Is JPHUB Evil?

Original article (in Japanese) → https://note.com/tokagelove01/n/n4126b5cb4dd6

Dear VRChat players,

Hello, I'm a Trusted User who's just been playing for a long time. A little while ago, a world called JPHUB was criticized a bit. JPHUB is a recently created world for Japanese users on VRChat. In order to encourage interaction among Japanese speakers, there is a test about Japanese at the entrance, such as questions from JLPT-N3 (Japanese Language Proficiency Test, Class-3).

(This is considered to be especially difficult for Japanese learners)

If you can pass the test, you can proceed to the backroom. But if you fail, you will be greeted with a portal leading you to another world. This system, which effectively excludes non-Japanese users, has sparked a bit of controversy.

Author's Edit 1: There was a time when JPHUB used a system to exclude non-JST timezone players before the quiz was introduced. I forgot to write about it until it was pointed out to me on Twitter, so I'll add it here.

When the timezone system was first introduced, it was criticized heavily as it was clearly discriminatory for excluding players based on their region. I believe that Japanese users, who are living abroad, were also questioning about how they were being excluded as well (along with other reasonable arguments similar to that). That incident is largely responsible for the current criticism that JPHUB is receiving today. The world creator himself admitted on Twitter that, that method of excluding users based on their timezone was indeed discriminatory and unethical, and the JPHUB today had lifted such restrictions.

I completely forgot to write about that. My apologies.

Author's Edit 2 (After all the reactions and comments I’ve received regarding this article): I understand that this may be hard to believe for some of you, but I didn’t write this article to condemn all the foreign weebs nor to deny any worlds in question. Yes, this article is written by me, a Japanese VRC player. And, yes, the arguments here may contain my frustration toward the situation in a form of criticism and/or sarcasm. My apologies.
I understand that the current situation is an inevitable consequence of the popularity of Japanese Anime, along with the population differences and a variety of other factors, and that there’s not really anyone to blame for all of this.
I am, however, writing about a group of people mistreated as an outcome of this unfortunate situation from the perspective of a single user.
Most of the criticisms and complaints here are not intended to reprimand anyone.
Some people may be offended, as they feel that they have been rejected, and I understand that what I have here is nothing but one big selfish complaint.
But anyway, I hope you will take such expressions as my lament toward all this. I am sorry.
In this article, I'm going to talk about how there are people who are being oppressed in this situation, where no one is at fault, and if we can do something about it.
(However, I would like to condemn those who snap at me without even trying to understand the situation nor my argument.)

Translator's note: はろーはろー。 This is Kawane, the one on hiatus from Twitter right now. Just a friendly reminder that this is a translated version of JPHUBは悪なのか？(JPHUB wa aku nanoka?) by tokagelove01 on note.com and the opinions here are not my own.
Thank you for reading me and carry on!
Oh, and if you want to support my works including translations, you can buy me a coff

End of addendum

Preface

One veteran VRC user said "About time..." with a sigh. From people who have strong opinions about discrimination, to the so-called "Justice Warriors" of the internet, to the Japanese learners who were locked out from JPHUB, voices of 外国人差別(Gaikokujin-sabetsu) or "Discrimination against foreigners" were heard all around, while the Japanese VRChat Community turned into a living hell.

During this period, I was ego-searching the term "JPHUB" every day (and by ego-searching, I mean looking it up on Twitter), and I saw many people calling out on the VRChat JP Community without actually knowing about the complicated situation that the JP Community has been put under. And (although there weren't any direct replies,) there were also people who threw heartless words toward the creator of JPHUB world.

In fact, every time I went into JPHUB, I would find a foreigner, freezing in front of the entrance quiz, and I'd ask them about their thoughts about the quiz. I'd explain it to them: "You have to solve this quiz to get through, and the current Japanese community is like this..." and so on. Some people would be like "Oh well, I guess it is what it is", while others would call me a racist.

Some of the foreign players, especially those who knew what was going on, were very understanding of the quiz, but the foreigners who were genuinely just coming to play in a Japanese World were not happy about being excluded. (They probably feel rejected, which is unpleasant but perhaps unavoidable)
I think the reason why some Japanese people think that JPHUB is "necessary" while others think that it's "discriminatory" is because there is a huge difference in the perception of this situation, even amongst Japanese people.
Why is this the case? Well, I believe that this is due to the fact that there are not many articles written about the background of the whole situation, and only the people involved can understand what happened.
I felt this sense of urgency by the current situation surrounding JPHUB, so I decided to create a note account just in order to write an article about what's going on.

I can speak English well enough to hold a daily conversation, and the majority of friends on my friend list are foreigners, including otakus.
So, while knowing both sides of the coin, the Japanese users and the otaku foreigners, please keep in mind that, as a Japanese player myself, I am biased toward the Japanese side.

Also, I am not the creator of JPHUB, nor friends with the creator of JPHUB, nor a creator of any world in VRChat in fact, period. So please don't DM the world creator or anyone else in regards to this article... Also, if there is any misinformation here, please contact me on Twitter@tokagelove01 or at tokagelove02#1777 on Discord.

For suggestions and comments about the translation, please contact @KawaneRio on Twitter/Misskey/Discord

Problems facing the VRChat community in Japan

VRChat has people of various nationalities, and each country has its own community.

For example, there is a world called "Hwabon Night" (화본역). The place's always crowded with Koreans. You can hear Korean being spoken as you enter, and it's a great atmosphere.

There's "Bar Do Ze Brazil", a world with only Brazilians. You can have a blast with all kinds of Brazilian stuff here like football, weed, etc.

And then there's Japan's "Japan Hiroba". More than half of them are foreigners. A place where you can hear exchanges of English and broken Japanese.

...wait, what?

Then there's [JP] Tutorial World. A tutorial world for Japanese Visitors just starting VRChat. ...or, at least that's what it's supposed to be...?

You sure this isn't the Japanese "Language" Tutorial World?

I mean, I only see foreigners here.

A screenshot I took at a random instance of a [JP] Tutorial World.

All I could hear were people talking in English, but not a single word of Japanese from anywhere (except some Japanese slang here and there, said by foreigners).

There were a decent amount of foreign Trusted Users,
which is the complete opposite of Japanese Visitors...

Massive number of Otakus

There's a group on the internet called the "weeb". These are the so-called Otakus, obsessed with the Japanese culture.
"I love Anime!", "I love Japan!", "I'm studying Japanese!", "OMAE WA MOU SHINDEIRU!"

Yeah... those guys.

(Strictly speaking, a "weeb" or a "weeaboo" is mostly a derogatory slang term used specifically for foreigners that are obsessed with the Japanese culture [to the point of denouncing their own]. Therefore, it's actually disrespectful to call a normal Otaku foreigner a "weeb")

Right now, we live in a day and age where Japanese Anime is all over the world. And there are a lot of otakus in the world. A lot more than you might think; especially on the internet. These people come to VRChat in search for Japan, to study Japanese, or to talk with Japanese people. For the sake of convenience, I'm going to use the term "weeb" to describe these foreigners who come to Japanese Worlds in VRChat. (Just be careful when using the term "weeb" casually in a conversation, because it can come off as a derogatory term!)

Weebs, just like any other fan obsessed with a culture from a different country, tends to hop onto that country's world out of curiosity. The reasons vary. Some want to learn Japanese, some simply find Japanese worlds interesting, and some want to actually interact with Japanese people.

However, there are just too many of them.

There have always been otakus around the world. They were the ones who grew up watching Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon, and Naruto (before Shippuden) on cable TV, or read manga imported from Japan after paying that hefty international shipping fee. But that was about it. The Otaku community of the last decade or two was not as nearly as big as the size of it today.

But now, things have changed. They are watching BORUTO almost in real time. With the spread of services such as Netflix, anyone can easily pass their time by watching Anime, even if they are not an avid Japanese otaku or even if they have no interest for Japan in the first place. The number of these otakus... the "weebs" has increased tremendously compared to the past.

This is a screenshot of Netflix connected from a VPN in the US. You can watch all sorts of Anime, from the classics to the latest. Foreigners who watch this kind of Anime become weeb noobs. You'll definitely become an Japanese/Anime otaku on the day you bingewatch the entire season of Attack on Titan. I know you will.

And not only are there too many of them, but Japanese Anime has become a cultural phenomenon in many countries around the world. Everyone living today has been exposed to Japanese Anime in some way or another growing up. The Japanese culture is simply too accessible. Even those who do not understand much Japanese are somehow exposed to Japan through Anime and Manga, and they can still understand a little bit of Japanese. We live in the age where anyone can identify themselves as an otaku, and anyone can have a reason to visit Japanese worlds.

This is not the same level as going to an Italian world just because everyone has learned about ancient Rome in their world history class. No, we are talking about a whole new level. A level where every Tom, Dick, and Harry, from every Neko and Shakushi, to every Cats and Spoons around the globe, are chanting "JAPAN!" "JAPAN!!" without having the slightest knowledge of the Japanese language.

Imagine what would happen if a storm of weeaboos, from all around the globe, got on VRChat and swamped that Japanese world with zero language skills? The Japanese would be overwhelmed while the otakus would start conversing in English, and us fairies, who are few in number and cannot speak English, would have no choice but to run away to private worlds. Then the otakus would form a weeb community in the world where the Japanese once were and just stay there long after the Japanese had fled away.

It isn't wrong to go to a world of a country, where that language is spoken, in order to learn a new language.

For example, I went to Hwabon Night (화본역) the other night and told a Korean person who tried talking to me "I don't understand Korean, I'm sorry..." with my poor Korean. They replied to me with great interest, saying things like "Oh, really? Japanese? Are you studying Korean?" and so.
This used to be the attitude of most Japanese players towards learners of Japanese. As a matter of fact, you can still see this kind of attitude from time to time. But in the case of Japanese worlds, there were just too many of them.

These are the kind of Japanese learners that usually come to a Japanese world. Just the name of the world being Japanese or having tags like [JP] is enough to attract them. But Japanese players didn't come to VRChat to talk to them nor to teach them Japanese. We are not Japanese teachers nor Japanese learning materials.

If we were to get one weeb a day, we would probably titter about their broken Japanese with interest, talk about each other's languages, about the culture, and have a healthy, fun, and meaningful exchange...

Here is a metaphor that I often tell foreigners.

For example, when talking to a British person.

Let's say that the British culture, say Sherlock Holmes for example, has gotten stupidly popular all over the world, as popular as Japanese Anime, and there are Sherlock nerds all over the world.
You want to socialize with a British person on VRChat, so you go to the British Meetup world.
However, every British Meetup world is full of Sherlock nerds from foreign countries.
They can barely speak English, and it's quite difficult to find any British people, even on a British world made for British people.
As soon as you walk into an instance, foreigners would come up to you in broken English, asking things like "Are you speak Buri tisshu?", "Are you Blitish?" and as soon as you answer yes, they will gather a crowd around you, saying "Wow! Man! That's crazy!!" "Teach me engrish!".
"The fact that I'm British, isn't crazy...", " I'm not here to talk with a bunch of nerds who can barely speak English...", "I'm not here to teach you English...", and you just get tired of it.
You'll also be surrounded with people who speak only in quotes like "erementary, my deer Mr.watson", and by innocent trolls constantly bombarding slangs at you on every corner like "fuck!", "penis!", "mmm...I like peepee", "hey, do you know how to say kinshinsōkan in English?", fiddling with your language like a toy.
And every British world you visit is like this. You end up finding nobody but these nerds, and you leave VRChat without meeting a single British person.

All you wanted was a conversation, in English, with another British user...

Isn't this kinda messed up?
Yet, that's the current situation of the Japanese VRChat Community today.

(UK wasn't the best example because everyone can speak English)

Problems facing the Japanese VRChat users

I hope you understand the current situation of weebs flooding into Japanese worlds by now, but what exactly are the problems?

1. You can't meet Japanese people

You can't meet Japanese people. As you know, public Japanese worlds are filled with weebs. And all the Japanese users are hiding in private instances. If you want to make new Japanese friends, you'll have to either: attend an event by joining a Friends+ instance, or make friends on platforms like Twitter and then meet up with them on VRChat.
But why...? All I wanna do is just talk with random Japanese people like Ameba Pigg...

Translator's note:
Ameba Pigg is a game by Ameba, a Japanese blogging platform, where the blogger creates a virtual avatar of themself and are able to interact with other random strangers in a second life-ish world. (There were a good number of bloggers who only played Ameba Pigg without actually blogging on Ameba though)

By the way, I play Mahjong, so I made some Japanese friends on a Mahjong World. Japanese Mahjong is the kind of Mahjong that only Japanese people tend to play, so even if you are in a public instance, you can still make Japanese friends if you just wait long enough.

Author’s edit: But please don’t show up to a Mahjong World looking to make a Japanese friend if you have no interest in playing Mahjong! I’ve noticed a couple users coming over with that intent…

2. Japanese Visitors don't stay in VRChat

There is a concern that Japanese Visitors will not be able to enjoy the game and will leave VRChat when the first people they encounter in Japanese Worlds are all foreigners, while the actual Japanese VRChat players hide in their private instances.

[JP] Tutorial World is a well-known world, often recited as one of the most recommended must-go worlds for Visitors in many of the Japanese VRChat related sites and articles. After all, the world was made for Japanese Visitors just starting out with VRChat; it's only natural for them to end up there. Within the world, you'll be able to find all the basic controls of VRChat, written entirely in Japanese, and you'll even be greeted by some friendly Trusted Japanese users who have a weird fetish for guiding Visitors who show up at [JP] Tutorial World.

However, the sad truth is that the players actually getting this full-on guidance treatment are the few lucky ones. Because most of the time, when you actually join an instance of [JP] Tutorial World, you'll find a bunch of Koreans staring at the mirror (sorry to any Korean readers reading this), foreigners on desktop gathered in the middle or the second floor of the instance chatting in English (they are gonna hurt their back crouching like that), and of course, let's not forget about all the foreigners in their Tanjirō avatars greeting you, the Visitor, with kind Japanese words like "Oi! Kisama! Oi! Omae!" "anatawanihonjindesuka?", and "OCHINCHIN DAISUKI!" (this is some real prejudiced opinion here).

There is a concern that Japanese Visitors would dismiss VRChat immediately when the first thing they see starting the game are not the tutorials that the Japanese creator had made for them, but instead the bizarre worlds that these weebs had established within (and no, this is not a Jojo reference).

This isn't just the case with [JP] Tutorial World, but most of the worlds in VRChat that claim to be made for Japanese people or have [JP] written on the title are like that for some reason, so, if you are a Japanese Visitor that just want to play VRChat in your native language, find friends, or just want to talk in Japanese, well you are unfortunately out of luck because with the current state of VRChat, this is practically impossible.

These days, it seems that people tend to stay on VRChat longer if they start by asking for friends through hashtags on sites like Twitter before they even log in to the game, because that way, they can avoid encounters with weebs altogether.

But still, I think it's really sad that anyone can't just fire up VRChat whenever they feel like it, join some random Japanese world, talk with random Japanese people, and just have fun in VRChat like the rest.

I used to be one of those Visitors who left VRChat because of that. There was a time when I just left VRChat completely for about half a year. I didn't get back into it until one day, I saw an interesting video on VRChat and regained interest. But even after I got back, I was still sad. I still couldn't talk to Japanese people and I just stayed in Sky Camp the whole time.

3. Weeb Invasion of the Japanese Communities

There is a sad phenomenon in VRChat where weebs would move into a world where Japanese people gather, then the Japanese users would leave due to the invasion by weebs, then the weebs who came for the Japanese users would also leave in search of the Japanese. In the end, everybody's gone from that world.

There is a world in VRChat called "Japan Shrine". It has become a complete hangout place for weebs now, and there are usually no Japanese users in the world. But this wasn't always the case; there used to be some Japanese users here and there a while back. From what I heard, as the number of weebs increased over time, the Japanese had scattered to other worlds in VRChat. Although, I don't really mind if weebs gather at the Japan Shrine because this world wasn’t made particularly for the Japanese audience to begin with.

The problem is that this is also happening in Worlds made for Japanese people.

[JP]Tutorial World, Suzuran Shukaijou, Japan Hiroba, Connect Station, (Japan Street,) etc...
Worlds that consistently attract a certain number of Japanese users will always have an influx of weebs at some point. They come because they want to learn Japanese, they come because they want to talk with Japanese people, they come because there are Japanese people, they come because it's the country of Anime and Manga, they come because it's JAPAN.
However, as I had mentioned before, there are simply just too many of them. Soon you will hear more English and broken Japanese than actual Japanese, and the Japanese users who came looking forward to chat with another Japanese user will get fed up and leave the world because they are not playing this game to teach Japanese to weebs, or even talk with weebs in the first place. What happens after that is that weebs who came for the Japanese users also leave, and all that's left soon after is a cuckoo bird crying in the void.

I'm sorry I don't have any concrete evidence or statistics to back up my argument here, and the above story contains a lot of speculation based on my own experience. But if you are a Japanese VRChat player, I believe some parts of my story may ring a bell.

Poppy Yokochō seems to be barely surviving due to the fact that there are few foreigners during the time when Japanese people gather to drink (there are still weebs there, but during the daytime in Japan), while the [JP] Tutorial World is surviving as a hangout for weebs (or perhaps long dead as a hangout place for Japanese). However, if it weren't for the weebs flooding the Japanese worlds, there would’ve been some worlds where random Japanese people could just gather up and chill at any time on VRChat in my opinion.

I mean, look at Bar Do Ze Brazil! That Brazilian World has been around forever as long as I could remember in my VRC life, and whenever I go there, the instance is filled with Brazilians, everyone is speaking Portuguese, and there are consistently double digits of people. I can't believe how unlucky Japanese players are...

Why can't we have it the same...?

About JPHUB

Do you see the problem and the reasoning behind why there was a need for a world like JPHUB?

Japanese users who want to spend time in the Japanese community are no longer able to enjoy VRChat in a pure, carefree manner; they can't just fire up VRChat on one afternoon and just join a random public world and expect to meet some random Japanese people there.

But please understand,

Weebs (usually) mean no harm to the Japanese.

It's just that Japan has become so famous for Anime, and the number of foreigners who love Japan has increased so much in the world, to the point where it's gotten difficult for Japanese people to form a Japanese community.

You can't blame anyone for this. Please don't forget that.

There are some Known to Trusted VRChat users who have a strong dislike for foreigners. They are probably the victims of this unfortunate chain of events. Racism should never be tolerated, but at least they seem to have their own reasons. To anyone reading this with unnecessary hatred against foreigners, I hope you will reconsider your thoughts.

Lastly, I would like to talk about JPHUB.

The measures taken by JPHUB to practically exclude foreigners may come as a shock.
It is understandable that some people may view it as discriminatory.
However, in my opinion, JPHUB is a small line of defense for Japanese VRChat users to meet and talk with Japanese people (and Japanese speakers) in the current situation that the Japanese VRChat Community is facing today.

It may be a distant exclusion for non-Japanese speakers. Foreigners who cannot speak any Japanese are not allowed inside and may feel saddened. But this is the only way for random Japanese people to get together on VRChat.

Next to the quiz, there is also a hiragana and katakana syllabary chart on the wall. Along with a sign that says "speak Japanese, please" (although, I have to agree that this does sound a bit ironic).

Anyway, in this unfortunate situation, I think this is an attempt at creating a place where Japanese people and Japanese speakers can gather without hurting anyone.

From my point of view, JPHUB still has a lot of work to do.
Sure, there are plenty of Japanese people now, but it's kind of uncomfortable trying to chime into the group of people already there. Also, because so many Japanese people are gathering at this one place, I've started to notice some of the "troublemakers" amongst the Japanese as well. The kind that had been buried deep in other worlds all this time.

There are times when foreigners would gather at the entrance and chat. There was one time where foreigners who are good with reading and understanding Japanese, and foreigners who are simply really good at Googling, would gather inside an instance, and would surround me with their self-assertive overconfidence after passing the entrance quiz.
I don’t mind foreigners that can read and understand Japanese, as a matter of fact I’d much rather be with foreigners that can communicate in Japanese than a Japanese person that refuses to communicate. But I cannot tolerate condescending behaviors, regardless of fluency.

Postscript: It's been a while since JPHUB was created and I feel like more and more people are settling in this world after the attention they have received.
I don't know if there were articles that talked about JPHUB or something, but I am starting to see a significant increase in the number of Visitors and New Users that come finding their way to JPHUB. Since the JPHUB is no longer listed on the New World section and the weebs who couldn't solve the quiz would stop coming after "learning their lesson" (this is a terrible choice of words), there aren't as many foreigners freezing at the entrance quiz compared to before.

As a result, there is a gathering of Japanese speakers in a Public instance of VRChat! The environment of talking with random people, in Japanese, has finally come at last (as of June 2021), as long as you are willing to talk to them, of course. I was thrilled when I experienced the whole process of just wandering in, talking to some random Japanese person for the first time, and just becoming friends with them soon after. This is exactly the experience that I've been longing for after playing this game for such a long time. (So far) there are basically only Japanese people at any given time, and (so far) there are consistently double-digit numbers of Japanese users. There have been some twists and turns along the way, but it seems that JPHUB have been able to create this very environment that you see so often in all the other Country Worlds in VRChat.

End of postscript.

I do not know what the future holds. JPHUB may somehow become depopulated like many other Japanese worlds. Or, it may develop into a place where Japanese people can really get together.

But it seems that the existence of this world has made more and more people, both Japanese and foreigners, become aware of the problems facing the Japanese VRChat Community, so I think that's a good thing.

That's it from me for now.

My personal thoughts on why [JP] Tutorial World is like this

1. Because it looks like a Japanese (Language) Tutorial World

2. Because it comes up on the Hot World section

3. Because it says [JP] on it.

4. Because there was a time where some Youtuber made videos like "FOREIGN WEEB SHOCKS LOCAL with PERFECT JAPANESE in VRCHAT" by speaking fluent Japanese in [JP] Tutorial World and it went viral. Followed by videos that basically just went up to Japanese users and started speaking in English and poked fun, which also got popular at the time as well (Suzuran Shukaijou and Japan Shrine had similar incidents as well).

5. Because there are people that recommend [JP] Tutorial World for Japanese learners who want to talk with Japanese people. (When my weeb friend first told me this, I was like ア゛～～～ WHYYYYYYY〜〜〜〜〜. And, I don't know where they get their news from but, apparently the same is true with CONNECT STATION as well (I felt like there were more foreigners in CONNECT STATIONS on the day when I first heard about it (This is just me though (I think))))

6. Because it says [JP] on it.

7. Because there's Japanese written all over (although they can't understand a thing it says)

8. Because it says [JP] on it.

 
Common misunderstandings

There is a common misconception where people would say things like "but foreigners use loud and intrusive avatars!". You try going to a Public instance of worlds like meroom or Tsubokura House. There you'll find a ton of loud and obnoxious Visitors, including the Japanese, racing each other in their public avatars to see who can whip the first epilepsy attack. So, nationality isn't the problem here. The same goes for ripping avatars.
However, some of these people who say such things may be victims of the current situation and have become foreigner haters due to their past experience with them.
In addition, I think the impression from the time when that little red knockled-up army of oversea trolls soniced through the entire VRChat Community is a contributing factor of their prejudiced opinion they have against foreigners today.
However, it must be stressed that "Foreigners do this! Foreigners do that!" is a true discrimination, so please don't be like that.

Personally, I think it's really lame that whenever someone uses an inappropriate avatar in the Japanese community, everyone's like "Oi, who was that!", "How troublesome...", "For real? Unbelievable", and the atmosphere turns into a classroom witch-hunt. "Utzzē"(Annoying), "Urussē"(Noisy), and "Just hide the avatar dude" are sufficient enough in my opinion.
Let's face it, if there was an interesting avatar in one of the Avatar Worlds you've visited when you were just starting off with the game, you will want to show it off. You can't just deny them unconditionally without giving them a second chance, especially when they come wandering in without knowing the rules of the game.

↑ (I had initially written "You can't just exclude them...", but it sounded a lot like a contradiction, especially in an article talking about the state of JPHUB. So I changed my wording into something that better conveys my thoughts...)

Why did I use the term "weeb" in the article, knowing that it could be a derogatory term?

1. Most (but not all) of the otakus who come to Japanese Worlds can be classified as weebs (they speak in slang, they started learning Japanese because of their love for Anime, but they still can't speak Japanese that well, etc.). The exact definition of "weeb" varies from person to person, but I think that, objectively speaking, they can be classified as the same weebs you see on the internet (down to its contempt definition).

2. I wanted you to know about the term "weeb".

3. I wanted to avoid confusion between normal otakus and the kind of otakus coming to the Japanese Worlds in VRChat. I thought that a term for such a group was necessary in our community. Which leads to ↓

4. I thought the term "weeb" could be a weapon; that it could be the one word to explain how everything has gone wrong in the Japanese VRChat Community today. That's all I wanted to tell you. There are some otakus out there who identify themselves as a weeb, but don't forget that it can be a derogatory term (I’m sorry…). I suppose that in our language, the closest word would be オタク or キモオタ(?) I think. I mean, the term “weeb” doesn’t have キモい in it, so I guess the level of insult is a bit different...

A collection of English words/phrases that will surely come in handy in this life-sucking sechigarai world of VRChat

General Terms

・Otaku...オタク(otaku)
・Anime… アニメ(anime)
・Gaijin… 外人(gaijin)(this one’s a bit rude)
・Foreigner / Foreign people… 外国人(gaikokujin). It’s read フォウィナー(fowina-) or フォーウィンピーポー(fo-winpi-po-).
・Weeb/weeaboo… An otaku that's obsessed with ＪＡＰＡＮ. A derogatory term for otakus. It’s read “wii-bu/wiabu-”.
・Xenophobic… 外国人恐怖症(の). What the current state of JPHUB looks like to outsiders. Pronounced “zenofo-bikku”.
・1 dollar = about 100 yen

Internet Culture Overseas

・Swear on 〇/ curse on 〇... To speak ill about 〇 in a very bad way.
・Toxic (adjective)... To behave in a very rude way (especially on the Internet). To “swear/curse on” something. Poisonous.
・Troll… (noun) People who act toxic on the internet. (verb) To tease and deceit someone. Fishing (on the internet).
・Cursed... (adjective) It’s when the worst part of the internet (think 例のアレ) comes together with a bunch of some gross, unknown thingies to create the indescribable. Example: Spider Konchan, etc.. The word itself is an adjective meaning 呪われた.
・Slang… A buzzword. Like マジ卍(maji manji).
・Internet slang… Trending words on the Internet. 草(grass), ンゴ(-ngo), etc..
・Memes: Jokes on the Internet. 野獣先輩(yaju senpai), 感情を失ったヌオー(Emotionless Marshtomp), 1000兆円欲しい(I want 5000 trillion yen), 止まるんじゃねぇぞ(“Don't you ever stop…”), etc. Pronounced “mi-mu”.

・Logan Paul… Youtuber who got critisized for filming a dead body in the Suicide Forest of Japan.
・Filthy Frank... A half-Japanese, half-Australian youtuber who has been posting videos about Japan for the weebs. You will get cancer if you watch any of his videos.
・Dogen… An American youtuber living in Japan. He speaks fluent Japanese and makes satirical videos which shows his quintessential knowledge and absolute understanding of the Japanese Culture. He also has a series of Japanese language courses on Patreon that mainly deals with the Japanese Pitch-Accent and proper pronunciation. If anyone you know watches Filthy Frank instead of Dogen, try persuading them to switch.
・Chris Broad/Abroad in Japan… A British youtuber living abroad in Japan. He posts videos about sightseeing, traveling, and the culture in Japan.
・Trash Taste... A podcast for otakus that talks about Japan.

Dangerous Terms

・Fuck… Do not use. At the very least, do not use “fuck you”. Unless you are really angry and looking to pick a fight, do not use it. If you don't know what you're talking about, you shouldn’t use anything but “What the fuck”. Even then, you should hold your sentence at “What the…” or, even better, just say “What the hell?” instead.
・Shit… This is kinda alright.
・Damn… This is fine.
・Nxxxxr... Absolutely not. Never.
・Ching-chang-chong… This is a derogatory term for Asians. 100% of all foreigners who say this to you are trolls, so block them ASAP. It’s read チンチャンチョン(Chin-Chan-Chon). You cannot mishear it. May be followed by ピンポンリンロン(Pin-Pon-Rin-Ron).
・Chink... Same as above. There are other slangs with similar sounds, so judge their behavior before you block.
・Racism… Human Race Discrimination Ideology. Racism is considered to be really really bad in the world and it is for a good reason.
・Racist.... Human Race Discrimination Ideologist. Don't become one.

By the way, nowadays it’s bad to use a color name when referring to a race, so it's a good idea to rephrase it.

・White→Caucasian… 白人(White-person)→コーカソイド系(Type-Caucasoid). It’s read コケイジャン(kokeijan).
・Black→African-… 黒人(Black-person)→アフリカ系○○(Type-African...). Well, this is getting complicated. I mean, I feel like the word “black” should be sufficient… no?
・We are Asian.

Also, it is very rude to assume someone’s race, so don't go on asking "Are you a black person?”.
As a matter of fact, you are playing VRC for crying out loud! No reason to talk about race in the first place unless it’s absolutely necessary.

Language Learning

・Characters… 文字(Written-Glyph)
・Chinese characters/kanji… 漢字(Kanji)
・Particles… This refers to てにをは(Teniwoha). This has devastated so many Japanese Learners in the past...
・Conjugation... 活用(Conjugation). Like the せ(-nai stem), し(-masu stem), す(Dictionary), する(Dictionary), すれ(Conditional), せよ(Imperative), form stuff. This has also crippled so many Japanese Learners as well...
・Pitch-accent...The High-low accent that some languages have, such as Japanese. This is what everyone [mistakingly] refers to as "intonation".
・Stress-accent… The Stress-based accent that languages like English have.
・Anki… A famous Japanese vocabulary app.
・Genki… A famous Japanese teaching book.
・JLPT… Japanese Language Proficiency Test. Basically 英検(Eiken), but for the Japanese Language. For example, “二級(Class-2)” is called “N2” in JLPT. There are levels from N5 to N1, where N5 being the beginner level and N1 being the expert. N3 is good enough to hold a daily conversation, N2 means you are capable of developing a complex conversation, and N1 means you are pretty much Japanese.

・la… Touch the tip of your tongue to the base of your upper front teeth and release: "la!”. Now you try!
・ra… Roll your tongue toward your throat. Bring the tip of your tongue close to the slope of your upper jaw without making contact with the roof. Once you got the shape, extend the tip of your tongue forward and say “Rah!”, “rAh!”. The key is to not let your tongue touch the roof. Now it’s your turn! (Note: "ra" in Japanese is neither “la” nor “ra”; the tip of the tongue is in the “ra” position, but it makes contact with the upper jaw. So, Japanese actually uses a sound that belongs in between “la” and “ra”.)
・va... Put your upper front teeth on your lower lip and try to say "woo" with the intention of shaking the area. Did you end up with a vibrating sound? That's "v". Now try saying “Vah!”. Practice: ウイルス(uirusu), ヴァイルス(vairusu), ヴァイ(vai)rus...
・tha... Place the tip of your tongue on your upper front teeth where they meet. Now breathe out. That's the “th” sound. And then say “th+ah!”. Now you try! Practice: サンクス(sankusu), thaンクス(thankusu), thanks...

love, labyrinth, lyrics, silver, slippery, verb, veterinarian, royal, loyal ...Good luck.

？？？（Welcome to the VRC）

・Cancer… 癌(Gan). Something that: has a bad influence on everything that comes in contact with; needs to be exterminated.
・Dehumanize… To dehumanize something means that you don’t treat them as a human being.
・Japanese/Japanese people… 日本人(Nihonjin)
・Treat ○○ as/like ××... This means to treat ○○ as ××.
・Fairy… 妖精(Yōsei)
・Animal... 動物(Dōbutsu)
・Zoo… 動物園(Dōbutsuen)
・Learning material… 教材(Kyōzai)
・Take over/invade… This means to occupy (unjustly).
・“I'm not playing this game to teach you Japanese, you filthy weeb”... お前に日本語を教えるためにこのゲームしてるわけじゃねえんだよクソ日本オタクがよ(Omae ni nihongo oshieru tame ni kono ge-mu shiteru wake ja neen dayo, kuso nihon otaku ga yo) - This means “I'm not playing this game to teach you Japanese, you filthy weeb.” in English. (Do not use)

Soredewa.