Thai netizens fume over Japanese discrimination against foreigners
Many call for retaliation after shopkeeper’s board says only those who know Japanese are welcome
Thai netizens are criticising a photo of a sign in Japan posted on social media earlier this week that shows difference in treatment of locals and foreign customers.
The sign of an unnamed establishment in Japan contains wordings in three languages. The first line reads “No vacancy” in English, while the second line is in Chinese, which can be translated as “Too bad the seats are full”.
The last line, written in Japanese in a red, smaller font, can be translated as, “If you can read Japanese, please come inside”.
Many netizens slammed the establishment for discrimination against foreigners, while some reasoned that the owner probably did not speak other languages, so they decided to accept only Japanese-speaking customers.
Several netizens suggested that Thai establishments do the same as revenge on countries that discriminate against Thais.
Others, meanwhile, offered a solution, saying modern travellers often have a smartphone that can translate foreign texts in real-time.
Responding to this, Facebook user “iwshmkmor” on Wednesday proposed an approach to prevent machine translation from cracking the Thai language.
“We should use Thai spoonerism to deter machine-translation,” the post said. “For example, ‘คนไทยเข้าฟรี’ (free entry for Thais), when written in spoonerism will be ‘คนทรีเข้าไฟ’, which google will translate as ‘tree man enters the fire’.”
“This way, no one would accuse Thai establishments of having double standards, and assume that it was a translation error,” he said.
The post became viral in a few hours, with over 800 likes and 9,000 shares.
