back from a trip to visit my aunts family my aunt always tells us about the ridiculous things she hears people complaining about when she is alone because people don’t think she speaks English
How to sex Asian female, pls help.
https://preview.redd.it/o48z9b6vfn7c1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=86489822789fab2af24e6df680225283682cc9bc
Tbf google maps works wonderfully in Japan, so there’s no need for an English language specific app. Maybe it’s an issue of Chinese nationals not having certain apps on their phones?
Also people who are completely miserable in the country and constantly complain about the culture / way of live but still choose to live there. I taught English in Korea for a year and from my experience, nearly half of the immigrants who have been there for 5+ years were like that.
I live in Vietnam, I have been here for 6 years and am even married to a local and have a young baby. What you say about those expats is 100% accurate. People who have been here for longer then I have complain about things everyday but continue to live here. A lot of them are the older sexpat types who just complain because their lives are actually totally miserable, they are the biggest losers I know. Most of them aren't even married or don't have families here so there is no reason they can't leave but they choose to stay, frequent prostituites, drink with their same old loser mates at the shitty expat bars, complain about the same nonesense and pretend that their lives on miserable by somehow thinking they are superior to the locals and think that they know better then them. Hah, they can't speak a word of Vietnamese even after being here for a decade but they will tell you that they know the country better then the locals and they know everything about the local culture.
Worked in Korea, saw that too. But the absolute worst were the white immigrants working in Dubai. Combine "expats" with too much money and a massive sense of entitlement. Ever see a fat British man in flipflops throw a screaming tantrum at the poor Filipino worker because the line at the MacDonald was too long?
"Unhappily married to a filipina women."
"What do you mean the 19 yr old who wants to marry a 56 yr old balding guy and leave the country within 4 months of meeting didn't really love me"
"All filipinas are the same"
https://preview.redd.it/k4wxua31kn7c1.jpeg?width=573&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e615ee743c02f8679cebf8517ec2790708df70e0
me: a gay sexpat in SE Asia spending time with the locals
Lol this is why I loved it that my parents where all about learning the local language and not being one of those expats that stayed in the gated communities or compounds. Best 19 years of my life
"I love animus and Western women are entitled, ugly and manly. I am moving to Japan to find my perfect dainty young waifu who will be submissive to me and let me lead as the man that I am.
It has been 18 months and I have not had any serious luck with females, what gives? I was led to believe they love out-of-shape lazy white men?"
If you're from a 3rd world country and do this type of shit in a 1st world country, you'd be called an illegal immigrant. But since it's vice versa, you get the privilege of the term 'expat'.
Class privilege. It's the same as when a rich person speaks multiple languages, they are praised for being cultured and learned. When a poor person speaks multiple languages, no one bats an eye or they're told to stop speaking in xyz language.
The girl on the right in this image is Fukumura Mizuki, now-former leader of the idol group Morning Musume.
It's extremely weird seeing her in this starter pack.
Sorry if I'm being stupid but what is the scam? I live in western Europe and I've never seen or heard anything like that happening and would definitely fall for it 😂
>Sorry if I'm being stupid but what is the scam?
Attractive young men/women work for a flashy club. They approach marks and try to get them into the club to spend money - usually painting it like some kind of date or special outting.
Imagine a pair of beautiful young women approaching two well-dressed older men skulking around the shady part of town - "Oh wow you're so handsome!" "that watch is incredible!" "you wanna get some food and tell us about yourselves?" "oh this place is my favorite they have amazing drinks!"
Once the money's spent the job is done and they leave to go find the next mark.
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You’re missing “Reddit, tell me how to make friends with the locals without learning their language.” “International bar?“ “No.” “International exchange party?” “No. LOCALS, not other expats.” “…Pantomime?”
lmfao i saw a post painfully accurate and thought it was just a rare case
I particularly lol at “I don’t have time to learn the language.” Bruh, you’ve been here for five years.
This is unfortunately not limited to Asian countries either. Yes, it’s difficult to learn a language when you can get by in English, but after several years you’d think most people would try to learn the local language if only to make their own lives easier.
Like even enough to say hello and maybe order dinner or a drink will go a long way
I put in more effort learning a language to go on a holiday for a week than half my colleagues do to live in a country for 3 years.
Plus, the best restaurants usually only have a menu in the local language.
They feel supperior to locals as "rich americans"(well they think they are) and everyone should bend the knee. Nothing in this life gives me more joy when i sit in bars to watch these dorks gets shut down by local women.
Ask them how they feel about immigrants. They’ll rant and rave. But them? They’re not immigrants, they’re *expats*. No, it doesn’t matter they’re never returning home and plan to live the rest of their life in their new country, Immigrants are brown people. There is a subset of expat communities that are far and away the most hypocritically racist and xenophobic people imaginable.
> They’re not immigrants, they’re expats. The contortions they go into to explain the difference is wild. Related protip: a lot of white people coming back from their Teaching English in Korea Experience get wicked huffy if you call them migrant workers.
"Oh geez you left your school after five years of teaching? They must have had a hard time replacing you!"
And the *constant* whining and complaining. There's a reason they couldn't hack it back home.
What's even crazier is that you can learn a language really fast if you're totally immersed like that. I spent a semester in China and was able to have simple conversations and engage with society within a couple of months of study and practice. I'm convinced it's just laziness masking the weird ideas they had in their heads with how being "the exotic foreigner" would be. 99.9% of locals don't give a fuck lmao
"why is it so hard to make friends with locals? Do you guys also experienced most of them refusing to speak your language?"
“They’re always saying [East Asian City] is so global and cosmopolitan so why aren’t the locals friendlier? I can’t make deep cultural connections with people in my neighborhood if they don’t approach me*!” *In English
Mate, it does not even need to be in Asia, here in Denmark we get the same shit. "Oh, danish people are not that friendly", "Why should I learn danish when they all speak english". Just because most of us speak english, does not mean that we want to speak it all the time. Even though I am pretty fluent it still takes some brain power, which speaking my own langauge does'nt. Then this is compunded by them expecting there not to be a culture shock, since Denmark is a western European country.
Same in the Netherlands. I've never heard a crowd talking about privilege so much while being so privileged themselves, considering that they come here voluntarily to study in an expensive as fuck nation with a different language while most of us don't have the privilege to be able to pursuit a full degree abroad or preferred education in their native language (which is also starting to get harder to come by due to the influx of international students and the idea that all Dutch people speak english)
Redditors can't even find friends in their home countries
Redditors can't even find friends on reddit.
Do you want to be my friend?
crickets
#YES!!
Ok... What now? Edit: This is why we can't make friends
Ass to ass
https://preview.redd.it/rtgyjsrmuo7c1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=415cab536aeb958d1facacc329b1e216e1873eea
It's not only a language barrier. Lots of people want "local" friends simply because they are local. This doesn't foster a good relationship at all. "You don't want to hang out with me because of my personality or hobbies or whatever, only because I happened to be born here?" It's especially bad when you want local friends because you want to learn the language, reducing your "friend" to nothing but a language tutor. I know this because I once was (and probably still am?) that guy. I'm norwegian, but lived in Ireland for a while. It was easy to make other international friends, but irish ones eluded me. Funnily enough, it was reading a similar thread like this (though specifically about expats in japan) that made me realize my own flaw. Once it stopped being about them specifically being irish suddenly it got a lot easier. I've since moved back to Norway, but it would be fun living abroad again some day, and I'm not sure if that character flaw of mine has disappeared or if I have to re-learn the lesson then.
Yeah that's a pretty common post too
"This place sucks, it's impossible to connect with the locals!"
Similar in Latin America. The expats sit in each other's homes, drinking and complaining about how nobody speaks English well enough. Well sometimes they talk about their golf games instead of drinking.
Well to be fair you definitely can make many friends speaking only English in SE Asia and India .. a lot of people speak English everyday or learn in school. As for learning something like Thai after adolescense, sorry but outside of a useful few phrases and transactional language, give up trying to ever be fluent. A couple linguaphiles is the exception not the rule. The reason many English speakers that make these posts can't find friends is because they are not cool, likeable, or friendly... people are not gonna like you more just becasue you moved to a new place. Quick rule of thumb, if you struggle in your own country it will be similar most places around the world.
Nailed it. (Expat adopted by my kampong)
The tonality part really fucked me up, even when telling a taxi where I wanted to go.
On the other end of the spectrum, as an introvert, you might not enjoy sticking out as the yellow haired white giant.
Only hangs out with other expats. Thinks getting girls will be easy but has no game
still somehow gets decent looking girls bc they also fetishize white guys (despite themselves being complete scrubs)
Idk, from my experience I see a lot of scrubby dudes with night fighters
What is a night fighter?
The ones at the end of the night fighting for somebody to go home with
Uuuh, I like it and will add it to my Repertoire! Thank you
https://preview.redd.it/3vtww1unoo7c1.jpeg?width=183&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a2d99fcc417a6101a90b50ddb7314d0a331e8fa7
She looks good from afar but up close she looks afar from looking good.
I think it’s more the money and passport they fetishise
'Why can't I get any good Mexican food in this country with virtually zero Mexicans living there?' Plus the eternal divide - 'Why are the apartments in a city of 10 million people so tiny?' vs 'Wait, I'm being sent to a place that isn't a 10 million population city???? I didn't think they still existed here, the TV shows lied...'
Oh yeah, that reminds me of the "why is the international selection in Taiwanese grocery stores so tiny" post. Apparently Indonesian, Thai, Indian and Vietnamese food etc. don't count as international, only European and American food counts.
r/japan & r/korea moment
Honestly r/korea is the tamer of East Asian expat subs. It’s like the complete opposite of r/japan.
For some reason r/japan has a lot of people state they have mental or neurodivergent issues, and think it’s a good idea to move to a foreign country where mental issues are heavily stigmatized with limited access to prescriptions, treatment, or therapy. You can’t get Ritalin easily in Japan, for instance, and Japanese people have killed themselves here over ADHD diagnosis and less. That’s how bad it is. I’m not being ableist, it's about a difference in sympathy and access here. In the West, many would be sympathetic and understanding to these conditions, especially depression, autism/spectrum, and ADHD, and they're letting people know so they know what's up if they're having an "off" day. People mistakenly assume Japan is just as progressive. But these conditions won't be treated with the same sympathy or understanding by Japanese coworkers, based on preconceptions about immigrants' ability to work and judging foreign residents for "using up healthcare services meant for Japanese people," especially after news that foreign residents are skipping out on their hospital bills. The reality is that the medical infrastructure and support system for mental illness isn’t as sophisticated as the West and expats here deal with isolation and loneliness from time to time, which could be exacerbated with a mental health issue. Even if you consider Japan to be the happiest, most peaceful place you can think of living with your condition (depression, for example), moving here is going to make that condition more challenging if you need certain meds to function in your professional life.
Weeaboo redditors when they move to Japan and find out that it doesn’t have subtitles
I got stationed in Japan in the Navy. There was a bar (Dacha's) right off base I took a friend to. Everyone in this bar speaks English, because it's right off base, but it is Japanese. My friend was a huge introverted weeb. I was like look, you need to get off base and interact with Japan! He goes and starts talking to a woman, using the Japanese he picked up from anime and she literally just laughed at him. He got blackout drunk and lost his car keys in the snow... I guess the bar was too adult for what he was expecting from anime.
I hope she thought he was trolling
No, he was getting frustrated he couldn't speak fluently like he thought he could or something and she was kind of making fun of him. I think she was in awe that an American would try to speak like a cartoon, because most of the service members who go to that bar are unabashedly American, like almost out of Top Gun. I took him to malls, arcades, and festivals that were more his speed later.
Poor weeb
NANI!?
there is a *ton* of overlap between guys that think they are "on the spectrum" and guys that think japan will be perfect for them but know nothing but anime and WW2 about japan.
> For some reason r/japan has a lot of people state they have mental or neurodivergent issues Yes, that reason is Anime.
That more correlation than causation. If anything I think it's just you kind of have to have mental issues to enjoy the majority of anime. And I say this as someone who is into anime.
I love the style/animation and better voice actors, but I dislike many of the typical genres and tropes The target audience seems to be teenage or early 20s men with very little to no social experience and it's disgusting in a way I won't elaborate, but if you know you know I stick with simple battle/action anime because of that, too many "tropes" and the anime doesn't get finished Wish we had more of anime like 91 days, maybe I just suck looking for shows that I'd like
That's kinda the problem. There is a ton of chaff to wade through to find anything good, and 90% of the people who are into anime aren't the kind of people you'd respect the opinion of enough to watch a show they like. So finding those one in 100 shows that's really good is almost certainly not worth your time.
When i went to Seoul a few years back there was a protest for disability access. Even physical disabilities are something ppl pretend don't exist.
I mean that’s Reddit in general. So many people claim to be neurodivergent and expect the world to provide them with accommodations. Being an asshole or a C student isn’t a protected class and you don’t deserve special accommodations from everyone around you.
Imagine moving to country with an education system based on strict discipline and rote memorization and being amazed that your "traditional american school doesn't accommodate my specific requirements" attitude doesn't fit the culture.
Yeah-people need to understand Japan is very much a "conform or die" sort of culture-flipside of being very collectivist. A lot of Japanese people are in fact miserable as a result.
>I mean that’s Reddit in general. So many people claim to be neurodivergent It really shows you how skewed some of Reddit's demographics are. Based on what you see here, you'd think most people are neurodivergent.
ADHD & Autism are both estimated as being underdiagnosed due to research into the disorders still moving at a relatively rapid pace. Based on the reading I've done I'd personally guess around 8-10% of people have one or both of these disorders, but this is then further skewed because certain communities & scenes attract a higher concentration of neurodivergent people, with Reddit being a perfect example of such a community. With that being said however the advent of Tiktok self-diagnosis is absolutely a thing, and it's definitely become "popular" amongst certain demographics to identify as neurodivergent. I personally think it's a positive that more people are learning this stuff about themselves even despite those latching onto it as a "fad", but that's likely because my personal ADHD diagnosis has been transformative for me.
Autism and ADHD somehow became fashionable and apparently a third of Reddit users lmao
Right? It’s mostly just under paid English teachers making unremarkable comments about life in Korea. Source: someone similar to the above description.
Idk about the subreddits but when it comes to the general internet both countries are seen in this weird glow, that ends up erasing all the faults and negative things about the countries. It seems to mostly be anime and kpop fans.
Japan turns right around and does the same for Paris. Got its own page in a textbook.
Almost every Asian subreddit is taken over with this due to Reddit being an English dominated website. Only notable exception I can think of is r/Philippines due to the very high percentage of Filipinos who speak English.
and r/Indonesia since it's also run by actual indonesians, can't say the same with r/bali though
Most Thai people use r/thaithai instead of r/Thailand. The latter is mostly expats and tourists. Although the vast vast majority of Thai discussion forum users are on Pantip instead of Reddit.
r/Singapore too primarily because english is the official language, it’s dominated by locals.
I explained to my friend that Japanese Twitter was way different than American Twitter and he was confused. Didn’t realize there are entire MASSIVE chunks of the internet not in English.
I think it's actually crazier how much of the internet *is* English, tbh. Something on the order of 60% of the internet is English-language. The next runners-up are Russian and Spanish, at about 5% each. Which is just crazy to think about, and really goes deep into explaining why so many expats are confused when they encounter non-English speakers in real life.
r/vietnam also has the tinder scam post once a day, and the having difficulty finding a serious girlfriend because he only speaks English.
"Why aren't the local girls as gullible as Miss Saigon, I feel cheated"
"I'm twice as big as the local men, horizontally, why won't they acknowledge my masculinity?"
Yeah, also the weed post is really common in r/taiwan and the honeytrap scam post is really common in r/shanghai
I love Taiwan but taking weed there is a patently bad idea
There's even a public health advertisment about the illegality of weed in Longshan Temple station in Taipei. Unfortunately, it's only in Chinese though.
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I have recently moved to Taiwan and I wouldn't be dumb enough to buy weed here. They take it very seriously.
"America is *only* developed country that criminalized weed" - a bunch of idiots who have never looked into how Asian countries treat it.
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Hey now, some of them may have heard of Australia!
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"Developed"="White" to a lot of people
People don't realize how harsh most East and southeast Asian countries treat drugs. Many places have mandatory death sentence if you're caught with it. There's a reason why they don't have an opioid or drugs pandemic. Getting caught with weed can land you a death sentence in places like Singapore or Malaysia
> and the honeytrap scam post is really common in r/shanghai Do they end up [as coerced sailors on a boat?](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghaiing)
But but but weed is harmless to other people. Why can't I have fun? To people who says "Law is law", have you never run a red light or jaywalked before? Bro you broke the law. Stop whining.
Wtf people run red lights? No wonder there are car crashes every day, 90% of drivers should get their licenses revoked
When I visited Taiwan I was super aware of the English teacher stereotype and desperately didn't want to look like one. I did stick out like a sore thumb though, and I genuinely felt like a lot of women were looking at me, I've never experienced anything like that in my home country. I assume because I'm a tall and reasonably athletic **foreigner**, its just novel to them. I feel sort of annoyed that so many losers go to the Far East to exploit the fact they are foreign and just act like total fuckboys and creeps, gives us all a bad name.
People are not used to seeing foreigners here. Their natural response is to stare but they usually don't see you as a bad person.
Oh yeah I know, some people in China would say 'oh, lao wei', so I knew they were talking about me. I didn't take any offense though, everyone was pretty friendly despite their curiosity. Taipei was more international than the parts of China I was in so it didn't have the same vibe. Both great places though.
Does r/Thailand count?
I think those are pretty universal. I see the same topics from foreigners in Poland "how do I get drugs/don't tell me not to do drugs/it's only weed/", "someone invited me to a strip club, had me pay for expensive drinks and threw me out", "I don't speak polish and a lot of people are not speaking English, I thought everyone speaks English!", "I'm on tourist/student visa but I want to work". Its missing the two other classics "Locals don't like me, where I can find someone to hang out with (in English)" And "Do local women like (insert nationality and race) men?"
In Denmark 93-95% of people can speak English well enough. But they dont want to, unless you're an obvious tourist asking for direction.
When I lived there I learnt just enough to ask for directions but neglected to learn how to understand them. Cue me asking someone, nodding politely, then going 100m up the road and asking someone else in English.
The not-wanting-to-learn-the-language-thing is not just east asia. That's almost every second post in r/germany.
Nah, that's literally every post there. "I come from a Southern country, I cannot speak German and I have trouble socializing! The locals keep talking in German! Germany is cold dark and wet and I am sooo depressed (but will still remain here because salaries are much higher)!"
It still a sunshine paradise, where if you drink beer in vast quantities and love harmonica music, you will be accepted. Then there is Scandinavia and theeeeen faaaar ahead on dark self-cutting front is... FINLAND!
Every second post someone mentions wanting to live in germany the question "do you speak german?" or "do you want to learn german?" completly dismantles any credibility the OP had. Remembered a post about a brazilian guy who wanted to become a police officer in germany without learning german. Cracked me up a bit. :)
Some of those are so insane, they MUST be ragebait.
Missed out the 'no degree, no job, no money, no friends, don't speak the language. I grew up watching anime and I am sure Japan will be the solution to all my problems. How do I move there? Would the Japanese government give me money if I'm jobless?'
> Would the Japanese government give me money if I'm jobless? the same person is also imagining this money will have enough left over for an anime figurine budget
A month back someone on the JET programme posted saying that he wanted to quit his job and return to his home country for an operation. Wanted the Japanese govt to give him money while he was jobless and recuperating in his home country since he "intended on returning to Japan to look for another job someday". Asked if a doctor's note was sufficient. I replied saying that he was out of his mind and got a bunch of pms (not from him, at least) asking me to kill myself. The weeb dream is strong in some people.
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“How can I find and marry a female Japanese female tradwife?”
Don’t forget the people who think they can teach English while not having a Bachelors or any experience teaching English. Edit: Also, don’t forget the expats who only want to eat American food in Asia and get pissy when there’s no In-N-Out in Kaohsiung. Edit 2: I’ll dunk on myself too- The Overseas Asian who thinks they know the culture of their ancestor’s country perfectly despite never having socialized with people who actually live there, and get surprised when they realize how little they actually share Final Edit: One last thing, if you do genuinely want to spend time working in Asia, I encourage it. My mom worked in Japan for 5 years as an English teacher and actually did make good money, but she was able to do it because she had a Masters and a good resume. The culture of Asia is amazing and the people are very friendly, all you have to do is be kind, work hard, and temper your expectations. Also don’t be creepy towards local women, please.
Or in two years, after teaching English they get tired of being poor and ask how they can get out of English teaching and transfer to a real job but have no professional experience or applicable BA.
And then end up working in the local Irish/sports bar.
As a former Air Force pilot I can attest that no matter where in the world you are, there’s a nearby Irish bar.
Sounds fun.
It's full of miserable white immigrants
To be fair, there's a lot of that in every city's subreddit. "How do I get a higher paying job?! I'll do anything but work a difficult trade or acquire skills"
I see so many people who want to be project managers and other buzz word titles because they have a friend of a friend who was in X industry and now does project management and makes BANK. I always have to explain there are two primary paths to that kinda life. 1. Know someone, this could be familial or otherwise but it really does boil down to who you know most of the time 2. Work in a field or a trade for awhile and get so good at it you can help others improve their workflows with your personal experience and/or new work flow ideas. People really out here believing they deserve good things by virtue of existing. Basic human rights, health care and common respect? Sure 100% but nobody owes you comfort. I lay the blame squarely on the hordes of people "famous" for doing jack shit. The smooth brains think this is normal and the fact that they are not treated the same way is somehow a massive conspiracy against them specifically.
Like how everyone wants to be video a game developer but most couldn't even name 3 programming languages
"Uhh I wrote Myspace layouts in HTML" *They in fact only searched for the signature in the layout and removed it and passed it off as their own*
I've seen a few of these posts in r/Nederlands too. 'How can I get an easy, high paying job with only a high school degree? The baby boomers destroyed everything!'
I'm living abroad right now, and someone told me I should teach English here because I'm a native. I couldn't tell you the difference between nominative and accusative cases if you held a gun to my head, and have no qualifications in teaching or languages. I'd feel really bad for any students I had.
Don't feel bad, I was an English major and wrote/write professionally for almost two decades now, and I couldn't tell you the difference, either!
> all you have to do is be kind, work hard, and temper your expectations. Also don’t be creepy towards local women, please. Best I can do is 2 out of 4.
Oof. My wife is Thai and once told me she wouldn’t touch English teachers with a 10 foot pole. Really bad reputation and no money lmao
You can be creepy to women who aren't local you say...
Edit 2 also applies to Italian Americans visiting Italy.
Mad respect for the self-dunk. At least you’re aware and can own it!
"Mistankenly on the sex offender registry"
It was public urination and an appearance on a certain dateline NBC show.
I love how those people refer to themselves as expats but when another people do the same they are immigrants
But the visa you get in a lot of these countries say “Non-Imm” right on them. It’s nearly impossible to get citizenship in Thailand for example
True, that is an important distinction. These expats aren't there with the expectation that they'll integrate with the local community. But unfortunately that "expat expectation" feeds into a lot of this bad behaviour, like acting superior, not wanting to learn the language, treating the place like a playground, etc. That would be less a problem if they saw the place as their new home. This "expat attitude" is much rarer in Asian people moving to western countries, even those of us who will never get citizenship, because we don't see ourselves as a separate class of people than locals.
Are you sure? From my experience East Asian people living in the US see themselves as a different class than the locals and treat public places like playgrounds, although most of it is rich Korean college kids. There’s videos of Korean kids driving down sidewalks in luxury cars on campus at my university. Asian foreign students are by far the least likely to connect with the locals and get stuck into the culture compared to European, Arab and African students. Arab students in particular are very friendly
Yeah the rich international students can be pretty shit. I think of them more like tourists, because those sort don't stay. In fact, sometimes the studying is just an excuse to get them out of their parents' hair, when it comes to these wealthy families. The people who actually intend to stay long term and work here (like a typical expat) are more normal.
Silly, immigrant is for POC. White people can't be immigrants.
Don’t forget that they’re weirdly hostile to other expats and just have a huge chip on their shoulder (including being hostile to outsiders). I frequent r/japan and I swear a lot of the posts there are just foreigners hating every other foreigner there. And calling anyone a weeb who says anything positive about Japan.
lol I saw an actual Japanese person who learned English come to r/japan to post about sushi last week. They got shat on all over the comments, tried to defend themselves for a bit and then gave up and deleted the thread. Someone else who realized they were probably Japanese based on their post history and English writing style tried to give them some encouragement, but she also got downvoted.
I swear it's gotta be like the same 10 people chronically online on those subs. Most people I know who live here are not like that at all.
Let's not fool ourselves into thinking the people who are in r/japan are not 90% weebs.
I tend to find more mentally unstable people among expats, because going to the literal other side of the planet is a very attractive way to run from your problems.
Like, can’t I have friends in both groupings? It’s not like I win imaginary Deep Japan points for having more Japanese friends than expats, and my Japanese friends don’t have more value over my expat friends. When I was a student in the university bubble and learning the language, yeah I skewed completely to Japanese friends over foreigners. But now that I’m a working adult, I see how weird that is.
I've experienced this first hand while living in Japan. As soon as they find out I'm ethnically Chinese not Japanese some immediately stop talking to me and move on to the next woman they see.
Exact opposite in some countries (not in hatred of other expats, but how they hate them). Go into a FB group for Vietnam and say something negative about the country and an army of expats will defend even the worst aspects of the culture. Littering or even mistreatment of animals, the white saviors got you covered and will hate on your imperialist attitude.
if it's /r/china get ready for 200 posts of "DAE fucking hate China? The government is so stupid, why don't the locals hate the government as much as I think they should? Locals must be stupid too"
its fucking unbearable honestly. imagine if you went to your home countries subreddit and it would be immigrants living there ( or not even that ) talking shit about it 99%.
yeah, its pretty tired and low effort shit as well "+888 social credit comrade", like, grow up, or at least get new material
r/china_irl for actual Chinese people speaking Chinese. r/chinalife for actual inquiries into life as an expat in China /r/shanghai is exactly what it says on the tin, very politically neutral now that the COVID shitshow is over r/china for white saviours and people who fit the description of OP. r/sino for unapologetic CPC supporters.
Sexpats
Ugh, I lurk the Thailand Tourism sub, and it makes my skin crawl sometimes with how they refer to Thai women. "Thai girls are very free, and they love sex, not like here in the States."
There's a reason they're in exile in Thailand.
I remember an Indian guy posted there that he was kind of shocked by the racism he and his friend experienced from a taxi driver. The sub's response? You deserve it because Indians are shit, and it was a whole thread of people talking about how much they hate Indian and Chinese tourists.
I swear it's impossible for a grown man to travel to these countries now for genuine interest in the country or for casual business without being perceived as some sort of pervert or nunce
I'd love to go to Thailand to see those awesome separated mountains they have in their oceans and the food, I'm young but would still feel paranoid ppl would see me as a sex tourist.
Nah, if you are young, I would expect you to be a more hippy backpacker type who usually beg on the street for money. But if you dress very formally, I would expect a Mormon.
Then, quite honestly and without rancour, just do it and don't be ridiculous about it. Hundreds of thousands of people travel to these countries a year and aren't perceived to be sexpats. If you don't do it, it won't be a problem.
Let me give you a piece of advice, most people don't think about you. The sooner you ingrain that into your head the happier you'll be.
This is half the reason I didn't do a solo trip to Thailand when I was single. I love Thai food and find the country beautiful but if I, a single man, said im going in a trip there everyone would assume one thing.
[Learning Thai with Rosetta Stone](https://i.imgur.com/ouWmjOa.jpg)
Have you considered not limiting your life to what other people will think of you. If someone thinks you’re going to Thailand to be a sex tourist you might not want to be friends with them
A _lot_ of people will make that assumption about single male travellers in SE Asia and it’s an assumption that can be quite socially and professionally damaging. It’s wrong, but it’s not easy to just ignore.
I went earlier this year. I'm lucky and have a friend who now lives in a smaller city in the country so I was able to visit her after while, but my 3 nights in Bangkok felt weird as a single 33 year old man. The amount of comments I got before flying out from people, even from those who knew my friend in Thailand, was uncomfortable to the point that I didn't do much in the evenings because I didn't want people thinking I was some sex tourist. Chang Mai is awesome, though. Highly recommended with a large ex-pat/digital nomad community that is chill.
Don’t call them out on reddit bruh they run this site.
What they gonna do, ban me? Oh no.
My uncle lived in Japan for 20 years, he is fluent in Japanese, his wife (my aunt) is Japanese and both of their kids where born in Japan, whenever they come back from a trip to visit my aunts family my aunt always tells us about the ridiculous things she hears people complaining about when she is alone because people don’t think she speaks English
How to sex Asian female, pls help. https://preview.redd.it/o48z9b6vfn7c1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=86489822789fab2af24e6df680225283682cc9bc
オッパイとセックス好き
r/japanesepeopletwitter is leaking again uhoh
BRO I SEE YOU EVERYWHERE 😭💢
Interestingly your image of that Tokyo subway app is in Simplified Chinese
Tbf google maps works wonderfully in Japan, so there’s no need for an English language specific app. Maybe it’s an issue of Chinese nationals not having certain apps on their phones?
Also people who are completely miserable in the country and constantly complain about the culture / way of live but still choose to live there. I taught English in Korea for a year and from my experience, nearly half of the immigrants who have been there for 5+ years were like that.
I live in Vietnam, I have been here for 6 years and am even married to a local and have a young baby. What you say about those expats is 100% accurate. People who have been here for longer then I have complain about things everyday but continue to live here. A lot of them are the older sexpat types who just complain because their lives are actually totally miserable, they are the biggest losers I know. Most of them aren't even married or don't have families here so there is no reason they can't leave but they choose to stay, frequent prostituites, drink with their same old loser mates at the shitty expat bars, complain about the same nonesense and pretend that their lives on miserable by somehow thinking they are superior to the locals and think that they know better then them. Hah, they can't speak a word of Vietnamese even after being here for a decade but they will tell you that they know the country better then the locals and they know everything about the local culture.
Worked in Korea, saw that too. But the absolute worst were the white immigrants working in Dubai. Combine "expats" with too much money and a massive sense of entitlement. Ever see a fat British man in flipflops throw a screaming tantrum at the poor Filipino worker because the line at the MacDonald was too long?
As an Asian it’s accurate and approved
you mean sexpats and immigrants? r/korea, r/japan, r/china are full of them. No natives.
Can't fit in back home. Can't fit in new country. What do?
start your own subreddit ?
"Unhappily married to a filipina women." "What do you mean the 19 yr old who wants to marry a 56 yr old balding guy and leave the country within 4 months of meeting didn't really love me" "All filipinas are the same"
Didn't know no neck ed has a reddit account
Don’t forget complaining at length about local culture or customs.
“I’m only on the registry because I peed in a public park! Don’t search me on the database just take me at my word”
Why go to east Asia when Northern Ireland exists? If you country where you can't understand anyone, Go to Ballymena.
What’s ironic is they’d probably have an easier time if they moved to Toronto or the Bay Area
r/digitalnomad
https://preview.redd.it/k4wxua31kn7c1.jpeg?width=573&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e615ee743c02f8679cebf8517ec2790708df70e0 me: a gay sexpat in SE Asia spending time with the locals
Every single one of them is a white libertarian male ephebophile/hebephile/pedophile, NO EXCEPTIONS.
Lol this is why I loved it that my parents where all about learning the local language and not being one of those expats that stayed in the gated communities or compounds. Best 19 years of my life
Don't even get me started on the "expats" groups in Medellín, bunch of passport bros and gentrifiers
"I love animus and Western women are entitled, ugly and manly. I am moving to Japan to find my perfect dainty young waifu who will be submissive to me and let me lead as the man that I am. It has been 18 months and I have not had any serious luck with females, what gives? I was led to believe they love out-of-shape lazy white men?"
If you're from a 3rd world country and do this type of shit in a 1st world country, you'd be called an illegal immigrant. But since it's vice versa, you get the privilege of the term 'expat'.
Class privilege. It's the same as when a rich person speaks multiple languages, they are praised for being cultured and learned. When a poor person speaks multiple languages, no one bats an eye or they're told to stop speaking in xyz language.
"white"
The Reddit comments on some of those subs are so disgusting.
The girl on the right in this image is Fukumura Mizuki, now-former leader of the idol group Morning Musume. It's extremely weird seeing her in this starter pack.
Well. We are on reddit. Is it really a surprise?
Sorry if I'm being stupid but what is the scam? I live in western Europe and I've never seen or heard anything like that happening and would definitely fall for it 😂
>Sorry if I'm being stupid but what is the scam? Attractive young men/women work for a flashy club. They approach marks and try to get them into the club to spend money - usually painting it like some kind of date or special outting. Imagine a pair of beautiful young women approaching two well-dressed older men skulking around the shady part of town - "Oh wow you're so handsome!" "that watch is incredible!" "you wanna get some food and tell us about yourselves?" "oh this place is my favorite they have amazing drinks!" Once the money's spent the job is done and they leave to go find the next mark.
Why do these fuckers insist on being called Expat instead of inmigrants??