My Random House translates gaijin simply as foreigner. The gai character, when looked up in my Tuttle, resolves to outside, foreign. The jin is human being.

Many of the words noted here, which have taken on negative connotations, are simply words meaning foreigner. Auslander and gaijin have no implicit negative connotations; any negativity that becomes attached to these words comes, as Helen pointed out so clearly, comes from our own attitudes toward foreigners.


The fault, dear Horatio...