The way this was explained to me, and this is fourth-hand knowledge by now, is: In japan, foreigners are treated like cute puppies. Mostly everyone wants to play with you, and people don’t mind you in their everyday lifes.
If you learn to speak japanese, you become a dog that can talk. Even cuter! People who know this talking dog for some time might start to accept that it has human-like intelligence, and actually treat you as a fellow human being.
However, as soon as you meet new people, you’re moved back to square dog.
In a Japanese class, we had an English teacher for Japan explain his role. He defined himself as somewhere between the town freak and a clown. People expect you to make errors, and will only find them funny, never offensive.
If you learn to speak japanese, you become a dog that can talk. Even cuter! People who know this talking dog for some time might start to accept that it has human-like intelligence, and actually treat you as a fellow human being.
However, as soon as you meet new people, you’re moved back to square dog.