Summer: Is there a difference in the popular type or a likable person in Japan (1)versus outside of Japan? And what is different about how they would act , talk, the (2)aura they (3)give off?

Kyoka: I personally think that in America, they take sexy as a way of gaining interest from other people. Japan, it’s “cute.” For me, in Korea, it’s like both . And then , other countries each in, is different .

Tak:  (4)Back in the day, this girl was azatoi to me, and I thought she liked me. I thought she was being open, but that wasn’t the case . It’s hard to misunderstand that. I think we all like to think that open people are more popular ? like “moteru.” And I think that’s true, obviously. And it’s ideal. But that’s not always the case . (5)Objectively, people (6) go for the (7)manipulative ones sometimes ? guys and girls alike.

Summer: What a popular type or a likable person is in a (8) context between friends or in a workplace ? just, not only about the cute (9) aspect of azatoi, but maybe like a calculative person or a person who is clever in their interactions with other people in general ? how is that different in Japan and the U.S.?

Tak: I lived in (10)Vancouver, in Canada, for about 20 years, and I’ve been in Tokyo about 10. It doesn’t really seem like there’s much of a difference between the two cultures (11)in regards to like who is most liked by other people. One common feature that I found between the friends that I liked to (12) hang out with back in Vancouver and here, and people who seem to have a lot of friends is, like, people who can (13) tease each other in Japanese would be “karakau.” You can make jokes about the other person. And if they accept it, and if they’re cool with it, that’s how a lot of people (14)gauge their distance between from] [the other person, I think.

Summer: I remember when I first moved to Japan when I was 18. I was quite “donkan,” as you say in Japanese. I was not very good at reading people, actually , at that time . I think I couldn’t understand why, (15) over and over , I kept (16)pissing people off, actually .

Slowly after losing friends over and over again, I started to understand that people were s?thinking things but not telling them to me, and I had to s?be able to (17) figure that out. As an American, I was so used to people just telling me, “This is how I feel. I don’t like what you’re doing,” or “I don’t wanna to do that.” But, in Japan, they would say, “Oh, you know, I’m not sure ,” or something like that. And I couldn’t (18) interpret that as a no . (It) Took me some time to sort of build the skill of “kuuki wo yomu.”

One thing I just since , it’s interesting, ’ cause I was in Japan for 10 years, so like, I think that I became very Japanese during that time. I absorbed some Japanese values. And then I moved back to the States three years ago, in my late 20s, I had already become very Japanese. And then Americans kind of (19) overwhelm me now. Ha-ha. Because a lot of them are very friendly, and very personal. I mean , you don’t even know them, you can have just met someone, and they’ll tell you very, very personal things about themselves, without you even encouraging that, without asking any questions, you know?

I think there’s definitely good and bad things about that. You can really (20) get to know someone very, very quickly, (21) whereas in Japan, it might take you quite a long time to become, depending on the person, it might take you a long time to be very friendly, and know about the dark side of the person’s life and things like that. Whereas in the States, sometimes you can find it out within the first five minutes of meeting someone.

Ko: It’s definitely , so , like, kind of common , in the United States, but also there are a lot of different types of people, and there are definitely (22)introverted people as well , and people who’d prefer not to talk in an elevator or start a conversation on the bus or some
public transportation.

Tak: I’ve lived in the States for a little bit, too. A lot of, a lot more shy people in Canada, than in the States, I felt like. I used to go to school in (23)Boston, people would just (24) come up to you and talk to you at the (25) crosswalk while you’re like waiting to cross the street. That doesn’t really happen that much in Canada.

Summer: I did all my (1) schooling , (2) up to college, or up to high school, in the U.S., and there were definitely , in my school, the (3)cheerleader and (4)football player type. They were the most popular kids on the school, just like you see in movies.

The reason that they were so (5)attractive was because, (6)first of all, they were good at sports, so you have a lot of teammates, so it’s easy to make friends there. And the people who were most popular were often (7) physically attractive, they were (8)fashionable. And they were often of higher social classes.

But I would say that outside of school, those qualities definitely don’t make you popular anymore, right ? Uh, it gets very different when you’re in a work context , um, what kind of person becomes likable. And I would say, (9)from a work perspective, (it’s) people who have a sense of humor, people who are easy to (10)get along with , more friendly.

Kyoka: When I used to live in America, my environment was very different . We watched the movies that were like (11)jocks are cool people and the cheerleaders are the hot people. At the end, I looked around at my school, realizing, “Wait, where’s that in my school? Why isn’t the jocks the cool people?”

Ko: I agree with that. My situation was similar to Kyoka’s, I guess. I didn’t really see (12)cliques, like you do see in movies. Everyone was mixed. There were (13) sporty people, (14)artsy people, (15)geeky people all in the same group.

Tak: We’re, we’re talking about azatoi now like it’s a new (16) phenomenon , but I think it’s always been there, but we now have a word for it, so we have a way to express these ideas. And maybe that’s why it’s just (17)coming to the surface now ? is because we have those words, and it’s more (18) prominent all over the media and stuff . Culture’s changing. The (19) fundamental want of being liked and (20)accepted hasn’t changed, obviously. And it’s just, being azatoi or burikko, is just one way of, of trying to get accepted into a larger community.