I’m studying in a language school in Japan & most of my classmates are from Nepal. They usually smell and LOUD during the class. Most are also slow in picking up lessons. I’m seated beside someone who often picks her nose with her bare hands and has a bad breath, she freely yawns and I just can’t. I have my mask on but these smells still lingers. My utter dislike towards them has grown. I feel bad that I feel this way about them but I also don’t like the environment that I am in. I am not perfect but I wish a certain level of hygiene is observed. I told my friends & a therapist, about it and looks like I just have to suck it up. I still have 1 year & 6 mos with them. I welcome any perspective you may have that can help me look at it in a different way. I’m with them 5 days a week and there are days my patience runs out (the teacher too) mainly being loud & non stop talking in their mother tongue. This maybe a biased one, but they speak like with an Indian accent, fast and loud and it’s ringing my ears.
This morning, the head teacher came in and told the class that they smell (spoken in Japanese so it was a soft blow), apparently the office next to our room complained about the strong smell. I also overheard Japanese people in the cafeteria talking about how they smell with emphasis.
One person in the class even said that showering once in 2 weeks is okay with a proud voice and face. Unbelievable bunch of people.
They’re in Japan and not in Nepal, do they not think about how they come across with other people in terms of hygiene and behavior? People around them are struggling silently.
TIA & for reading up to here.
View on r/Nepal by bakedsashimipj
Nepalese leh HongKong ma thuloh badnaam garera HK leh visa free banned gardeko ho 20+ years ago. Before Nepalese did not needed to apply for visa to visit Hong Kong.
Nepalese leh UK ma ni badnaam gareko thyo ra cha nai. Bank batah loan nikalera bhaageko. Student visa block nai gareko thyo for some years.
Nepalese leh Japan ma ni badi Over garna thaaleko cha. Before Japan was impressed by Nepalese hospitality but now they have slowly found out Nepalese are not that hard working and unhygienic.
The foreigners are slowly finding very annoying of too much proudness almost every Nepalese are showing right in the place where it’s the home country of the foreigners.
I’m sorry. I agree with what you said.
I myself studied in one of the European countries, and I think I made a wrong impression initially.
I learned it slowly. Please have open communication with them, I hope they will understand it and improve themself. So sorry for this utter embarrassment.
Either let them know
OR
wear a triple layered mask
This is a tough situation. It’s not easy to just tell someone to stop doing certain things, as it might not go well. I’m dealing with a similar issue at work, where two of my colleagues have no manners. We share a small office with five people, and these two often eat at their desks. It’s annoying, especially when they loudly chew on carrots and apples while talking on the phone about personal stuff. These are things you’d expect people to know just from being in a professional setting. We’ve indirectly talked about it, but luckily, I’ve moved to another department now and don’t have to deal with them anymore.
Reminds me of some Nepalis being asked to maintain hygiene at workplace (Amazon warehouses in Kentucky) because they wouldnt flush properly, shower, use deodorants over smelly body (most people dont realize that it worsens the smell). Quite a few of them were Bhutani refugees (and many Nepalis).
Many Nepali students in the US, expecially in universities with a large Nepali population are often found guilty of this as well. They wont shower on a daily basis, wear same pair of socks for a number of days, and maintain poor hygiene in general (long, unwashed hair, beard, untrimmed nails etc). Lack of exposure to American standards when it comes to sanitation often leads to this. They spend most of their time with fellow Nepalis and rarely learn.
In Japan’s context, its all of the above and most of them are from poor socio-economic background.
If you cant put up with it, file a complaint to your teachers or whoever is in charge.
Well, a majority of them come from rural or lower middle class backgrounds who are in Japan on a student visa but they are there to work and earn. Probably the first time they have been outside Nepal, or even their village or town.
It doesn’t help the fact that they live in a poor condition in Japan too. You know, shitty accommodations, working long hours, cooking and living in the same confined room shared among multiple people, cutting corners on “nice things” to save few extra bucks.
And I doubt they understand the situation. They are oblivious of it.
The best option is for the language school to step in. Take one of the students from their circle and inform him in private about the situation.
Tangential, but this reminded me of the time I stayed in a village with my old friend, before the earthquake…and his youngest daughter would tease me, asking me if I was a girl, because I washed my hands, feet, and face with soap every morning on the terrace, when I brushed my teeth. She had never observed such regular hygiene in guys.
If I grew up in the foothills, in a concrete 2 room house, with ice cold water outside for washing….I might be averse to bathing as well.
The food is the main smell. The Nepalese food has more spices, so it lingers in the clothes when someone cooks food. So since we are used to our spices, we don’t smell it, but it’s definitely the spice. They might follow the hygiene but its the food. I don’t think there’s any other way to solve this without telling them. Maybe you can ask teacher to send the mass email.
I have seen same or similar post here before.
I mean I have had friends who smell because they play sports but don’t shower. But not enough that they would smell to whole classroom. OR they could be mentally ill. Tell them your problem and communicate.
I don’t understand the point of posting it here. Are we venting here?
I just laugh When khaires say indians smells and nepalis,pakistanis and Bangladeshis feels good about them. Lol they are talking about you too.
Idk dude. Tell the institution or something? Don’t generalise us. And “they speak in indian accent” ahh what does that have to do with smelling bad? And we don’t speak in indian. It’s Nepali accent. You only speak in japanese their?? No way you probably speak your language too. 💀
I feel guilty. I’m gonna take a bath tomorrow.
Japan should mandate hardcore manners and etiquette test for visa process. Japan is such a lovely place but foreigners are ruining it.
So, what do you want us to do? I know you want to vent. But what can posting here do? Go tell them to their faces, not every Nepali is a dirty scum. Rich people can be filthy, and even the poor can keep themselves clean. How does venting here help?
I think OP is confusing Indian with Nepali.
There will always be some people like that. It’s better to tell them straight up to change their habits.
idk , your words clearly reflect the your racial hate toward nepalese community. choices of words clearly shows your intentions (“slow in picking lessons, picks nose, always talking on their local language , accent”) and backing your opinion using other people also thinks the same(triangulation method). i know pattern recognization is a thing but your opinion are clearly biased. in summary you mean nepalese are dumb, smells bad, loud, obnoxious. i would love to beat the shit out of you , if you were infront of me.
just fuck off
This is so sad and gross tbh
I studied in jap for 5 years and I’ve dealt with what you’re going through , just clearly tell them to shower every fking day as they clearly live in dorms kinaki you said you guys just started classes ani tato Pani aucha majjale , there maybe times in summer when you immediately start to sweat and smell after a shower due to humidity for that tell them to get a AG+ powder spray works like a charm , for the one with bad breath gift him/her with tonsil stone remover and mouth wash , if you can’t do these just change the class or get into day/morning class. If theyre loud and always having fun you just want to focus on language, get that JLPT N2 passed before they do and they’ll shut up from that point
why don’t you gift them deodrant? that should send the message.
majority of Nepalese working in Japan comes from poor and lower middle class family and hygiene is the last thing they are concerned about. They are in Japan to earn and feed family back home and they only care about it.
I think it’s a big problem that Nepali students don’t really realize or don’t really care because of their work study pressure or because they are just limited within Nepali or Indian people even in abroad( in case of Canada and Australia). In US university there were some problems I encountered among Nepali students: Most of the Nepali students were smelly, lack of respect, lack of hygiene, wearing same clothes for a week without washing, caring more about their cash jobs than their study etc etc. I think it’s mostly because no one really cared about this thing in Nepal but since you guys are in abroad, you should at-least change the habit but most of them remains the same even after years. Believe me you will grow good habit and accent much better in abroad if you stay away from Nepali dominant populations and go to diverse cities.
And then you see khaire ko video muni “Proud to be Nepali”.
I can guarantee that 95% of those strong smells are from cooking. Hot oil + spices = very potent and lasting smell that sticks to your cothes, hair, skin e.t.c. There is no domestic kitchen ventilation that can effectively cope with South Asian cooking. They are probably nose blind, so they don’t notice. That’s where all Indians smell like curry comes from.
Not much you can do besides ask the admins to up the ventilation or learn to love the “curry smell”.
If you want to, text me I can design a Nepali written banner to tell these people to be hygienic.
warn them and say this upfront without hesitation if you are hesitant to speak then use double mask or one more if it still stinks
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Are you Japanese?
You are loud here dude.
It’s not the hygiene. It’s the spices used in the cooking. Tell them to take a shower or change clothes after cooking. The people are so accustomed to these local species that their noses don’t even detect them. Turmeric, coriander, cumin, ginger, garlic etc.
As for the nose picking there is no excuse. Tell them to atleast use a handkerchief. It’s Japanese culture to not complain to them directly face to face. That definitely backfires and only prolongs your suffering. They most likely definitely do not know about the situation and they will be thankful to you if you informed them about the situation straight.
Yes, it’s true . I also have been in a similar situation as you.
Most of the Nepalese people were from rural areas and they have the habit of only washing once a week as they did back in Nepal.
But since the climate of Japan is humid and with night jobs, they do smell bad .
You can just simply tell them about their bad smell or make fun of them in a friendly way. They will surely take notice and change.
Or you can just study Japanese harder and go to a higher level class where there are few Nepalese.
It would help if you tell them or your institute to do something about it. Its the culture, most of us are like that, they pretty much dont care about hygiene like you guys do. Thats how we live in Nepal and no one has problem with it, so they think its ok to live like that. We live in polluted stinking city so we wouldnt even care if there’s a stinking shit next to use while walking.
Posting here wont help, just tell your institution and classmates to do something about it.
Braindead take