{"id":1890,"date":"2008-09-01T10:16:26","date_gmt":"2008-09-01T01:16:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=1890"},"modified":"2008-09-01T10:26:18","modified_gmt":"2008-09-01T01:26:18","slug":"results-of-our-fourth-poll-do-you-think-the-word-gaijin-should-be-avoided-in-favor-of-other-words-like-say-gaikokujin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=1890","title":{"rendered":"Results of our fourth poll: Do you think the word “gaijin” should be avoided (in favor of other words, like, say, gaikokujin)?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Handbook<\/a>\"\\\"<\/a>\"Foreign<\/a>\"\\\"<\/a>\"\u300c\u30b8\u30e3\u30d1\u30cb\u30fc\u30ba\u30fb\u30aa\u30f3\u30ea\u30fc\u3000\u5c0f\u6a3d\u5165\u6d74\u62d2\u5426\u554f\u984c\u3068\u4eba\u7a2e\u5dee\u5225\u300d\uff08\u660e\u77f3\u66f8\u5e97\uff09\"<\/a>\"JAPANESE<\/a><\/p>\n

[poll id=”6″ type=”result”]<\/p>\n

COMMENT<\/strong>: I followed this poll in particular with interest, given\u00a0my August 5, 2008 Japan Times<\/a> column on this issue\u00a0and the heavy debate in August<\/a> over it.<\/p>\n

One thing I tried to do in this poll was 1) make options that everyone could answer, no exception, and 2) make them “bounded”, i.e. mutually exclusive so that people could only vote for one.<\/p>\n

(What I mean: \u00a0A Japan Times poll on the subject, in contrast, doesn’t do that as well:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"Poll<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
The results of a Japan Times Online poll conducted August 6-12.
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

http:\/\/search.japantimes.co.jp\/cgi-bin\/fl20080819zg.html<\/a><\/p>\n

For example, you could choose all of questions one, two, and three if you felt, “Yes, I am offended, I prefer ‘gaikokujin’, but it depends on who is saying it and how.” \u00a0Not mutually exclusive.)<\/p>\n

I also tried to show a clearer spectrum from top to bottom–avoid under all circumstances, it depends, don’t avoid, not sure.<\/p>\n

The result was still that most people (but not an absolute majority) thought the word “gaijin” should be avoided, due to unwelcome connotations. \u00a0Perhaps par for the course for Debito.org types of readers.<\/p>\n

It was an interesting poll to follow in real time. \u00a0For the first few days, the first choice, “Yes”, had an absolute majority of over 50%. \u00a0But as more voted, the “maybe, if derisive” and “no” responses whittled that down. \u00a0I was surprised at how few chose “maybe, depends on listener”. \u00a0Also interesting was how almost everyone had a clear opinion–almost nobody was neutral or unknowledgeable about the subject.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Again, as disclaimers keep pointing out, this is hardly anything scientifically “significant”–just a survey of readers who wished to vote. \u00a0Still, ten days and 358 respondents later, it’s a pretty good number. \u00a0Let’s see if we can keep the numbers growing in future polls with interesting questions.<\/p>\n

Next poll: Let’s try something less controversial. \u00a0Just got back from the US (coastal California), where the sun sets around 8PM or later most summer days. \u00a0Loved it. \u00a0And wish Japan would do the same (especially since Hokkaido is on the far east of our time zone, and we get sunrises at 4AM or so in June). \u00a0So what do you think about instituting Summer Time (DST) in Japan? \u00a0<\/p>\n

Arudou Debito<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The result was still that most people (but not an absolute majority) thought the word “gaijin” should be avoided, due to unwelcome connotations. Perhaps par for the course for Debito.org types of readers.<\/p>\n

It was an interesting poll to follow in real time. For the first few days, the first choice, “Yes”, had an absolute majority of over 50%. But as more voted, the “maybe, if derisive” and “no” responses whittled that down. I was surprised at how few chose “maybe, depends on listener”. Also interesting was how almost everyone had a clear opinion–almost nobody was neutral or unknowledgeable about the subject. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-polls"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1890\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}