“Japanese Only” sign in Tsukiji Fish Market
Posted by debito on February 6th, 2008
Hi Blog. Here’s a sign I received a couple of days ago from a friend in the Kansai. “JAPANESE People ONLY” in a Tsukiji restaurant, along with a litany of what kind of food appreciation they expect from their customers.
How urusai. Problem is, they indicate that NJ cannot have this degree of food appreciation, and so refuse them entirely.
Click on photo to expand in your browser. Anyone want to run down to Tsukiji for me and get a definitive picture of the storefront with the sign? (These things usually need two photos–the sign and the storefront with the sign). And a confirmation of what the name of the restaurant (and the address if possible?) Thanks.
Again, this is what happens when this kind of discrimination is not illegal in this society. More of this genre here. Arudou Debito in Sapporo
ENDS
February 6th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
I guess that clears up any confusion between “Japanese (language) only (spoken)” and “No gringos” …!
February 6th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
Feb 6 2008 at Japan Today: 10 Fingerprints being pushed on Japan by the USA, to add insult to injury:
http://www.japantoday.com/jp/news/427187
It seems that the “Japanese Only” will soon be put up at all points of entry.
February 6th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
What an eyesore! I wonder how many “JAPANESE PeoPle” actually take the time to read that. Does a naturalized Japanese gain the refined sensibility to enjoy fine fish? C’mon Debito, clue us in! Do you get ushered into a small room and told “now this is what it is all about…”
–THEY DID LOTS OF THINGS TO ME AT THE MINISTRY OF JUSTICE TO INDUCT ME INTO THE INNER SANCTUM… JUST KIDDING.
February 6th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
I can eat and appreciate ANY Japanese food. Even natto, sazae, raw horse meat, etc. I wish we could prove that to this restaurant. How about I go there with 3 other Japanese PEOPLE? Doesn’t that make up for being a smelly, ignorant, uncivilized gaijin?
February 6th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
This is so unfortunate because I happen to actually like the theme of this restaurant. They seem to be appealing to the “true” fish lovers who can appreciate the taste of seafood. The rules are pretty strict even in Japanese and it seems like they are trying to preserve an atmosphere indicative of food enjoyment - i.e. no smoking or shouting.
That being said though, the “no NJ” takes it over the top. Considering that Tsukiji is a go-to place for tourists, this policy is bad way to present Japan. If they would consider teaching NJ about fish they could probably increase their business ten-fold.
February 6th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
If we wait 10 years there won’t be any fish left in the sea and the restaurant will close.
Surely a simple “Sorry, no English spoken” would do 90% of the work and receive 99% less criticism?
February 6th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
In the Tsukiji market?? That’s grounds for taking the matter directly to the MOJ. Why on earth would Japanese tourism companies encourage foreigners to visit what is quintessentially one of the biggest attractions in Tokyo, only to have them kept out?
February 6th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
Now, see, I assumed it meant the instructions that follow apply to Japanese People Only…
February 6th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
Incredible. Tsukiji is pimped as one of the major tourist destinations in Tokyo, from ads at Narita to flyers in backpackers. Assuming that sign isn’t tucked away in a corner somewhere, a lot of people are going to see it…
February 6th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
Looking at that laundry list of minutiae to be observed by any potential customer, I can easily see why the restaurant may have had trouble with foreign tourists in the past.
Here are some of the things that they want patrons to understand:
* The place opens after 7:30 AM, but there are certain special regulars who get to come in earlier. You can easily see how a non-Japanese-speaker peeking in the door at 7:15 and being turned away with a “we’re not open yet” while seeing other people being served could cause problems. These people have reserved seats, too, evidently.
* They pour you tea before you order. I’m betting that this results in a seating charge that can be unpleasant for the unsuspecting customer.
* They have limited quantities of their stuff, and it’s always fresh and high-quality and thus expensive, and takes time to prepare. Could mean frustration for the tourist on a budget.
* Plus other unavoidable annoyances such as having parties larger than two sit separately, not letting people smoke or talk loudly, etc.
This isn’t to say that I don’t mind seeing an outrageous sign like this one, though. And it doesn’t even say anything about non-Japanese being forbidden in the main Japanese text. I imagine that a serious fish lover who has the wrong skin color and accent but who is willing to abide by the rules could probably get in. Someone should get this store to rewrite their sign in a much more diplomatic manner and everyone will be happy.
February 6th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
Icarus, it’s not a matter of ‘teaching’ NJs about fish, 9 times out of 10, you have a love for the food if you decide to go to Tsukiji. No one can tell YOU how to appreciate fish or any other food or hobby you like, as if there was a ‘normal’ way. I love Japan, I do, but you need to do SOMETHING about this ignorance/fear of NJs.
February 7th, 2008 at 1:22 am
SO MUCH FOR “YOKOSO JAPAN”. And the morons want to increase tourism to Japan. What a joke.
February 7th, 2008 at 4:53 am
Do they let in non-Japanese fish? Because I can’t see how a Japanese person could possibly fully appreciate a fish that was not caught in Japanese waters, and was possibly caught by non-Japanese fishermen.
The logic used by the restaurant in question is about the same.
February 7th, 2008 at 7:53 am
Don,
Not to defend exclusion, but…
Does your logic extend to how no sports club can tell you how to appreciate working out? My local gym wants people to bring in sneakers that are not used on the dirty street, plus you can’t wear your regular shoes very far inside.
In other words, I’ve seen lots of inappropriate behavior by Westerners in Japan. And many of them are totally unapologetic for their acts. Debito could start another blog to cover this, if he wanted to show the other side of the cultural divide.
February 7th, 2008 at 9:09 am
No smoking, no shouting or loud talk? Hang on, that excludes like 90% of Japanese customers :O
Surely there are gringos around who’d translate that into English
for a free meal? To avoid all the hassle and negative publicity …
February 7th, 2008 at 9:20 am
I always suprise the locals with the food that i eat. Im constantly asked, are you sure you’re not japanese, despite my very obvious ‘western features’! I eat more typical japanese foods than japanese do.
I even make my dashi stock the correct way (it’s simple), non of this predried frozen chemical rubbish. I do think the japanese are loosing their palate for their own food with all the rubbish “ready made” meals and sauces i see in the supermarkets. I can taste all the subtle flavours that around 90% of my freinds cannot, becasue they eat ready made dashi stock and sauces etc, full of rubbish chemicals and flavours and salt etc.
May be this is one reason for the sign…to keep philistines out!
February 7th, 2008 at 10:26 am
Well, I’m kind of split on this one. Sign or no sign, the owner is still the same intolerant, prejudicial ass who I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t want to do business with. And he/she seems pretty prejudicial toward Japanese folk, too, juding by the list of directives. Maybe sometimes it’s better to be forewarned. If the sign’s not there, he’s not suddenly going to become an open-armed, gracious host. I would hope it doesn’t prove to be viral, though, and spread to other establishments.
My guess is his fish tastes pretty much like everybody else’s fish at Tsukiji, and he’s trying to pander to egos to get a price premium. I’m happy just to go to someplace else and forget him.
February 7th, 2008 at 10:32 am
Don, I agree with you, but it seems that the point of the restaurant is to actually teach Japanese people about eating fish. That is the theme of the restaurant. They are basically, based on the rules above, trying to say that this place isn’t your typical izakaya and that they won’t put up with loud and drunk businessmen - they’ve purposely chosen an elitist theme possibly to bring in more sophisticated clientèle. Based on keeping with this theme, I think it would be perfectly suitable in keeping with the theme to “teach” NJ about fish and show them the ideal way to enjoy the seafood rather than excluding them entirely - this is what they are doing with Japanese people. I’m sure there are NJ who go to Tsukiji because they have a love of fish, but let’s be serious, most of the NJ there are most likely tourists trying to enjoy something traditionally Japanese. What better way to welcome these tourists than show them what even Japanese people consider the perfect way to enjoy the food.
Something definitely needs to be done about the fear of NJ, but you can’t do this by slapping the owners on the wrist and saying, “bad racist!” You need communication - and what better way to do this than have the owners apply the elitist theme to everyone in a friendly and open way.
February 7th, 2008 at 11:02 am
Perhaps we all got it wrong. Perhaps Tsukiji loves its foreign tourists so much that this restaurant kindly wrote its “Japanese people only”(need to read the) rules for dining sign because these rules are aimed at the countless chain-smoking, drunkenly loud Japanese men and not the polite and courteous foreign tourists who the restaurant will, of course, welcome with open arms.
February 7th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
Mark, those are some great rationalizations, but what does it do for those of us who know that stuff inside and out already because we’ve spent our entire adult lives here? All foreigners are lumped into one dumb mass by stuff like this. Anyway, I’d rather give my yen to someone else.
February 7th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
mark in yayoi-sorry but your analysis of the sign is completely wrong.
1.maybe they did have probs with nj not understanding the rules in the
past.but having the rules written like that means that they have had
problems with japanese not understanding the rules as well.
If your logic is correct ,why arent they banned??
of the examples you give,seeing reg customers before 7.30am in the shop and
people being on a budget, are problems which apply equally to j and nj.
2.it says clearly that nj are not welcome in english.
why would they put that in japanese when its in english?
furthermore it does make clear(though indirectly) that foreigners are not
welcome in japanese.by using (日本人の方でも）it makes clear that even
japanese can be refused.
it is this use of でも that I find the most outrageous about the sign.the
sense is that it is perfectly normal to refuse nj ,but
guess what amazingly,we can even refuse japanese as well if they dont obey
the rules..
this of course also implies foreigners dont love fish,and that foreigners
dont follow the rules.
the only rule that this shop wants foreign patrons to understand is that
they are not welcome.
February 7th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
One of the best things of capitalism and market forces is that you as a customer, always have the right to choose. Even Japanese clientèle will get pestered by those countless regulations. What’s the point? I am going just to sit and eat fish, not going into some spacecraft construction site where cleanliness and unwanted vibrations (shouting) can be really bad for the spaceship (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_room). The best thing we can do is just take our money elsewhere, is the owner who loses. In a country with such excellent customer service, I know there will be plenty of other places in Tsukiji that will give me excellent food.
February 7th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
Ken and Adam, I’m not trying to justify the owner’s policy, but rather to try and imagine from his perspective why he might want to institute rules like this, whether they’re rational or not.
As I said in my earlier post, I think this the kind of thing that can be fixed with a simple visit from a Japanese-speaking, fish-loving foreign person who’s willing to help the owner out on a better-written sign. With all those eccentricities listed there, it looks to me like the owner more paranoiac about the quality of his fish and the perfectly-tuned atmosphere in his store than in anything specific to foreigners.
There might also be a bit of the “we discriminate against all people of your kind, so you shouldn’t feel bad as an individual” convoluted logic that you occasionally see from Japanese people, such as some of the bath owners that Debito dealt with during that case. The guy is too lazy or fearful to worry about fairness, andb probably expects non-Japanese to look at the first line of the sign, say “shoganai” in their own language to themselves, and move on to the next fish place.
What he should probably do is just swap that sign for one bearing the famous “ichigen-san okotowari” (no first-time visitors), and then when people who have no acquaintances among that able-to-enter-before-7:30 super-elite inquire about actually coming in, he reads them the rules and then only the sakana-otaku who share his unusual views get to sit down.
February 9th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
It’s pretty depressing situation, but it doesn’t seem to be a place I would want to eat at anyway. And the owner must be frustrated when clueless foreign tourists enter the place and demand tempura and miso soup or something.
But it would be nice if Japan did recognize human rights conventions instead of relying on ‘duty + humanity’ all the time.
Food culture is declining all over the world, anyway. I went to a deli at a farmer’s market in a gentrified rural part of the region where I live (investment bankers and their hobby farms) to order a sandwich. I asked what kinds of sandwiches they had, and the clerk pointed wordlessly at the menu board.
Due to the ‘labour shortage’ or whatever, people just don’t give a shit anymore (and why should they, for minimum wage?).
February 10th, 2008 at 4:55 am
Perhaps the “JAPANESE PeoPLE ONLY” bit of the sign is meant to dismiss non-Japanese speakers from trying to read the sign and to advise non-Japanese who speak and read Japanese as well as English primarily to follow the rules if they can read them. LOL. I’d like to think these “Japanese Only” signs are taken out of context a little and even to extremes sometimes. I’m not fluent in Japanese so I wouldn’t be able to say what the signs contents entail but I can assure everyone who see signs like these that there are many sides to them. Don’t just jump to conclusions.
Besides, even if it were a possible exclusion of foreigners, who are foreigners to say they ARE welcome in another country? Especially in a country like Japan…? It doesn’t matter how International people think of themselves, being foreign isn’t a golden ticket, and you still have to follow the rules, even as a guest. Guests only receive good treatment from hosts when they behave according to a hosts expectations. That’s the way I think it should be, I know when it comes to the customer in the Western world it’s completely opposite but Westerners still have to follow an owners rules of an establishment, as long as they don’t go against the law.
Think of it like this, if you have a mint Japanese coin set and you break it open and take a coin out and jam a non-Japanese coin into it, it’s not worth much anymore.
If it is exclusion from just one restaurant, why can’t the Japanese have a place to (possibly the only restaurant in Tsukiji)go to where only Japanese people are served? In a sense, it happens here in America still…we just can’t put up signs enabling it anymore. For some reason in certain regions of the U.S. there still seems to be an unwritten code on where certain groups may gather…it’s just the Japanese way to be very thorough, specific and precise by putting up signs prohibiting natural tendencies to highlight the un-natural (seemingly natural and acceptable to Japanese society). Without the un-natural (deemed natural to Japanese) social constraints in Japan, Japanese people would not be able to preserve their traditional love and appreciation of actual naturality.
People should realize that Japan is Japan, and Japan is not the U.S., nor the U.K., nor anywhere else they wish Japan had the policies of.
–HERE WE GO, CLASSIC “GUESTISM”, AND THEN SOME. THE ESSENCE IS ALL THERE: JAPAN IS DIFFERENT, “FOREIGNERS” HAVE NO SAY NO MATTER HOW LONG THEY’VE BEEN HERE (THE AUTHOR DOES ONE BETTER–FOREIGNERS EVEN DEBASE JAPAN, RENDERING IT WORTHLESS AS A MIXED COIN COLLECTION), JAPAN MUST PRESERVE ITSELF, “WE’RE” JUST MISUNDERSTANDING “THEM”, ANYONE WITH A DIFFERENT IDEA IS FORCING IT UPON JAPAN, ETC. AND OF COURSE, ONLY REAL JAPANESE HAVE REAL RIGHTS AS CONSUMERS AND CUSTOMERS (CUE FORTHCOMING ARGUMENT THAT A SHOPKEEP’S SHOP IS LIKE HIS PRIVATE HOUSE; A SENTIMENT NOT BORNE OUT BY INTERNATIONAL TREATY OR THE PRACTICE OF LICENSING).
AND NEVER MIND THE INSINUATION THAT THE RULES ON THE SIGN MUST BE NATURAL TO JAPANESE (WHY TAKE THE TROUBLE TO WRITE THEM DOWN, THEN? AND WHY SHOULD THE SHOPKEEP ASSUME THAT NJ WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO FOLLOW THEM UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES?). HOWEVER YOU TRY TO SLICE THIS ISSUE, THERE IS NO REASON THAT WOULD JUSTIFY A BLANKET REFUSAL OF “FOREIGNERS”. FULL STOP.
I’M ONLY APPROVING THIS MESSAGE SINCE THE AUTHOR TRIES TO MAKE A COGENT ARGUMENT. WE HAVE ANOTHER POSTER (SOMEBODY FLUENT IN JAPANESE) WHO KEEPS TRYING TO POST NUMEROUS TIMES PER DAY, BUT HE’S LONG SINCE TURNED OUT TO BE A TROLL ON THIS AND OTHER LISTS, I’M DELETING HIS POSTS. NATURALLY (AND IRONICALLY), HE’S YELPING DISCRIMINATION, AND CLAIMING ELSEWHERE THAT I’M DELETING COMMENTS BY JAPANESE. NOPE, JUST COMMENTS BY HIM.
MEANWHILE, ONE OF THE REASONS I DON’T APPROVE COMMENTS OF APOLOGISTS FOR “JAPANESE ONLY” SIGNS IS BECAUSE THEY’RE NOT OPEN TO ENTREATY–THEY HAVE THEIR MINDSET (WHICH WILL NOT BE DEFIED BY OTHER PEOPLE’S EXPERIENCES, OR PRIMARY-SOURCE EVIDENCE INDICATING DISCRIMINATION) AND NOTHING WILL CHANGE IT. NO REAL DISCUSSION IS POSSIBLE, THEN. THOSE PEOPLE GENERALLY REMAIN ANONYMOUS, TOO. THERE ARE LOTS OF TROLLS IN THE WORLD OUT THERE. I’M NOT GOING TO FEED THEM ALL WITH RESPONSES OR EVEN APPROVAL TO THIS BLOG–IN ANY LANGUAGE. NOTHING PRODUCTIVE IS ACCOMPLISHED BY ENGAGING THEM.
TAKE A NJ AND TRY TO GET A MEAL AT THE RESTAURANT YOURSELF. GIVE US A FULL REPORT. LET’S HAVE THEIR JUSTIFICATIONS, NOT YOURS.
February 10th, 2008 at 10:25 am
But Mark in Yayoi, after you stay 23 years in this country, you wake up one morning thinking that it does not make sense ”to try and imagine from his perspective why he might want to institute rules like this, whether they’re rational or not”, unless you want to prove yet another point in your still unpublished sociology thesis on “Japanese patterns of behaviour (and Me)”. I understand his perspective (wakaru). I don’t agree with it (nattoku shinai).
There is no point to think that this is “the kind of thing that can be fixed with a simple visit from a Japanese-speaking, fish-loving foreign person who’s willing to help the owner out on a better-written sign. “ Especially this last one smells so paternalistic and good doctor ethnocentricism - I’ll tell them what’s good for them that is good for me!
Racism and ostracism have no color. Period.
And by the way, daily life is not “Applied intercultural communication in real life” (with 5 credits at the end of the term) but comes down to very tangible things: 1 - they don’t want gaijin, 2 - I don’t want to eat in any place, whatever the cook’s creed be who plays the “ganko oyaji” and where the regular fish cognocentis in the back grin at you, watching your every munching jugular movement as if you were a walrus in the zoo. And the reason is that 1 - if I were a restaurant owner, I would shriek at the idea of screening patrons based on skin colors, and 2 - I would hate myself if I were the kind of person lurking at others like queer animals. It is that simple and doesn’t call for further action than scoffing at the shop’s owner and calling for a boycott.
February 10th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
Don’t just jump to conclusions.
So - should we assume the sign means something other than what it says?
Besides, even if it were a possible exclusion of foreigners, who are foreigners to say they ARE welcome in another country?
They are according to the laws of Japan and the visas they received at immigration. So, the Japanese government and courts is who is to say they are welcome.
Especially in a country like Japan…?
Please enlighten us as to why the word ‘especially’ is used before Japan as opposed to any other political entity with borders arbitrary defined by war or geography?
if you have a mint Japanese coin set and you break it open and take a coin out and jam a non-Japanese coin into it, it’s not worth much anymore.
I’m lost on the analogy. Who would do such a thing anyway?
The guestism arguments are the most self-defeating, especially when Japan is trying to boost the number of tourists and the number of skilled working people living here (the latter is not universally supported, but enough so that it’s bringing people into the country). The practice has to match the stated goals, or else the goals won’t be achieved.
In my opinion, the guy who runs this place is probably a little beyond eccentric. It doesn’t excuse the sign, but it would be good to have an insight into the thought process that lies behind such behaviour.
February 10th, 2008 at 11:17 pm
Gyaretto, I can’t get my mind around:
you still have to follow the rules, even as a guest. Guests only receive good treatment from hosts when they behave according to a hosts expectations. That’s the way I think it should be
The guy’s sign says something about “Kawasaki spirit”, so it looks like he’s not a Tsukiji native. Isn’t he a “guest” in Tokyo? Where are the lines drawn between “native” and “foreign”? Would you approve of a “Tokyoites Only” sign? How about “Dosanko Only” up in Hokkaido? Yet this guy can move from Kanagawa up to Tokyo and arbitrarily define non-Japanese people as outsiders?
Lionel, I am not a sociologist (indeed, I have neither a thesis nor a single “credit” in it), just an ordinary person looking to make sm contributions to solving the problems in our society. How about leaving the childish insults at home?
When you confront people with the irrationality of their policies, often (admittedly, not always) they change. Debito’s done it many times. In this case, nobody’s even spoken with the owner yet. Give him a chance to defend his ill-thought-out and discriminatory policy (difficult, I’m sure) and then get him to revise it.
February 11th, 2008 at 12:56 am
この注意書きは、店主がマナーに厳しく、マナーを守れない人間を歓迎しない旨を書いているだけだろう。過去の経験から、外国人の多くがルールを守れずトラブルを起すことが多く、その経験則（a rule of thumb）から外国人客を拒否している可能性が高い。
無論、そういう理由により全ての外国人客を拒否するのは不当な差別ではある。しかし、店主の本意は「マナーを守れない人間」の拒否（refusal of customers who cannot follow the rules）が第一であって、外国人を外国人という属性故に拒否（refusal of foreign customers by virtue of being foreigner）しているとは考えられない。
つまり、この店主は（１）一般的に偏見的（generally prejudicial）な思考をする人物というだけであって、（２）特に外国人を差別する人種差別主義者（directly racist）であるとは思えない。この店主が、外国人は劣等であるとか、外国人は汚れているとか、そうした外国人プロパーの属性に関するの偏見故に外国人客を拒否しているとは思えない。例えば、もしも過去に関西弁を喋る人間がマナーを守らず迷惑をかけることが多かったなら、この店主は同じく関西人を拒否する旨を示す可能性が高いだろう。
いずれにしろ、この店主を差別主義者だと糾弾したいのであれば、店主にこの断り書きの真意をまず確認するのが筋というもの。外国人でも魚を食するマナーを心得ている者は存在する。この店主が、そういう外国人の入店を許すのかどうかを、まず問いただすべきである。
もしこの店主がマナーを知っていて守れる外国人客でも拒否するというのなら、外国人を外国人という属性故に全て拒否するのなら、差別主義者という誹りを受けるのも当然であろう。しかし、もしマナーを心得ている外国人であれば受け入れると店主が言うのなら、それは断り書きの表現に問題があるだけであり、より正確に書き直すよう指摘すれば済む事である。店主の英語力および国語力が足りずに、簡潔で、乱暴な、配慮に欠ける書き方になってしまっただけ、という可能性は否定できない。
＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝
相手（この店主）の考え方を説明（または弁解）するのは私たち（客）の仕事ではないと思う。客商売をする店主は自分の立場をきちんと説明する義務があると言える。顧客に誤解が生じる書き方はしないのは店主の責任である。「JAPANESE PeoPle ONLY」という書き方は「国籍」（結局外見になろう）のみで門前払いとあるようなので、少なくとも無責任であり、最悪の場合で店主の差別主義を反映している。いずれに、我が国日本では、これは正当化できない。
とにもかくにも、どうぞ直接当店に行き確認して下さい。この議論は堂々巡りだ。張本人の理屈が把握していないとただ憶測のみに基づいている議論となる。有道 出人
February 11th, 2008 at 8:57 am
I heard an interesting take on this from my wife, that I had not heard before. Apparently Japan has a much stronger culture of exclusionary establishments than the UK, for example. Not so much up here in the frozen north, but especially in Kansai it is common for commercial establishments to be very picky about their customers.
Not that it excuses anything, but this may be one source of the conflict here, between people who think it is normal to exclude specific groups (’foreigners’ being one of them here), and people who country of origin doesn’t do that anymore, at least on the surface (the gentlemen clubs in London got hammered in the courts, but you still can’t get into a night club if the bouncer doesn’t like the way you look).
I would certainly like to see someone with good Japanese and a real love of sushi to go to this shop and see if they can change some attitudes (maybe translate the rules into English so they can be posted alongside the Japanese ones). I do suspect that the ‘Japanese people only’ thing is part ignorance and part giving up on communication before it has even happened. I think the best thing we can do it to try to add some shades of grey to the foreigner/Japanese dichotomy. Plenty of foreigners in Japan who have absorbed a lot of the culture and language, but we need to be more visible, and not in a ‘cute foreign clown on TV’ kind of way.