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hmmmm, it doesn't really bother me, because although i LOVE LOVE Japan, and it's culture, I don't really use the honourings and such, the only times are when i'm practicing japanese, as i'm studying it. However, because of my practising, it's become a bit of a pet peeve when people do do this, and mispronounce it

No, it's not really offensive to me. It's not like people only do things like that for Japanese.
It's just a sharing of cultures, which is bound to happen where I live (America, for those that don't). I mean, I cannot count the amount of Italian greetings I've heard used on a daily baisis. It's just something that happens, and if people take to a certain dialect, well that's good for them.

Although, it does hit a limit. If you come up to me talking to me about your cat, and calling it a neko, that's enough. I had someone do that to me a few years ago, and it took me a good way into the conversation to realize "neko" was supposed to be 'cat.'

I love it when people use foreign words around me. I do it myself. For the most part, I stick to thank you or hi or simple things like that, but I think it's fun to use foreign words. If people use it around me and misuse a term, I don't really care. I might correct them, might now. of course, it's not often someone misuses an English term around me. It's actually more common for me to correct people when they try to say something in Spanish or German or French or Russian, etc., than in English, which is weird since none of those are my native language. I'm sort of an amateur linguist in that I love languages, so the more they're used around me, the happier I am.

Wapanse is annoying and makes me want to rip out my hair. It's worse because I actually do know some Japanese so that makes me want to scream at that annoying fangirl that 'a-ree-gat-oh' is not how you pronounce it and kawaii gets so repetitive! But otherwise I don't find it offensive at all. I myself use British words and the occasional Australian word.

well like when my friends say hi i"ll like say hola but i don't think it offends anyone

In my opinion, I don't like it when someone is trying to imitate a foreign language that they do not understand. Just because you heard it off of an anime more than a million times, it does NOT mean that you know Japanese. Why would someone want to imitate a language that is not completely understood? It does not offend me, but it does rather annoy me to the point where I'd like to tell them to just shut the hell up. I've seen a few of my friends trying to act all cute and anime-like with a few Japanese words. I'll ask them to stop acting like an idiot (no offense to some people). This is rather annoying than it is offensive. At first I thought it was okay, or cute, whatever. After a while, people don't seem to grow out of it. They continue to do it until it becomes a really, really, really bad habit.

Now, if you speak this language fluently and have complete acknowledgment of it, then it's fine. If you're going to use 'chan,' 'hai,' kawaii,' or something like that---STOP IT!! In real life, it doesn't seem right to be using parts of a different language and try to act like you're living in an anime world. If that person wants to, then please --- I mean, PLEASE --- do it with some consideration. A little joke would be fine, but to continue it on and on and on and on is annoying.

I am very sorry if I offend anyone, but that's how I see things. I am Laotian; I've done racist jokes; I've imitated other accents; I've imitated languages--but I knew when to stop. I don't go on about it forever. I even have buddies who makes fun of my culture, which doesn't bother me. It's fine, but just know when to stop and when not to do it.

I only use words from languages that I am learning, or already know, and I don't use them unless I am sure what they mean. When people use words that I'm sure they don't know what they mean, I get annoyed, especially when I know what the word means, but its not offensive.

I do that, though only with languages/cultures i already know.. sometimes I mistakenly mix random danish, persian, french, or german words into english, but thats only cause I fully know all the languages separately (except for german, which I only know partly :P).
Though with stuff like greetings and 'thank you's, and other short stuff I do it out of habit. When you know 3+ languages its hard not to mix them.. when you know seven, its impossible haha :sweat:

I don't mind it when my close friends call me suzu-chan, cause as far as i know its a term used for girls or young women, and mostly between friends.. Though i find it annoying when people just throw it around all the time, and wrongly address someone like that. At that point i just want to throw an english-japanese dictionary at their head and tell them to go study the language. I don't know if that makes me hypocritical, but thats my viewpoint..

I use a lot of Hawaiian slang and words but because I lived there for 3 years. Some people in Hawai'i don't say trash, they say rubbish, in order for some of the children I was working with to get where I was coming from or ask them I said rubbish, I didn't call flip flops flip flops, I called them slippers. I don't think it is wrong if it has become a part of you.

I'm not offended by it that much. The only thing that really really irritates me and bothers me, are how people react to Borat, and the Numa-Numa videos.

I'm Romanian-American, most of my family members were either born in Romania or raised as Romanian. Now when I heard that O-Zone was getting popular with the Americans, because they sang Numa Numa occassionally, I was flattered and happy. However, over the years that song has become a huge joke on Youtube and all over the Internet. I find it extremely offensive, because everyone's making fun of a very popular song from my home country -- and they don't even know what the song's about! I was completely livid to say the least.

As for Borat, I was insulted when I watched that movie. The country that Borat was supposedly from in the beginning of the movie was Romania. I've read some of the Romanian articles about the actor -- he payed some of the people in Romania to stand there and look pretty, they had no idea they were going to be in a documentary, much less be ridiculed at in America. Needless to say, alot of Romanians were offended, because now they think that because of "Borat" it gave Romanians a bad name.

Originally Posted by Aeronaut

Wapanse is annoying and makes me want to rip out my hair. It's worse because I actually do know some Japanese so that makes me want to scream at that annoying fangirl that 'a-ree-gat-oh' is not how you pronounce it and kawaii gets so repetitive! But otherwise I don't find it offensive at all. I myself use British words and the occasional Australian word.

I agree 100% with the wapanese comments. Because they watch anime they think they know the language. I actually am learning Japanese. And a little Korean on the side, thanks to my sister.

I will never use a foregin word unless I know what it means. I stopped with Japanese words to not be grouped with wapanese tards. I still use honorifics though, for fun, with my family.

I like to use "Saranghae" which is basically korean for "I love you" and I make my hands into a heart above my head.

I also like to use Spanish words in general to say thank you and stuff but I am hispanic and so it 90% of my co-workers.

I don't find it offensive at all.
I mean, EVERYONE does it.
There are some words you just like, and no matter where they come from, if you understand what you're saying, and using it correctly, I see no harm.

Like, when I'm speaking, I'll often substitute It's(english) for C'est(French).
And instead of ok, I'll say ça va. I know what I'm saying. It's not like I don't comprehend.

Even languages can be shared, seeing as so many of them are derived from the same language.

I like using other greetings too.
I especially like 'aloha' and 'bonjour.' ~<3

I have a confession, when I first started watching anime I thought it was cool to say random Japanese words in high school. As I got older it kinda stuck...I still say random Japanese words in texts and messages to my friends who know it. Granted I know a lot more Japanese then I did ten years ago...
I get offended when people pronounce Japanese words wrong.

It only bothers me when people use terms from other languages completely wrong. I would never call Jellysundae Jelly-chan because she is not a child, if you called an adult -chan in Japan it would be a huge insult. So if you want to learn a language that's fine, just don't half ass it, actually learn it.

Same here.

If someone were to use some words in Romanian or Spanish wrongly, I'd feel inclined to correct them. It's not only other languages, but our language as well. Frankly, there are some Americans that gives the rest of us a bad name.

Exactly! It really irritates me when someone will not insist on trying to learn a language properly. I speak three different languages...I usually don't get them mixed up, not anymore. There's nothing wrong with being multi-lingual and having your words mixed up or using it out of the blues, but I honestly do NOT like it when there's someone standing right there, spitting out words as if they're using it correctly. I don't know if it irritates me because I speak more than one language, but I do understand a few of other languages as well. I often hear people using a foreign word and does not know what they are saying. It's like saying "Hey, I gusta your el car." Something like that. I've heard it before. It used to be funny to me when I was younger, but as I got older, using incorrect/incomprehensible words are so irritating!

I find using Japanese words annoying more than anything. It's immature when used out of context.
there is a reason why people are called 'weaboo' and there is a reason why it in an insult.
It's not cute, not is it funny.

Originally Posted by Leenalia

I'm not offended by it that much. The only thing that really really irritates me and bothers me, are how people react to Borat, and the Numa-Numa videos.

I'm Romanian-American, most of my family members were either born in Romania or raised as Romanian. Now when I heard that O-Zone was getting popular with the Americans, because they sang Numa Numa occassionally, I was flattered and happy. However, over the years that song has become a huge joke on Youtube and all over the Internet. I find it extremely offensive, because everyone's making fun of a very popular song from my home country -- and they don't even know what the song's about! I was completely livid to say the least.

Awww that's really sad :( I love that song! And I know what it means :D My friend and I used to sing it really loud on the car hahaha ( i can actually kinda pronounce it correctly ><) I've never seen the Borat movie..but people here say it was funny :p

I don't get offended much by dialects or grammar since i'm Russian and there are like no Russian people at my school..but I do come across English people saying "kun" and "chan" occasionally.. and "kawaii". But that's ok in my opinion, you could tell that they like manga and watch alot of anime lol >< Kind of like me :p It's only bad when they overuse it I guess..
It only gets annoying when people use random foreign words to "show off".

I wouldn't care.
if they used it wrong I'd probably just be like "XP" or hpmh. not that big of a deal.
my native language is finnish, sometimes I use english words mainly because I can't remember what that word was in finnish :P
and ofcourse I go "OMG" and "LOL" with my buddies.
and ofcourse with my 'anime buddies' I've used some japanese words for fun. :roll:

I don't get offended, but I do get sort of annoyed when people who clearly aren't Japanese start tacking on -chan/-san/etc to the ends of names. :\ Personally, the farthest I go is saying 'merci' or 'hola' instead of thank you or hello. xD It's never occurred to me that this might be offensive, to be honest.

I'm very much into the Japanese culture and even learning to speak the language. I have spoken Japanese to a woman (who was a stranger and I knew was Japanese) and she seemed to be delighted. Actually all I said was arigato. But still. Anyways, I think if you know what you're talking about then it is OK. But when you're some random kid that knows very little and only picked it up from anime or manga then do that at home.

My friends and I sometimes address each other as _(the japanese equivalent of our name)-Chan
So for me it would be
"Kin-chan" (my name is Kimberly and the japanese equivalent is Kinbari or Kin for short)
my friend Nova becomes "Noba-chan"
my sister is "Megu-chan" its fun and cute and it's not like we go around to random strangers talking our Engrish to them, it is all in fun.

I love engrish. Or trying to pronounce english words like the japanese would. Like squishy becomes : su-cu-i-shi. My name is not translatable to japanese so I just use an alias of my fav. name which it Kimiko.

I really don't find it offensive as long as people know what the fuck they're actually saying. Naturally, I have to give pity to those who are still learning said language.

Seems one of the larger topics here are the Japanese honorifics. I think for those at least, when used in a small group of friends (who all again, know what the words mean properly) as an affectionate term it isn't so bad. I use them when talking to my friends, as we all grew up absolutely fascinated by Japanese culture. Outside of that little group though, I think it would be rather silly to use them. The only other time I've used them in "public" was when I was taking a Martial Arts class and was told to refer to my teacher as Kohai. I found this situation absolutely hilarious since I knew more Japanese than any of the trainers.

As for dialects I think you just shouldn't "make fun" of them. I do find that a bit rude, though I can't say I've never used a dialect that isn't mine. I find on occasion when speaking for long periods of time, I obtain a light Romanian/European/Irish accent depending on what I'm talking about.

Although I will say, one thing I do find incredibly offensive is people making fun of those who use other words obsessively. (As stated in this thread, "Weeabo".) That in itself just pisses me off. Most of the people that use words that aren't of their own language are either just trying to have fun or fit in. And frankly, if you don't have enough of a sense of humor to just laugh it off, you should probably reflect on yourself a bit. They can get annoying, it's true. That is absolutely no excuse to make fun of them. Growing up, I had friends that tried to fit into the Anime scene because they didn't fit anywhere else. They wanted people to like them because their home lives were basically down the toilet. Y'know what? The more torment they got, the more it drove them to do stupid things.

Words can hurt, kids.