Originally posted by Vapour
That is the problem. No Japanese consider shortened word as a offensive use of racial description.
English lingustic rule don't apply in Japanese. I think it's more than 20 years from now for me but I aske a guy whenther he find gaijin offensive. He said "yes" and I asked "why?" and he just said "because". So I felt "???". I just went along with his sensitivity but now with all those debate about PC going crazy, I think this is one of those thing.
Why a word which is not politically correct usage in English grammer have to be offensive in Japanese? As I said, it is silly or rather absurd in my view.
Youji,
It's not the word, or the grammer related to how that word is formed. It's the stigma attached to the word.
You could quite legitimately say that as 'Negro' (sorry to actually type it, but i'm using it as an example, please don't take offense anyone) is just the Latin word for black, and has no negative meaning. However, due to the way in which it was used in the past, it now has a stigma attached to it .... much more is implied when you say that word than what the word itself originally represents.
Gaijin is exactly the same.
Huw Larsen
Number 1 member of the Default Collective of Misfits