It's more that they are pitiable and pathetic for trying so hard to make a display of their ignorance rather than looking down on them because they don't know the language as well as you.
It displays a childish pretension, kind of like someone adding random Japanese words into a sentence or giving themselves a Japanese nickname for no reason other than it being associated with something cool.
<@Terra> he told me this, "man actually meeting terra is so fucking big", and he started crying. Then he bought me hot dogs
It's a fricking T-shirt... My brother always told me he wouldn't wear typical brand T-shirts (or other equivalent clothing), because he doesn't want to appear a walking ad for a company, ironically even paying for the "privilege" of being a walking commercial. Usually a company pays you if you make them more visible, not the other way around. Well, I don't really care personally. A shirt is good if it's not ugly and it's of decent quality. But like I said ealier, I wouldn't wear a shirt with text if I didn't know the language to know exactly what the text is saying and that it's not ranguage. But if you do know Japanese, or Chinese, then it should be 100% comparable to a shirt with English text for all practical purposes. Unless you really are surrounded by idiots who don't know the language but still presume to laugh at you because they learned a new word from the internets to use against you.
I disagree, since English is the common language (so common that aliens in outer space and from other dimensions speak it, if sci-fi movies are to be believed) that knowing it and using it is almost a requirement of living in the 21st century. But pretending to know about some Asian culture because it's "cool" leaves you open to ridicule.
“For God will not permit that we shall know what is to come... those who by some sorcery or by some dream might come to pierce the veil that lies so darkly over all that is before them may serve by just that vision to cause that God should wrench the world from its heading and set it upon another course altogether and then where stands the sorcerer? Where the dreamer and his dream?”
A lot of people don't speak or understand English well, like the Japanese.
Peace.
No, but almost all of them take 6 years of English language during middle and high school and their tv/music media is inundated with American culture. You can't come close to saying that about Americans and Japanese. Anime/manga will always remain fringe geek and they barely relate to J-culture anyway.
“For God will not permit that we shall know what is to come... those who by some sorcery or by some dream might come to pierce the veil that lies so darkly over all that is before them may serve by just that vision to cause that God should wrench the world from its heading and set it upon another course altogether and then where stands the sorcerer? Where the dreamer and his dream?”
Did you even read what I said? If you know the fricking language better than just being able to buy random noodles from a booth, it's not "pretending to know about some Asian culture". The one and only problem the shirt might pose is the external danger of ignorant idiots calling you names. But then again, idiots hardly need any excuse to cause disorder, so unless you are suffering from massive self-confidence issues, you can't order your life according to the whims of idiots.
Besides, last time I checked you don't need to know a culture inside out to wear a t-shirt. If I did, I couldn't even wear shirts with English text. Saying English is such a mighty important language that it's okay, yet no other language is good enough by itself is, I'd say, American imperialism and nothing else.
Eh, it's all about aesthetic value. If I ever get a tattoo in another language, it's because the meaning of the words have some significance to me, and the "foreign" way they're written looks beautiful to me and has some other sort of significance. Could be Klingon or Japanese or Sanskrit.
Why do people get all pissed off if people mark their own body with a language they don't know? Who are you to say what they should and shouldn't draw on themselves with?
"Leaving hell is not the same as entering it." - Tierce Japhrimel
Oh, people can get whatever they want etched onto their body, while everyone else is free to ridicule them.
But personally, the worst that happens to me is that an eyebrow is raised unconsciously whenever I see an instance of oriental calligraphy body art on non-Asians. It is because, unlike what Sapphire says, oft times, the same people do NOT know the meaning of what they're getting slapped on their ass and only do it to satisfy the Rule of Cool.
KIMOCHI~II
It's more frequently a mark of association with a subculture than an understanding of a nation's culture. You don't see people going around in droves with African languages on their backs, or hebrew characters on a t-shirt.
<@Terra> he told me this, "man actually meeting terra is so fucking big", and he started crying. Then he bought me hot dogs
I don't even understand American culture.
"Leaving hell is not the same as entering it." - Tierce Japhrimel
Okay, since I can't read Japanese for shit, I asked some natives to tell me what those characters are, and it appears that the big characters are 極眞会 or Kyokushinkai, some kind of karate discipline you can read about here. The smaller letters appear to be some some dojo oath, original Japanese seen here, and an English translation seen here.
/thread
Last edited by kokujin-kun; Tue, 07-05-2011 at 11:54 PM.
Sweet, good work man. Before you can "/thread" though, someone has to say it:
Lelouch, even though you probably don't practice kyokushin karate or any kind of martial art, you should totally get this oath tattoo. It would be real badass.
“For God will not permit that we shall know what is to come... those who by some sorcery or by some dream might come to pierce the veil that lies so darkly over all that is before them may serve by just that vision to cause that God should wrench the world from its heading and set it upon another course altogether and then where stands the sorcerer? Where the dreamer and his dream?”
Ah, yeah, good point ;^^
But if he gets that tattoo, wouldn't every martial artist - that can read Japanese - take it as a challenge? Wouldn't that mean that he'd be forever ducking and dodging, running and hiding, to get away from them dojo challengers? (That or get his ass handed to him on a regular basis).
Hey... Wait a minute!!!! That sounds like a plot for a martial arts anime comedy. Wow! You'd be living the anime lifestyle - in real life - if you get that tattoo!!
Awesome!
get the tattoo. stay away from lyoto machida
ty psj for this sig