Ariana Grande’s Japanese Tutor Speaks Out About the Tattoo

[BUtterfield 8 41,385]

Had Ariana ever talked to you about getting a written tattoo in kanji?

I wasn’t teaching her kanji yet because it’s the furthest step. I taught her hiragana, [one component of the Japanese writing system], and she memorized all 46 letters, and then we started katakana, which is for foreign words. But, we hadn’t started kanji. But of course Ariana is interested in learning so much, so sometimes she asked me about the meaning of kanji characters.

Did she consult you before getting her hand tattoo?

She didn’t talk to me before. After the tattoo, though, many of my students told me about the news, so I started to text her. For “seven rings,” you’re supposed to have three kanji characters but she only got two, which makes sense because tattoos are painful. With three kanji characters, sometimes you can drop one character, but unfortunately she had to have the middle character.

And I know she reached out to you after the original debacle — she posted your texts on social media. What was that conversation like? Did she seem panicked?

She didn’t tell me about her emotions much, but I guess she was sad to hear many people making fun of her. I told her that if you wanna make it accurate, you could put another kanji in the middle, and she said there was no space. So then I recommend other places she could put the symbol; we texted a lot. She was considering lasering the second kanji to make room for the third character because she just did not have enough space to put the third character in the middle. But, she put it on the bottom. I really liked her idea to use that position. I really like the art.

So would you say that you were upset over the criticism she faced?

I am so, so mad that many people are making fun of her. I don’t want this to stop anyone from being motivated to learn another language. After Ariana posted her Instagram with my name, many Japanese fans messaged me on Twitter and Instagram saying that they understood. I came to America maybe ten years ago and I don’t speak English perfectly. If you study another language, you understand that people make mistakes. Japanese is the hardest language to learn if you speak English.

Also Japanese is not a common language in the world. It’s not necessary for her to learn Japanese — she just really wants to. I appreciate that. It makes her Japanese fans so happy.

https://www.thecut.com/amp/2019/02/q-and-a-with-ariana-grandes-japanese-tutor-ayumi-furiya.html?__twitter_impression=true

[Guest]

Mess she didn't even consult anyone?

[Serial Chiller 8,044]

Applauding her effort to learn another language. I’m always touched when people learn languages.

But based on the amount of coverage and ‘backlash’ that this stupid tattoo thing got, it might as well have been ‘Ariana Grande murdered a whole Japanese village with biological weapons while deffecating on a Japanese dictionary’

[MonsterPaws 2,726]

Just now, hurricane326 said:

Mess she didn't even consult anyone?

This is my only a tiny issue with this whole tattoo debacle.

Like gurl, you have a tutor who's been mentoring you and even taught you kana. Why didn't she reach out?

Her mentor is really nice too  

[Guest]

Just now, MonsterPaws said:

This is my only a tiny issue with this whole tattoo debacle.

Like gurl, you have a tutor who's been mentoring you and even taught you kana. Why didn't she reach out?

Her mentor is really nice too  

Me after 1 minute of photoshop tutoring

[RAMROD 109,304]

Eh, I am over it now. This is so last week

[Damon 10,904]

I still don't get why she tattoed it wrong when it apears even on the beggining of the 7 Rings video 

[VOLANTIS 16,404]

So what did he actually provide to this issue with this interview? 

It’s like interviewing me about Ariana’s tattoo. 

[Eddie 2,518]

Oh my God, get over it. Trashy white people getting trashy tattoos. It's not new, it's not news and it was fun but now it's just tiring 

[Eggsy 8,280]

39 minutes ago, Eddie said:

Oh my God, get over it. Trashy white people getting trashy tattoos. It's not new, it's not news and it was fun but now it's just tiring 

Bringing Racism to GGD... 

 

Good for you 

[Knife 6,869]

Instead of just admitting that she ****ed up, she's jumping through all these hoops trying to explain herself out of this. Her Japanese tutor did not need to be involved in this. 

[FATCAT 60,006]

She made a dumb mistake, **** happens. This has gone on for too long, she's Streisanding the whole thing. 

[River 116,228]

wow USians are that shallow? it's like 2 weeks that they are talking about a tattoo

[LateToCult 40,896]

Why is this still a thing? She made a dumb mistake and got made fun of. That’s it. There’s no reason to start interviewing her tutor or to feel bad for Ariana. 

[Eddie 2,518]

1 hour ago, Eggsy said:

Bringing Racism to GGD... 

 

Good for you 

Like if what Ariana did wasn't racist