Nihon-jin...NIPPON-jin

[Timea]

It is said that extremely nationalist Japanese like to call themselves Nippon-jin, instead on Nihon-jin.
Many Japanese consider that a foreigner cannot learn the Japanese language properly. What is the reality under the apparent politeness and enthusiasm for a Gaijin talking in Japanese? Have you ever been in the situation of unmasking this attitude? Would you call it racism, infatuation or just a form of sarcasm. Have you got other comments on this topic?
Thanks!

[marie]

We can't pretend and say "oh, it's just the culture..."
For me , it is racism. I don't want to go to far in that subject because i never experienced it (yet) and i don't want to start a whole debate.
But i can compare that to one situation that happened to my grand mother .She was catholic and she married my grand father who was jewish .All her life , she was refered as the "goy" , the non -jew , and no matter how hard she was trying to please my grandpa's mom , it was never enough because she wasn't jewish.
I think that the same with those crazy nationalists, it doesn't matter how good your japanese is going to be , you'll always only be a Gaijin...