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Messages TO Josh
| Author |  | Josh
9/10/2006
10:09:01 PM | Want to send me a message? Here's the place to do it. | Rachel
12/29/2006
2:03:21 AM
| You know, you never called. Ah, well, wedding planning is much more important. :) I hope your Thanksgiving and holidays were nice. We had a nice time here. We might be moving soon . . . I am applying for a new job with the company I work for that might take us to El Paso, out in west Texas. In prep for a possible move to Cali in a few more years. Ok, I could go on and on, but I am supposed to be doing homework that I have totally slacked off on since Hannah was born. Hah. Abby is growing tall . . when I try to pick her up, her feet almost touch the floor. David thinks it's funny. My mom is moving and selling her house, since my sister (who is now 21!) told her over the holiday break that she is never coming back home to live there again. Alright, I really am going now. I should just send an email, you didn't want a novel in your messages.
I miss you and hope all is well.
Rach | DesmondDecker
4/11/2007
3:52:35 PM
| Stop, stop, just fucking stop, Ur website, young man, is a beholden embarassment to all that is good and holy in Japan. PLEASE, for the love of Christ, set aside your one-dimensional views of your life here. No one, and I do repeat, NO one, wants a blow-by-blow verbatim reportage of your life a la Nippon. Buddy, spice things up a little. If you are going to dispense time and as it comes across precious little resources into this website, at the very fucking least add a little va-va vroom to the proceedings. Very much guessing you`re American and that is to blame for the mortifying blandness of this all, but deary me, try to raise the bar, just a little, onegai.
Here`s a word to the wise, my bearded and attempting to be erudite but failing pathetically friend. If u can, then indeed do. If, however, you can`t, then this whole exercise is a cruelly ironic waste of time.
Some fell on stony ground doesn`t even come close. It really, really, REALLY isn`t enough to have a beard and think you look `wacky` to enable you to think you have a raison d`etre. Just because u are a character, doesn`t mean u have CHARACTER.
PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE don`t advertise ths website as a come to Japan teaser. It truly worries me.
Son, it`s A to B simple. U encapsulate all that is wrong with the blinkered and unknowingly baka " I`m a Gaijin in Japan, look at me! " nonsense that makes all other foreigners cringe here. Wake up, realise that all that u purport to be is a bit of a farce, and the next time I deign to look at this website, which is dearyfuckingme, EXTREMELY unlikely, u have actually done some reportage of note.
Yours Sincerely, Rather Embarrassed Yamanashi Resident,
Blah de blah de blah Shalom | Ra popbing
4/11/2007
4:12:32 PM
| And just as an after thought, you utter, UTTER numbskull, kudesai, don't be complaining about the level of Engerish in Japan until you have bought yourself a spellcheck programme of some sort. The fact that you declare yourself an English teacher falls more than a little short when a native speaker looks at your rather pompous `messages`.
Buddy, it`s fairly fuuuuucking straightforward. Learm your own language first, patronise afterwards. If you get it wrong in the firsthand, when somewhat ironically criticising Japanese students for their lack of Eigo prowess, do u have any idea how much of a dickhead u look??? Probably not, ne. Tha`s the worrying thing. | Mike
6/18/2007
11:29:46 PM
| Hey Josh,
I can't remember when exactly your wedding in Japan is taking place, but I wish you both the best. I'm looking forward to seeing you in July.
Mike
P.S. I can't find your brother, do you know where he is and how to reach him? | Elyne
4/21/2008
5:34:11 PM
| Dear DesmondDecker,
You are certainly entitled to your opinion regarding Joshua's website; but I find your attitude condescending and lacking true rational thinking.
I have known Joshua nine months longer than anyone else. Besides being his mother, I am a retired college professor. Yes, I have always cringed at his grammar, spelling, and eccentricity; but when I visited Japan and was able to observe his classes, I saw how his creativity and humour totally disarmed his students. Have you ever taught young adolescents, particularly from a totally different culture?
I assume you are a Brit, because of your arrogance against Josh's use of the king's English.
But you sir, cannot compose a paragraph without the crutch of profanity. Most sadly, you freely condemn my son's character without knowing him. He is what Jews call a 'mench'. Simplistically, the German translation of this word is 'man'. But in richness of the Yiddish language, this word conveys a man who is mature by virtue of his compassion, empathy, and high moral values.
Since you ended your response with 'blah de blah de blah, shalom', I assume you are Jewish yourself; or were you mocking Josh's ethnicity? I don't care who you are, but your rant IS worthy of the small mind of an anti-Semite. Is this the basis of your insulting rage?
Most sincerely,
Joshua's mother, Elyne Meyer
P.S. As to Rapopbing, your message wasn't worthy of Joshua's time.See above. | Jim Dunlop
5/8/2008
12:36:33 AM
| Hey Josh! You must be doing something right -- you got a heckler! Like the saying goes: Opinions are like assholes: everyone's got one!
In any event, reading the above comments, I've surmised a couple of things. First, 'DesmondDecker' in all likelihood is also Ra popbing. Both posters (as Elyne pointed out) can't seem to construct a sentence without an F-bomb, and both posters can't seem to figure out how to find the apostrophe key on a standard keyboard. The only 'learming' [sic] that needs to be done here is by those who spew verbal diarrhea about spell-checks and misuse of English, and then go on to massacre their own messages with atrocities such as: 'Ur' to mean 'your'.
As to the content of Josh's Blog and how he views Japan and his daily experiences, they are no less valid and no less honourable than those of anyone else who has ever lived here and commented on Japan's people and culture. The fact that someone like Desmond would even be compelled to go out of his way to seek out the feedback section and post his meaningless drivel just amazes me. If I come across a website I don't like or agree with, I just move on. Simple. But the bile and rage with which two of the above comments were written just stands testament to the fact that some of our 'Rather Embarrassed Yamanashi Residents' have certain deep-seeded, latent, unresolved issues that they might best take to a qualified therapist lest they are consumed alive by them.
Good luck with that, my embarrassed, bile-filled co-resident... | Josh
5/9/2008
4:42:55 AM
| I should probably say something at this point.
First of all "DesmondDecker E"Rapopbing Eand another poster in the "feedback section EAre indeed all the same person. (One click on his name will show they use the same E-mail address.) Who it is, I don't know.
At first when I read Desmond's post I was greatly hurt. I read it a few times and felt pretty bad each time. After all, I just wanted to chronicle my experiences and make people laugh a bit along the way.
I thought about making a response online, or even writing directly to him.
I read it again, then again. Each time it hurt a little less. Then I finally was clear minded enough to see everything you have pointed out and more. I contemplated mocking him but eventually decided to leave it alone.
Now that others have spoken on the issue, I feel compelled to say something. (Particularly since my mother decided to come to my defense for me.)
So here it is, this is what I've been thinking for over a year now E
It was pretty clear that he looked at my picture and made judgments based on my appearance. It was also quite clear he didn't actually read very much of my writings before judging.
Here are some of his comments to prove my points;
"It really, really, REALLY isn`t enough to have a beard and think you look `wacky` to enable you to think you have a raison d`etre. E
At the time his post was written my beard was generally not the main topic of any posts. (Since then I won the Koi Hige contest. But that was a special case. I was asked to make myself a spectacle for the city and I was also the only gaijin in the contest.) I can only guess that he wrote it because he saw my picture on the website and thought I was trying to look like the stereotype of the 'wacky Eforeigner. He never makes any references to me actually acting wacky, only to my appearance.
His aversion to people fulfilling the stereotype of foreigners being goofy is common to new foreigners in Japan (I'll get to the other reason I think he's new later). But I didn't grow my beard specifically for Japan. In fact, when I go back home I am often surprised at how much more common facial hair is.
I am supposed to break stereotypes so I see no reason why I should change my appearance if I am to be a representative of my culture.
Now to another thing he said:
"Very much guessing you`re American and that is to blame for the mortifying blandness of this all E
Once again, he clearly didn't read very much. I frequently mention my nationality in my posts and other parts of the site (such as the picture of my hometown from the air.) But he really discredited himself by trying to bash me for (what he admitted to presume to be) my nationality.
I eventually made another realization about Decker. He was making a lot of the some mistakes that drive me nuts about Japanese English. Specifically not putting spaces between his words! He also makes numerous other glaring mistakes. "Jim Epointed out, he makes fun of me for doing things he is just as, if not even more blatantly guilty of.
Yes, I make mistakes. Ok, lot's of mistakes. But what he didn't realize is that while I make fun of Japanese English mistakes, I DO NOT do so to students! Students make mistakes, if they didn't they wouldn't need teachers. I would never make someone learning English feel bad for a mistake. But if someone in a professional position creates, publishes and sells something in bad English, I consider that fair game.
Fair game also falls on people who make personal attacks. So here it is E
If he were a friend, I would simply correct him, but since he called me a numbskull, I feel obliged to help Desmond a little help with his Nihongo.
Earlier I said I feel he was not in Japan for very long. One of the reasons was his Japanese.
He never actually called me a "numbskull. E(His exact words were "you utter, UTTER numbskull, kudesai. E
"Kudasai Ein this case means "please. Eas in asking for a glass of water. So Mr. Decker, you were in fact, saying "You utter, UTTER numbskull, please. E
I've been silent on the DesmondDecker issue for over a year now. When I first started this section I was thinking about adding a "fake hate mail' section to humorously satirize hate mail that blogs like mine tend to receive.
My inspiration was going to be the same thing that inspired my tone in my earlier posts. "Azrael Efrom "www.Outpostnine.com E(more recently GaijinSmash) and in this case, his responses to the occasional hate mail people sent him. Some of these were even going to serve as tributes to Azrael. (Let it be known, I feel he is a VASTLY superior writer.)
When I got a real hate mail message it kind of took the fun out of the idea.
I'd still like to think that something good came out of this though. As a direct result of the decker incident, I added the disclaimer on the homepage Explaining a little about me and the site.
-Josh
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