Is Kumiko Suzuki a fake?
February 20, 2007
While reading this post by ShoeMoney on Agloco, I couldn’t help noticing he linked to a blog by Kumiko Suzuki. Interesting I thought, to see a Japanese blogger get mentioned on a popular blog like ShoeMoneys, so I thought that I would check it out.
I couldn’t believe her level of English, so I went back to the earlier posts and found that she moved to Japan from New York:
I used to live in New York in the USA but then I had some family problems and had to move to Tokyo and live with my grandparents in Japan. I’ve been living in Tokyo for about five years now. Japan isn’t bad, but it’s difficult for me as I have to spend a lot of my time looking after my grandparents, working and studying. I’m studying by correspondence to get my computer science degree, but there are still a few more years until I graduate.
As my Japanese isn’t so great, it’s difficult for me to get a decent job over here too. I’m working part time at Yoshinoya (do you know it?) which mainly serves beef bowls. They’re bowls of rice with beef on top. It’s delicious! But as I’m only part-time, the pay isn’t so great.
Lived in Japan for five years and her Japanese is not great? Working at Yoshinoya?
Interesting story I thought, so I clicked on ‘View my profile’, which turns out to be a link to her profile on Asian Friend Finder. Her ‘Friends’ are also affiliate links to friend finder.
I wanted to write her an email saying it was great to see a Japanese blogger who had just started out doing so well, but I get the feeling the author is not a young Japanese woman, but rather a male, American internet marketer/blogger. Anyone who has lived in Japan would know that a Japanese woman would not write, “I hope that everybody has a great 2007! I’ll be getting drunk with my friends in Gas Panic nightclub in Shibuya”.
It is an interesting strategy as I am sure a few guys have already joined friend finder through her link, but I thought at least ShoeMoney and Problogger should know that they could be linking to fake blogs.
Comments
7 Responses to “Is Kumiko Suzuki a fake?”
Got something to say?
It was a good post on topic. I don’t care if it is a dog in RL
This got me thinking. I first saw her somewhere at johnchow.com on that MyBlogLog widget and…well she is cute and really stands out eh? Than I went on her blog and noticed that all her friends are supermodels also. I mean no average looking friends at all?
I realize that appearance on its own is hardly proof of anything but being around the net for a while you kinda get a feeling when something smells fishy dont ya?
So yes I think you are right that “she” is fake however he/she wrote some interesting posts.
I am from Hong Kong. In Hong Kong and China, if you can speak fluent English without any accent, you can find a pretty decent job! There are many students in China who are eager to learn how to speak better English!
If you speak bad Chinese, this only adds to your credibility!
Funnily enough, I’ve come across “her” in one or two places, and I was just writing up a bit for my blog’s newsletter, did a quick Google and ended up here.
Yes, the photos seem like model shots (not checked her friends), and from what you say, someone with perfect English would have little problem getting a decent job even at her age (working in a hostess bar would rake in hundreds per night with these looks!), and after living in Japan for 5 years in her teens she should be pretty fluent.
Actually, her writing has more of a British feel for me.
When she visits your site, check her IP address and you can find out if she is really from Japan.
First time I came arcoss her was at JohnChow’s blog as well. I wondered the same thing when I saw the photos and such. Just kinda had that feeling that not everything was adding up. But maybe it does. Who knows. Guess time will tell.
Shine on,
Aaron
[...] You like to hang out with other Transbloggers of the same team, grouping up on shared enemies. By collective power you try to get things done how you want [...]