What does my screen name mean? I joined this forum and began swapping when I lived in Japan. “Gaijin” is a Japanese word which means foreigner. It is not so polite, rather abrupt. It is pronounced “guy-jean” phonetically. When I first moved to Japan many years ago, children would point at me and say “Gaijin, gaijin,” as if I didn’t know I was a foreigner! The more polite term is Gaikokujin-a person from a different country.
Deborah aka Gaijin