I often reply under Japanese posts, and I always assume users will use a translator as I do, but maybe in the context of a Japanese instance or conversation this may look rude?

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[–] nasi_goreng@piefed.social 21 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (6 children)

Not really.

In Asia, people often just comment in their own language. Though, English is preferable for easier translation. Unless some extreme nationalist, most people simply happy to interact with you.

Edit: this is more common in Facebook. One single post will have various languages. Chinese, Hindi, Arab, Spanish, Swahili, and so on just in a single post. Sometimes, you can say that different social media, different internet culture. Twitter-alike social media usually more uniform in terms of language.

Just remember that it could be misunderstood, especially with sarcasm or joke.
I've seen Japanese artist deleted their account because they mistaken a joke towards their art as hate comment.

[–] TimeSquirrel@kbin.melroy.org 9 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Jokes never translate well. Even between somewhat-related languages, like western European ones. Best to just not.

[–] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

More than that Japanese people have a completely different sense of humor from the stuff you usually see in the West. Even a fluent but non-native speaker will have a lot of their jokes fall flat simply because the Japanese and Western conceptions of a joke are very different. In what way? I have no idea, still trying to figure it out. I don't know if that gap is that big in other cultures, but definitely best to just not.

[–] nasi_goreng@piefed.social 4 points 4 days ago

Even if people are talking in English, it still can display cultural difference. Especially nowadays we get Singaporean English, Indian English, Asian English, etc.

For example, a word in English Asia have neutral meaning, but in American English it is a slur. Unfortunately a lot of Western people does not realize this and tried to "standardize" the language. People should learn contextual language instead of policing from their own cultural mindset. Especially, billingual or trilingual people often code-mixing language.

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