I'm writing my homework for japanese class. We have to write about our favorite player; say things like their name, what sport it is they play, if they have 心(しん)•技(ぎ)•体(たい), and why you like this player. If we don't have any player that we like, we could also talk about why we don't like a player, or talk about a sports player from a manga/anime/drama/etc.
I don't watch sports, and I have no particular interest in any sports player, so I decided to talk about a fictional basketball player from the Buzzer Beat drama (which I've written about here). While I was writing, I wasn't sure how to say the sentence "I made a new friend". I thought maybe 「人と友達を作った」would be weird to say? So I looked it up, and I found this article.
“Surely you can make a friend there!"”
を含む例文全文（▼該当箇所へ）
I recently saw something on a late-night TV show that was really interesting.（最近、深夜番組で、大変興味深いものを見ました。）
It's a popular program （or at least it is in the Kinki region in any case） where the plot revolves around Kansai comedians who call themselves "The Sleuth" and help members of the audience to resolve their problems and answer their questions.（それは、視聴者の相談事や疑問を、『探偵』と呼ばれる関西のお笑い芸人たちが解決したり答えたりするといった趣向の人気番組（少なくとも近畿圏では）です。）
One of the audience members asking a question was an Indian guy who said, "Although I've been in Japan for two years, I still don't have any friends.（その日の依頼者の一人はインド人男性で、こう言いました。「日本に2年もいるのに友達がいない。）
I'd like to be able to be friends with someone who I don't have to worry about diplomatic niceties with and, well, just be friends."（社交辞令抜きで、純粋に友人として付き合える友達が欲しい」）
This guy, we'll call him "Mr. R," is young, works for a computer company, has a nice personality, is decent looking, and speaks Japanese.（彼、（「R君」としておきますが）はコンピューター関連の会社に勤務する若者で、性格は気さくで、外見もまあまあ、日本語も話します。）
"The Sleuth" started off by saying, "It seems like you shouldn't have any trouble making friends," but after that there was a bit of a problem.（探偵は当初、「キミやったら、友達ぐらいすぐにできるでしょう？」と言っていました。しかし、そこからが問題でした。）
"Well, I have this image of my ideal friend, ya see ... " and with that he pulled out a piece of paper filled out top to bottom with things like, "Doesn't try to flatter me," "Is knowledgeable about computers," "Can go and have a beer with me," etc.（「ボクには理想の友達像があるんです…」と言って彼が取り出した紙には、『社交辞令を言わない』『コンピューターの知識がある』『一緒にビールが飲める』など、友達の条件がびっしり書き込まれていました。）
At that point, the comedian butted in and started giving the guy a piece of his mind.（この時点で探偵がつっ込みたしなめました。）
"Isn't making friends with somebody something that just naturally happens?（「友達ってもっと自然にできるものだろう？）
What do you expect when you've got all these conditions?"（そんな条件ばっかり言ってどうするの？」）
From there, the two decided to go out into the street and look for friends.（それから二人は街へ出て、友達を探しに行くことにしました。）
Mr. R yelled out what he was looking for, but what he said was just weird.（R君がめぼしい男性を呼び止めます。ところが彼の言ったことはとても変でした。）
"Hello.（「こんにちは。）
I can't stand diplomatic niceties and am hoping to find a friend who'll speak genuinely with me."（ぼくは、社交辞令が嫌いです。本音で話せる友達、欲しいです」）
Of course, there's nobody on earth who'd respond to a statement like that.（もちろん、こんな言葉に応じる人間はいません。）
Later on, "The Sleuth" caught somebody who had started to run away from Mr. R and asked what was wrong, "All of a sudden this guy starts yelling, and out of the blue I'm being talked to."（後で探偵がR君から逃げた人を捕まえて何が悪かったのかを聞きました。「突然大声で呼び止められて、いきなり話されてもねえ」）
In fact, of all the people that Mr. R talked to, there was only one person who it looked as if he might be able to carry on a conversation with.（R君が声を掛けた人の中で一人だけ、会話が続きそうな人がいました。）
When he saw Mr. R, he said, "Hey ... I see you at the gym sometimes.（彼はR君を見て言いました。「あなた、そこのジムで何度か見掛けました。）
I work at the reception desk."（僕、そこの受付なんですよ」）
This was the chance that Mr. R had been waiting for, but he could only continue on with, "Yeah, that's right, I do go to that gym.（これはR君が待ちに待ったチャンスでした。しかし、彼はこう続けました。「そう、そのジムに通っています。）
However I can't stand diplomatic ... " and so on.（でも、それは置いといて、ボクは社交辞令が…」etc.）
He had the chance and shot himself in the foot.（彼はチャンスをつかんだのに、墓穴を掘ってしまったのです。）
They were about to give up their search when "The Sleuth" came up with an idea.（もう街で探すのは無理だと思ったのか、探偵が提案しました。）
"Hey, let's go to your office!（「これから君の会社に行こう！）
Surely you can make a friend there!"（そこで友達を作るんや」）
At Mr. R's office, they held an emergency meeting, with everybody saying, "Um... this is weird, Mr. R."（早速R君の会社では緊急会議が開かれ、みな口々に「うーん、これは不思議だね、R君 」と言いました。）
As a general rule, everyone there seemed to speak genuinely and had no diplomatic niceties to them.（原則として、そこでは全員社交辞令無し、本音のみで話していたようです。）
All of Mr. R's 10 Japanese colleagues pretty much said how shocked they were to hear Mr. R, think that they were his friends.（R君の同僚の日本人約10名全員が、彼らはR君の友達だと思っていたので、そう言われてショックだったと言いました。）
Among them, the one who drew attention most was one of his female coworkers.（中でも目を引いたのが、彼の同僚の女性です。）
She had an honest look of shock on her face and said, "Mr. R and I often go and hang out together on our days off.（彼女は、本気でショックを受けた顔をして、こう言いました。「私、Rとは休みの日によく一緒に遊びに行ったりしているんです。）
When I heard what he said, I was like, huh?（彼の話を聞いて、えっ？という感じでした。）
What the hell had I ever done to him?（じゃあ私って一体何だったの？）
Weren't we friends?（友達じゃなかったの？）
In fact I've actually been the one who's had Mr. R say some rude things to me, eh.（実際に私、結構Rから失礼なこと言われているんですよ。）
He even told me that I was too heavy and should lose some weight."（体重が重過ぎるから痩せろとか、彼に言われてたりしたんです」）
（although she wasn't overweight at all）.（彼女は全然太っていないにもかかわらず）
After this, when "The Sleuth" asked everyone, "Ok, if you think you'd like to be friends with Mr. R now, hold up the YES card," all but one person did so.（この後、探偵がみんなに「これから、R君と友達になろうと思う人はYESの札を上げてください」と言うと、一人を除いてみんながそうしました。）
Surely this means Mr. R's much despised "diplomatic niceties," but in fact, you guessed it... the one person who held up the NO card was his previously mentioned female coworker.（これはR君が何より嫌っている社交辞令と見て間違いないでしょう。一人だけNOの札を出したのは…。もう、お分かりでしょうが、あの同僚女性でした。）
He had been looking for someone to speak genuinely with him, but ended up losing a friend who was doing just that.（彼は、本音で話せる友人を探し続けてきて、結局、そうしてきてくれた友人を失ったのです。）
On top of that, Mr. R didn't realize it, but to know that almost all of his colleagues would be his friends.（その上、R君はそれに気付いておらず、ほぼ全員が自分と友達になってくれると思ったのでした。）
Perhaps there are some foreigners who want to say that Japanese people don't speak genuinely, but are Japanese people entirely to be blamed?（日本人は本音で話してくれない、と言いたい外国人の方は結構いると思いますが、それは、日本人だけの責任でしょうか？）
Even if Mr. R's case is a bit on the extreme side, do you have a problem on your side, too?（R君の例は極端だとしても、あなた方自身にも問題はないのでしょうか？）
Recently on the "Hello Station" bulletin board run by the Hiragana Times website, there was a message from an American man saying, "Wanting to meet Jap girls."（最近、ひらがなタイムズが運営しているインターネットサイト「Hello Station」に、Jap girlsと付き合いたいというアメリカ人男性からのメッセージがありました。）
The content of the message was extremely insulting to Japanese women.（そのメッセージの内容は、日本女性をひどく侮辱するものでした。）
Visitors that saw the message had posted various opinions as to the meaning of the word "Jap."（そのメッセージを見たビジターたちが、Japという表現についてさまざまな意見を書いていました。）
Some foreigners claim that "Jap" is merely a shortened form of the word "Japanese," but it strikes me as having a disrespectful meaning.（JapはJapaneseを短くしただけだという外国人もいますが、そこには軽蔑の意味が含まれているように私には聞こえます。）
As a matter of fact, during World War II, many Americans looked down on the Japanese, and heard from my grandfather that they had been called "Jap."（実際、第二次世界大戦のときにアメリカ人は日本人を軽蔑し、（日本人は）Japと呼ばれたと祖父から聞きました。）
Personally, I don't like being called "Jap" by foreigners, either.（私も外国人からJapと呼ばれたくはありません。）
On the flipside of this, Japanese often refer to foreigners as "gaijin."（これとは反対に、日本人は外国人のことを「ガイジン」と呼ぶことがよくあります。）
I used to shorten "gaikokujin" to "gaijin" myself until I asked foreign friends about this.（私も「外国人」を短くして「ガイジン」と呼んでいました。外国人の友達にこのことについて質問する前までは。）
Many foreigners said that they feel it to be a disrespectful word.（多くの外国人は、それを差別用語だと感じると言いました。）
Since I had absolutely no intention to be disrespectful, I was embarrassed by their answers.（私は軽蔑しているつもりは全くありませんでしたから、彼らの答えに戸惑いました。）
Surely many Japanese are like myself and just have no idea, however since I now understand how much foreigners dislike the word, I've decided to only use "gaikokujin."（多くの日本人も私と同じで、知らないだけではないでしょうか。でも、外国人がこの言葉を嫌がることが分かったので、これからは「外国人」だけを使うことにしました。）
Several years ago, Tokyo Governor Ishihara referred to Chinese residents as "Shina-jin," which caused the Chinese to protest and claim discrimination.（数年前に、石原都知事が中国人のことを「支那人」と呼び、中国人から（支那は）差別用語だと抗議がありました。）
Governor Ishihara insisted that it was not meant to be discriminatory, but to the Chinese, wasn't it the same thing as Japanese being called "Japs"?（石原都知事は差別用語でないと主張しましたが、中国人にとっては、日本人がJapと言われたのと同じ気持ちだったのではないでしょうか。）
Besides this, isn't it disrespectful to call Koreans "Chosen-jin" or Israelis "Jews"?（このほか、韓国人のことを「朝鮮人」、イスラエル人のことを「Jew」と呼ぶのも軽蔑になるのではないでしょうか。）
Do you use words like these to people you know who might find them offensive?（相手が軽蔑だと感じる用語を使っていませんか？）
I don't watch sports, and I have no particular interest in any sports player, so I decided to talk about a fictional basketball player from the Buzzer Beat drama (which I've written about here). While I was writing, I wasn't sure how to say the sentence "I made a new friend". I thought maybe 「人と友達を作った」would be weird to say? So I looked it up, and I found this article.
“Surely you can make a friend there!"”
を含む例文全文（▼該当箇所へ）
■I want a Japanese friend who can be genuine with me!（本音で付き合える日本人の友達が欲しい！）
I recently saw something on a late-night TV show that was really interesting.（最近、深夜番組で、大変興味深いものを見ました。）
It's a popular program （or at least it is in the Kinki region in any case） where the plot revolves around Kansai comedians who call themselves "The Sleuth" and help members of the audience to resolve their problems and answer their questions.（それは、視聴者の相談事や疑問を、『探偵』と呼ばれる関西のお笑い芸人たちが解決したり答えたりするといった趣向の人気番組（少なくとも近畿圏では）です。）
One of the audience members asking a question was an Indian guy who said, "Although I've been in Japan for two years, I still don't have any friends.（その日の依頼者の一人はインド人男性で、こう言いました。「日本に2年もいるのに友達がいない。）
I'd like to be able to be friends with someone who I don't have to worry about diplomatic niceties with and, well, just be friends."（社交辞令抜きで、純粋に友人として付き合える友達が欲しい」）
This guy, we'll call him "Mr. R," is young, works for a computer company, has a nice personality, is decent looking, and speaks Japanese.（彼、（「R君」としておきますが）はコンピューター関連の会社に勤務する若者で、性格は気さくで、外見もまあまあ、日本語も話します。）
"The Sleuth" started off by saying, "It seems like you shouldn't have any trouble making friends," but after that there was a bit of a problem.（探偵は当初、「キミやったら、友達ぐらいすぐにできるでしょう？」と言っていました。しかし、そこからが問題でした。）
"Well, I have this image of my ideal friend, ya see ... " and with that he pulled out a piece of paper filled out top to bottom with things like, "Doesn't try to flatter me," "Is knowledgeable about computers," "Can go and have a beer with me," etc.（「ボクには理想の友達像があるんです…」と言って彼が取り出した紙には、『社交辞令を言わない』『コンピューターの知識がある』『一緒にビールが飲める』など、友達の条件がびっしり書き込まれていました。）
At that point, the comedian butted in and started giving the guy a piece of his mind.（この時点で探偵がつっ込みたしなめました。）
"Isn't making friends with somebody something that just naturally happens?（「友達ってもっと自然にできるものだろう？）
What do you expect when you've got all these conditions?"（そんな条件ばっかり言ってどうするの？」）
From there, the two decided to go out into the street and look for friends.（それから二人は街へ出て、友達を探しに行くことにしました。）
Mr. R yelled out what he was looking for, but what he said was just weird.（R君がめぼしい男性を呼び止めます。ところが彼の言ったことはとても変でした。）
"Hello.（「こんにちは。）
I can't stand diplomatic niceties and am hoping to find a friend who'll speak genuinely with me."（ぼくは、社交辞令が嫌いです。本音で話せる友達、欲しいです」）
Of course, there's nobody on earth who'd respond to a statement like that.（もちろん、こんな言葉に応じる人間はいません。）
Later on, "The Sleuth" caught somebody who had started to run away from Mr. R and asked what was wrong, "All of a sudden this guy starts yelling, and out of the blue I'm being talked to."（後で探偵がR君から逃げた人を捕まえて何が悪かったのかを聞きました。「突然大声で呼び止められて、いきなり話されてもねえ」）
In fact, of all the people that Mr. R talked to, there was only one person who it looked as if he might be able to carry on a conversation with.（R君が声を掛けた人の中で一人だけ、会話が続きそうな人がいました。）
When he saw Mr. R, he said, "Hey ... I see you at the gym sometimes.（彼はR君を見て言いました。「あなた、そこのジムで何度か見掛けました。）
I work at the reception desk."（僕、そこの受付なんですよ」）
This was the chance that Mr. R had been waiting for, but he could only continue on with, "Yeah, that's right, I do go to that gym.（これはR君が待ちに待ったチャンスでした。しかし、彼はこう続けました。「そう、そのジムに通っています。）
However I can't stand diplomatic ... " and so on.（でも、それは置いといて、ボクは社交辞令が…」etc.）
He had the chance and shot himself in the foot.（彼はチャンスをつかんだのに、墓穴を掘ってしまったのです。）
They were about to give up their search when "The Sleuth" came up with an idea.（もう街で探すのは無理だと思ったのか、探偵が提案しました。）
"Hey, let's go to your office!（「これから君の会社に行こう！）
Surely you can make a friend there!"（そこで友達を作るんや」）
At Mr. R's office, they held an emergency meeting, with everybody saying, "Um... this is weird, Mr. R."（早速R君の会社では緊急会議が開かれ、みな口々に「うーん、これは不思議だね、R君 」と言いました。）
As a general rule, everyone there seemed to speak genuinely and had no diplomatic niceties to them.（原則として、そこでは全員社交辞令無し、本音のみで話していたようです。）
All of Mr. R's 10 Japanese colleagues pretty much said how shocked they were to hear Mr. R, think that they were his friends.（R君の同僚の日本人約10名全員が、彼らはR君の友達だと思っていたので、そう言われてショックだったと言いました。）
Among them, the one who drew attention most was one of his female coworkers.（中でも目を引いたのが、彼の同僚の女性です。）
She had an honest look of shock on her face and said, "Mr. R and I often go and hang out together on our days off.（彼女は、本気でショックを受けた顔をして、こう言いました。「私、Rとは休みの日によく一緒に遊びに行ったりしているんです。）
When I heard what he said, I was like, huh?（彼の話を聞いて、えっ？という感じでした。）
What the hell had I ever done to him?（じゃあ私って一体何だったの？）
Weren't we friends?（友達じゃなかったの？）
In fact I've actually been the one who's had Mr. R say some rude things to me, eh.（実際に私、結構Rから失礼なこと言われているんですよ。）
He even told me that I was too heavy and should lose some weight."（体重が重過ぎるから痩せろとか、彼に言われてたりしたんです」）
（although she wasn't overweight at all）.（彼女は全然太っていないにもかかわらず）
After this, when "The Sleuth" asked everyone, "Ok, if you think you'd like to be friends with Mr. R now, hold up the YES card," all but one person did so.（この後、探偵がみんなに「これから、R君と友達になろうと思う人はYESの札を上げてください」と言うと、一人を除いてみんながそうしました。）
Surely this means Mr. R's much despised "diplomatic niceties," but in fact, you guessed it... the one person who held up the NO card was his previously mentioned female coworker.（これはR君が何より嫌っている社交辞令と見て間違いないでしょう。一人だけNOの札を出したのは…。もう、お分かりでしょうが、あの同僚女性でした。）
He had been looking for someone to speak genuinely with him, but ended up losing a friend who was doing just that.（彼は、本音で話せる友人を探し続けてきて、結局、そうしてきてくれた友人を失ったのです。）
On top of that, Mr. R didn't realize it, but to know that almost all of his colleagues would be his friends.（その上、R君はそれに気付いておらず、ほぼ全員が自分と友達になってくれると思ったのでした。）
Perhaps there are some foreigners who want to say that Japanese people don't speak genuinely, but are Japanese people entirely to be blamed?（日本人は本音で話してくれない、と言いたい外国人の方は結構いると思いますが、それは、日本人だけの責任でしょうか？）
Even if Mr. R's case is a bit on the extreme side, do you have a problem on your side, too?（R君の例は極端だとしても、あなた方自身にも問題はないのでしょうか？）
■Foreigners are calling Japanese people "Japs"!（外国人が日本人を「JAP」と呼んでいる！）
Recently on the "Hello Station" bulletin board run by the Hiragana Times website, there was a message from an American man saying, "Wanting to meet Jap girls."（最近、ひらがなタイムズが運営しているインターネットサイト「Hello Station」に、Jap girlsと付き合いたいというアメリカ人男性からのメッセージがありました。）
The content of the message was extremely insulting to Japanese women.（そのメッセージの内容は、日本女性をひどく侮辱するものでした。）
Visitors that saw the message had posted various opinions as to the meaning of the word "Jap."（そのメッセージを見たビジターたちが、Japという表現についてさまざまな意見を書いていました。）
Some foreigners claim that "Jap" is merely a shortened form of the word "Japanese," but it strikes me as having a disrespectful meaning.（JapはJapaneseを短くしただけだという外国人もいますが、そこには軽蔑の意味が含まれているように私には聞こえます。）
As a matter of fact, during World War II, many Americans looked down on the Japanese, and heard from my grandfather that they had been called "Jap."（実際、第二次世界大戦のときにアメリカ人は日本人を軽蔑し、（日本人は）Japと呼ばれたと祖父から聞きました。）
Personally, I don't like being called "Jap" by foreigners, either.（私も外国人からJapと呼ばれたくはありません。）
On the flipside of this, Japanese often refer to foreigners as "gaijin."（これとは反対に、日本人は外国人のことを「ガイジン」と呼ぶことがよくあります。）
I used to shorten "gaikokujin" to "gaijin" myself until I asked foreign friends about this.（私も「外国人」を短くして「ガイジン」と呼んでいました。外国人の友達にこのことについて質問する前までは。）
Many foreigners said that they feel it to be a disrespectful word.（多くの外国人は、それを差別用語だと感じると言いました。）
Since I had absolutely no intention to be disrespectful, I was embarrassed by their answers.（私は軽蔑しているつもりは全くありませんでしたから、彼らの答えに戸惑いました。）
Surely many Japanese are like myself and just have no idea, however since I now understand how much foreigners dislike the word, I've decided to only use "gaikokujin."（多くの日本人も私と同じで、知らないだけではないでしょうか。でも、外国人がこの言葉を嫌がることが分かったので、これからは「外国人」だけを使うことにしました。）
Several years ago, Tokyo Governor Ishihara referred to Chinese residents as "Shina-jin," which caused the Chinese to protest and claim discrimination.（数年前に、石原都知事が中国人のことを「支那人」と呼び、中国人から（支那は）差別用語だと抗議がありました。）
Governor Ishihara insisted that it was not meant to be discriminatory, but to the Chinese, wasn't it the same thing as Japanese being called "Japs"?（石原都知事は差別用語でないと主張しましたが、中国人にとっては、日本人がJapと言われたのと同じ気持ちだったのではないでしょうか。）
Besides this, isn't it disrespectful to call Koreans "Chosen-jin" or Israelis "Jews"?（このほか、韓国人のことを「朝鮮人」、イスラエル人のことを「Jew」と呼ぶのも軽蔑になるのではないでしょうか。）
Do you use words like these to people you know who might find them offensive?（相手が軽蔑だと感じる用語を使っていませんか？）
You might want to think about it the next time you speak.（次に話すときには、そのことに留意してみませんか。）
Llesi's opinion: Maybe this guy was blinded with what he thought was important in a friend (like the diplomatic niceties, or have interest in computers) to see that making friends is not about having a list of what you want in a person. Even friends have things they disagree on or personA likes but personB doesn't like. In that sense, I think he was looking for friends in the wrong way, and probably should hold some of his opinions to himself. It would be weird to be friends with a person after they have just insulted you about your weight!
Next, I do think when Japanese people use the word gaijin is hurtful. When I was in Japan I heard it plenty of times, but I ignored those people. Sometimes I wonder why can't they refer to a person from their specific country, like american, or german, or south african or something like that. It is a different feeling from being called なんばん, but I still felt like the people who did call me gaijin were distancing themselves from the rest of the world. In other words, putting all gaijin in one group with no distinction, other than that they are not Japanese.
Of course not everyone is like this. I think it depends on the person too. I know at first I did not know that Jap meant something negative. I saw it just as a shorter way to say Japan or Japanese. But after I heard my teacher talk about this, I decided not to use the word. I didn't really care whether people use Jap or JPN, but I thought it best to just avoid negative feelings for other people.
Please share what you think about these articles. ^^ What do you think?
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