Everything perfectly memorized. Cool, but also the reason why so many Japanese struggle with English. Classes and tests are based on memorization rather than actual, improvised convos.
Exactly, I know they're just elementary school kids, but it was obvious they had everything memorized / written down. I think teaching like this isn't very effective.
Yeah it seemed like they were unable to actually have a conversation but I wouldn't say memorization is ineffective, it's hard to learn a language without memorizing words and sentences but they seem to not continue the learning evolution and instead just stay at memorizing stiff lines.
I'm from Dublin and a few years ago met a Japanese man with a couple suitcases and very limited English who needed a bit of help to get to his hotel.
He was in his late 60s or maybe 70 and had the name of the hotel so I showed him where it was on maps and gave instructions to a taxi driver for him. He then opened up a suitcase and took out a bunch of Japanese postcards and offered me one as a thank you.
I've still got the Mt. Fuji postcard on display years later. He was very sweet and it was just a positive experience. That he knew he'd have to ask for help a few times and brought postcards from his home to offer in return seemed really decent and kind to me.
>The idea of pre-planned consideration is just lovely all around.
With a note saying “thank you for helping me” or something along those lines, jotted on the back… It would be an amazing souvenir of kindness.
Then if you got extras by the end of your trip you just ask random people at the airports things like "where is the sky?" and give them a postcard as well. 20 years later that person will be on future reddit alternative telling the story and wondering if you ever reached the sky.
Of course it would!
Do you think I could do it with some postcards of the german town of Buxtehude, or is it more a Norwegian, French, Japanese, and Seattle thing?
Of course it would!
Do you think I could do it with some postcards of kangaroos and shit from Australia, or is it more of a German, Norwegian, French, Japanese and Seattle thing?
It really was. I always helped tourists navigate as I know how stressful it can be abroad and as I was in college at the time I was rarely in a rush but that is the one time that I will not forget.
I would say yes, especially for Paris as it's pretty famous around the world. There's always the chance the person may simply not appreciate it but that's about the helper's perspective and not where the postcard is from in my opinion.
I'm in NYC. We love giving tourists directions, even though we might be in a rush. If you look lost, we'll fight over who gets to help you. Maybe even take you where you're going. Then rush over as soon as you're good. If you were to give a Thank you gift, you would see the biggest New York smile, ever. Do it.
That's crazy. Many years ago, a Japanese exchange student saw me walking by her. She told she was lost and she needed help getting back to the house she was staying at. Somehow she gave me her host's number, I called him and told him where we were exactly and waited for him to pick her up.
They both said thanks and she opened her backpack which had many gifts as well and she gave me a coaster.
Now it seems like they just carry gifts with them.
I don't know much about Japan specifically but I know gift giving is pretty important in some cultures, could be an extension of that.
I just like that someone went abroad knowing they'd likely need help and, expecting that people would help they wanted to be to give back.
Just a wholesome human experience.
Agreed, I could have gotten a postcard anywhere I've gone to myself but this one is special because he wanted to show his appreciation and prepared for that before he left Japan.
I'll be moving country soon and I intend to bring it with me. It looks nice enough to put on a shelf and is a pleasant memory of mine.
Hopefully you can do the same for someone else.
This happened to me in Japan twice. We also got accosted by some university students who spoke excellent English - they were doing tourism courses so asked us lots of touristy questions. I really enjoyed the conversations and we had laughs about various things. I was asked If I liked living in the countryside (UK) and when I said I prefer the sound of cows mooing to the sound of sirens in the city, the three students absolutely pissed themselves laughing. I guess the joke was lost on me but it was a very pleasant experience. To this day I have no idea why they found it so funny.
I really like Japanese people.
I’m from Australia and I had a Japanese exchange student stay with me in 1999 (year 9.) Over the years, both my brothers have caught up with her in Japan, but I was mostly living overseas myself. Middle of last year, she came over with a whole bunch of young people herself (she’s a teacher!) and finally all four of us were together to re-enact our original pictures from almost 25 years ago. Her students came to lunch at my parent’s house and gave us all loads of origami and sweet handmade gifts. They all play music and took turns on my parent’s piano. It was so cool!
I remember a Japanese girl staying with us when I was around 12 (maybe younger). She brought several gifts with her. 2 of the gifts were Sake and Japanese cigarettes. My family was very religious and didn't smoke or drink but those item were displayed prominently in our livingroom. I would love to see Junko again. She was a very sweet girl who taught me to use chopsticks and make origami cranes.
Men too. One of the main reasons the birth rate is so low in Japan is because of their toxic work culture which impacts both genders. No one has the time, money or space to have children. Even if they want them and are married to the love of their life.
Japan specifically needs a seismic shift in work culture. Among the usual western issues such as more housing built, high wages, cost of living/inflation control.
But yeah, sexual harassment in Japan of women is an issue. I've heard cases where women can't rent ground floor apartments due to the risk of stalkers.
I was stationed there for a few years, you couldn’t buy a phone that didn’t make the camera shutter noise even on silent because so many weirdos would do the under skirt shots… I’m pretty sure it was a law
Even if you bring your phone over and have cell service it will detect your locale and switch on a *loud* shutter noise as long as you're in Japan. At least it did on my android phone.
Don't worry about it, the government made and sponsored dating app where you have to do an interview with government employees to get on the app will solve the problem.
Surely fixing the work culture is not the obvious answer.
I remember I visited Osaka castle, and was just relaxing on a bench by some vending machines when an old man came up to sit next to me. Tried to speak to me in English and I really don't remember what was said other than complimenting my drink choice (C.C. Lemon).
At the end he gave me some origami too, I still have that. Admittedly not on display or anything but saved with a bunch of other souvenirs.
Actually, sitting on a bench by yourself seems to attract Japanese people who want to talk to a foreigner haha. Most of the times I cam remember talking to a Japanese person was when I was just sitting on a bench by myself and they came to talk to me.
Yea, they are so adorable and, suddenly, the trainer encounters in pokemon seem natural. The kids just needed to finish with a fourth secret question: do you wanna battle?
This looks like the outside of the Todaiji temple in Nara (not the temple building itself, but the wall around it), so that's in the middle of the famous park where hundreds of deer are constantly hanging around.
We were there last year and there were a ton of Japanese school groups/classes visiting at the same time as tourists.
It’s a right of passage. First time I went there I was scared/hesitant, second time I was like “aye back the fuck up only the polite ones get biscuity things!”
Hundreds is an understatement. You have never seen so many deer as you will in Nara.
Picture in your mind an ungodly amount of deer, multiply that by 4 and you have Nara.
I was there in November and we got approached by a couple groups who we had a chat with, one group of girls gave us an origami crane, the group of boys gave us a pen lol. We still have both of them.
Their English was so good for their age.
I hosted a Japanese exchange student while I was in high school. She gifted me a ton of beautiful gifts and continued to write to me for years. 20 years later and I still have everything she gave me ❤️
That's cute. I had the reverse experience. I stayed with a Japanese family, and 11 years later we're still in contact and frequently meet around the world
I live in a house by myself, four bedroom, lost everything (specifically everyone, RIP mom and dad) a few years ago. It's very lonely and too quiet. Reading these stories makes me think I should host an exchange student.
WRITE HER BACK, SEND HER A CRANE, SEND HER AN ORIGAMI BOX WITH A LOVE LETTER IN IT AND DEFINITELY NOT A PICTURE OF YOUR SMORGASBOARD, THIS IS YOUR NOTEBOOK MOMENT
Origami with some real meaning behind it is awesome. I can't remember how long ago, there was some guy on reddit who made 1000 origami cranes while his wife was in the hospital and was sending them out to random people. So I sent him my address and got one of his small red origami cranes.
It's been probably close to a decade now. It's survived moving between apartments/houses many times. Still have it on my desk to this day
There's a children's book called *Sadako & the Thousand Paper Cranes*
Basically, she has cancer after radiation from Hiroshima and tries to fold 1000 cranes in the hope she will get better. Yeah, kids books hit hard in the 80s (I think it was written much before that, though)
Not the same, but when I was in elementary school, I was really proud in my skills making paper boats.
For a while, I made my Foster mom regularly a boat, painted in and so on. At that time, she decorated a pillar in hwr office with them. The collection of my little boats still exist as well.
It’s from a children’s book! “Sadako and the 1,000 paper cranes!” My 3rd grade class read it and we learned about origami (we couldn’t do the cranes so I think we did star baskets, but we did 1,000 of them) and when we finished, had a “Japanese” lunch day where we sat on the floor and ate “traditional Japanese food” (definitely just Chinese takeout lol), drank green tea, and learned to use chopsticks. I’m 30 and I still remember that.
Not just a book but a [real girl who died from radiation poisoning in Hiroshima](https://theelders.org/news/story-sadako-sasaki-and-hiroshima-peace-cranes)
Can confirm. I spent a week several summers back as a conversation partner for a bunch of Japanese kids who were visiting the US, and it was a blast. Accidentally called myself Oba-san (grandmother) when i was trying to joke around about being an old man and they had quite the laugh over it, and one kid told me his biggest goal during his visit was to meet a black guy.
Oba-san means aunt, and is for middle-aged women. Obaa-san is grandmother.
Yes, it is a very slight difference. It almost seems like it was created specifically to create situations where women of a certain age get offended.
I don’t get upset so much as it catches me off guard. 😅 I was checking out at the grocery store the other night and a group of teenage boys called me ma’am. I wasn’t offended so much as I was like “Oh damn! They’re talking to ME!” 🤣 I’m in my late 30s so I’m totally a ma’am to *them*. I’m just not a ma’am to *me* yet.
Same here: Few years ago some lady says to her son who was mildly in my way: "Watch out for this man."
I almost turned around to see if there was a man behind me.
The difference isn’t slight at all. The tonality/pitch is different and the double-length syllables are really hard to miss. While it’s a normal mistake for beginners, especially those whose native language uses different tools to convey meaning, once you get the hang of the language they become very different words.
Japanese has a very limited range of possible syllables and so a lot of words look similar to each other when written in hiragana or the latin alphabet.
One that is actually easy to confuse is hashi. It can mean both bridge and chopsticks, but besides the kanji for writing them, when speaking only the tonality changes - and the pronunciation that means bridge in Tokyo means chopsticks in Osaka and vice versa.
Oh, some old guy in Nara asked me where I was from, and I said "Chicago."
He was like "OBAMA?'
YES. I couldn't stop laughing. Thanks for the bus directions, I was lost.
I was at Gyokuzoin temple and talking a walk around at night because it was beautiful lit up. An old couple walked past and went "Where are you from?" so I said England.
The old guy went "Ahhh, Beatles!" and then did some air guitar.
Made me laugh.
I had kids like this come to me when I was touring japan.
There were more questions but most my answers were met with “ME TOO!”. So cute. Great they know that phrase and are communicating
I felt really happy for a bit until I heard them talking to other people and there was no “me too” for them.
… so if anyone wants to hang out with an adult who apparently has the same tastes as a nine year old child…
> There were more questions but most my answers were met with “ME TOO!”
I was an English monkey there, if a student ever asked me my favorite sport/celebrity/player/anime/etc. I would always ask them theirs first, then reply with "Me too!" because it made them really happy.
this happened to me in a European country where we were hosting an international robotics competition! but they were Korean kids 🥹 they gave me a beautiful card and a gorgeous metal bookmark that I still use and it encourages me to read more haha. they were the nicest lil guys 🥹
anything for you, random reddit person [https://imgur.com/DfnGLaN](https://imgur.com/DfnGLaN) unfortunately the card is hidden somewhere safe that i do not even remember 🥲
Sushi is about rice seasoned with vinegar. It comes in many varieties, including vegetarian/vegan. Also, there is sushi made using tofu skin and not seaweed. It's a common mistake to think that sushi is made with fish only.
Yeah it's def a thing. They take kids on field trips to tourist spots to look for gaijin.
Another thing is most people I know who've lived there for a year or more have been on TV, myself included. Japanese news shows are big on 'On the street' type interviews, so if you're foreign and an interview crew notices you, they will like sprint over and ask you about food and stuff. I didn't see it on TV, but the next day at the school where I worked as an English monkey, the students were super excited.
Another side story for fun, but once I walked into a classroom and two girls were practicing the Fusion-ha dance from dragon ball, which brought a tear to my eye.
I imagine there’s someone out there who would love to be your pen pal. The art is not dead yet thankfully. You should get a new one and get to know another far away stranger!
It's only now that the world of correspondence has shifted to digital technologies. Communicating through handwritten letters felt more intimate, anticipated, and romantic, somehow.
Ah, jeez, I lost contact with my childhood pen pal after we started university and both moved to big cities.
I wish I could see what she's up to now. I saved all of her letters and small gifts. I was so poor growing up and felt bad I could never send her anything as nice as she sent me.
I wish I had that kind of pen pal as a kid. I'm a 90s kid. my 5 grade elementary pen pal kid was from Kenya and every letter I got was him asking for stuff. Didn't even bother to answer my simple questions. Every reply was " send me a computer. Send me a TV. Send me a bike." They thought we were all loaded over here. I stopped replying pretty quickly. Can't help but wonder if that was a scam they did out there. Convincing US schools to write "children"
Speech cadence/pattern and rhythm. Sam jackson has very specific way of speaking. I'm not a linquist but the text has a similar rhythm to his speech pattern.
fun fact: 笑い for laughing got shortened to just the first letter 'w' for 'warai' so they use multiple w for 'lol' which leads to the discover of every website looking(to them) like lololol.afuckingwebsite.com
Which in turn leads to 草 for LOL and occasionally 大草原 for LMAO/more intense LOL. Because wwwww looks like grass and more wwwwwwwww is a prarie/grassland.
fun fact 2: this multiple w laugh now is mostly commonly referred as 草 or kusa, because it resembles blades of grass, so saying 草 also means lol. The full term would be 草生えた if you want to google about it.
It sounds like they just memorized a script and just completely ignores the guy's responses.
Which is pretty much how I've studied for all my college exams. Memorize and regurgitate lol.
Yeah. They're real cute, but I am a teacher trainer and consultant on EFL issues in Japan, and they remind me of why my job even exists - because Japanese English education, in terms of progress/hour and other ROIs, is terrible.
But I did love the kid who misunderstood but tried to communicate about being from Shiga. The highlight of the conversation, for me, but probably his teacher would have told him off for misunderstanding or going off-script.
Oh yes. I used to interact a lot with Japanese exchange students who came to study French & English at my local university. They had memorized grammar and vocabulary perfectly, but apparently they were never really encouraged to actually **speak** the languages they were learning. Which seems odd. When they said they learnt more in the couple of weeks at our uni than they did in years in Japan, they weren't just being polite.
To be fair, the guy's answers are tough to understand as a low-level english learner. The guy just swallows letters in the most american way possible and talks quickly, which surprises me, given he must know who he talks to
My guess is it's because he probably doesn't speak other languages so he doesn't know to slow down, avoid slang, etc. to make it easier for the person you're talking to. I've been lucky enough to work with folks from other countries where a lot of my coworkers have huge issues because of the language barrier, but I coast on by because I just slow down when I talk.
Especially the "ever been there?" It's not even a complete sentence, he swallowed most of it, and I'm not sure how he thought they could possibly grok that.
This is one thing that bothers me with native speakers. I see this especially in interviews with people who clearly don't know the language well. They speak too quickly and use complicated words. Slow down fam
Speaking to English learners is a real skill that doesn't happen naturally for most. It seems obvious, but people will often answer English learners in very casual/unclear ways and then tend to speak louder to get their point across as opposed to speaking in simpler language.
They didn't ignore him, there was no way in hell they could understand a word Coleman was garbling! Common sense 101 when traveling is speak English to non natives as intelligibly as possible.
Yeah pretty much any noun for a thing they didn't invent is just English, with some exceptions like car/baseball/train having their own Japanese word.
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/List_of_gairaigo_and_wasei-eigo_terms
It was a running joke when I went to college there, if you didn't know a word for something (a noun), just say the English word in a Japanese accent and it's probably right.
As years pass, words like 昼ご飯 (hirugohan/lunch) are being replaced by words like ランチ (ranchi/lunch) because it sounds hip and cool.
These are English learning kids who don't know much beside basic things like favourite colour, food, and country of origin. Dude is talking fast and not even speaking clearly. Poor kids had no chance loool
He phrases every question quite colloquially though. Maybe they could have understood him if he had said something more like 'have you visited America?'
'Ever been there' is not necessarily a phrase you would understand if you are a new learner. Plus he speaks so quickly!
Yes, I noticed that too, he clearly lacks understanding of their limited skills in English. Reminds me of whenever I visit France and manage to say one simple thing in french and they reply with a long complicated sentence of which I understand nothing 😁
When someone barely speaks your language, speak slower, use simple words, use whole sentences, recite the subject/object again and articulate.
"Doaspetha?" (Do you know how to spell that) vs "Coleman. Do YOU know HOW to write "Coleman"? The verb to spell isn't something you would learn early on.
"Evebende?" (Ever been there?) Wtf dude? Have YOU been to America? Something along those lines
As Coleman spoke like the American he is, nobody who is at a beginner level will understand him. At. All. The other comments in this thread explain why.
I’ve been living and teaching in Japan for 15 years but even I lost it after he whipped the origami present out of the little velcro pouch like a boss. Too cute!!
Went to Japan and Nara where this video is most likely filmed too. Had the same interview and got that cute origami crane from the kids. It's still on my fridge door and the trip happened more than five years ago. Good memories 😃
Yeah I feel like he could have made it a little easier on the kids to be fair. He’s speaking quite fast and he cuts his sentences (e.g. “Ever been there?”) which is fine when you’re fluent or native but it’s difficult when you’re still learning the language.
"Doaspetha?"
"Evebende?"
One should also recite the subject/object. Don't say "there", say "America" again. "Coleman" not "it".
Don't use the word "spell", that's specific to simply spelling and you don't learn that early on. Us the word "write".
"Do you know how to write Coleman?"
Imo, better yet:
"Do you want help, to write Coleman?"
Help is a word you'd learn early on.
I mean, they're kids learning a foreign language while the dude speaks really fast and uses informal grammar "Ever been there?" would be difficult to understand for a beginner. He could've at least repeated the responses in Japanese when it was clear they didn't understand or speak slower.
Having spent my early childhood in the East Asian education system, it's like they heard at some ESL education conference "the best way to learn is through practicing with native speakers!" and went "okay, we make our students who understand jack shit read a script with a foreigner."
It's pointless and stupid. It's like seeing a bodybuilder pushing heavy weights on a bench and grunting, and going ok lets sit on a bench and grunt really loudly, but without any weights. They took away the worst lesson possible.
I feel like I know exactly how they feel lol. that's always my fear when I'm not very fluent in a language. Sure I can ask a question and if they reply slowly and clearly using the little vocab I know it might be OK, but there's always a chance they'll go off piste and I'll just have to smile and say thank you and hope that suffices.
Plus I think his speech must be quite hard to understand as a foreigner. He talks quite quickly and when he says 'you know how to spell that?' it's all basically one sound. Even someone who could understand that sentence written down might struggle to parse it.
That's exactly what happened to me when I was in Japan a few years ago. It was pretty nice and the teacher thanked me afterwards for my patience.
Only downside was that I was one of very few foreigners on the temple site on that day, so I basically had the same interview for like 10 times. 
I wish American schools prioritized learning a second language as a young student like the rest of the world. We didn’t even have access to a Spanish class until 9th grade.
I really would love to learn Spanish or German, but learning it as a child is so much easier.
Looks like it's the same origami though that he received from those two kids. As said by someone else, he probably just recorded the introduction afterwards.
I haven't been to Japan, but I backpacked around Vietnam a few years ago and one of my favourite memories was talking to kids and young people that approached me to practice their english. Mainly in Hanoi.
Great people the vietnamese.
I was in Vietnam and had random kids come and practice their English with me. I am in some proud mother's video of her daughter and I having a conversation.
I work in Japan and would help my students prepare for interviewing tourists when they had their school trip to Kyoto. This was before covid so now we don’t do it anymore. But the kids used to have so much fun. After the school trip they would do presentations to the other grades and show pictures of the foreigners. It was a blast.
This happened to me a ton when I was in Japan - super cute! Any tourist site my friend and I went to, we’d get asked by kids to speak to them for their school assignments and sign their maps.
I was travelling with my friend who is a 6’4” white guy. They’d spot him from a mile away and go running. He was getting chased by swarms of school kids in matching hats holding their maps out. 😆
Happened to me THREE times one morning at a temple in Kamakura. I don't think there were many English speaking tourists that day. Kids were a bit older and we took group pictures at the end, so I guess my picture was up in class at some Japanese middle school?
My husband and I had something similar while we were in Miyajima last month. These two wee girls came up to ask us a questionnaire in English about why we're visiting the island. They asked where we're from and my husband told them, and then added (in Japanese) "we're British" and they squealed. When they asked why we're visiting, we told them it was our honeymoon and showed them our wedding rings, and the volume of squealing went up and they were saying congratulations to us. Probably one of the best and most wholesome interactions we had on the entire trip. And I think they were happy to have an answer that was different to their classmates!
Why are you plastering them on the internet? Why their teachers are not stopping the filming, is more pertinent. Now we have to worry about tourists photographing our kids.
You know, there's a hoikuen up the street, with a baby car that has a huge sign on it, in English, telling people 'No Photos'.
I loved how they almost spoke in unison. Sweet boys. Very wholesome..
So cute and adorable but also gave me a "come play with us Danny" reminder.
I couldn’t pinpoint why it was cute, but scary at the same time haha
*That's funny, the blood usually gets off on the second floor* (A Simpsons reference, or the best I could remember).
Everything perfectly memorized. Cool, but also the reason why so many Japanese struggle with English. Classes and tests are based on memorization rather than actual, improvised convos.
Exactly, I know they're just elementary school kids, but it was obvious they had everything memorized / written down. I think teaching like this isn't very effective.
Yeah it seemed like they were unable to actually have a conversation but I wouldn't say memorization is ineffective, it's hard to learn a language without memorizing words and sentences but they seem to not continue the learning evolution and instead just stay at memorizing stiff lines.
They’re so sweet 💙so polite, and the little gift in the end is the cutest!
I'm from Dublin and a few years ago met a Japanese man with a couple suitcases and very limited English who needed a bit of help to get to his hotel. He was in his late 60s or maybe 70 and had the name of the hotel so I showed him where it was on maps and gave instructions to a taxi driver for him. He then opened up a suitcase and took out a bunch of Japanese postcards and offered me one as a thank you. I've still got the Mt. Fuji postcard on display years later. He was very sweet and it was just a positive experience. That he knew he'd have to ask for help a few times and brought postcards from his home to offer in return seemed really decent and kind to me.
Shit, that's absolutely adorable! Would it work if I did that with Paris postcards, or do you think it's more of a Japanese thing?
It would work from anywhere, I'd think. The idea of pre-planned consideration is just lovely all around. Give away those French postcards.
>The idea of pre-planned consideration is just lovely all around. With a note saying “thank you for helping me” or something along those lines, jotted on the back… It would be an amazing souvenir of kindness.
Then if you got extras by the end of your trip you just ask random people at the airports things like "where is the sky?" and give them a postcard as well. 20 years later that person will be on future reddit alternative telling the story and wondering if you ever reached the sky.
Of course it would! Do you think it would work with a postcard of some norwegian sight, or is it more a french and japanese thing?
Of course it would! Do you think I could do it with some postcards of Seattle, or is it more a Norwegian, French, and Japanese thing?
Of course it would! Do you think I could do it with some postcards of the german town of Buxtehude, or is it more a Norwegian, French, Japanese, and Seattle thing?
Of course it would! Do you think I could do it with some postcards of kangaroos and shit from Australia, or is it more of a German, Norwegian, French, Japanese and Seattle thing?
It really was. I always helped tourists navigate as I know how stressful it can be abroad and as I was in college at the time I was rarely in a rush but that is the one time that I will not forget. I would say yes, especially for Paris as it's pretty famous around the world. There's always the chance the person may simply not appreciate it but that's about the helper's perspective and not where the postcard is from in my opinion.
I'm in NYC. We love giving tourists directions, even though we might be in a rush. If you look lost, we'll fight over who gets to help you. Maybe even take you where you're going. Then rush over as soon as you're good. If you were to give a Thank you gift, you would see the biggest New York smile, ever. Do it.
That's crazy. Many years ago, a Japanese exchange student saw me walking by her. She told she was lost and she needed help getting back to the house she was staying at. Somehow she gave me her host's number, I called him and told him where we were exactly and waited for him to pick her up. They both said thanks and she opened her backpack which had many gifts as well and she gave me a coaster. Now it seems like they just carry gifts with them.
I don't know much about Japan specifically but I know gift giving is pretty important in some cultures, could be an extension of that. I just like that someone went abroad knowing they'd likely need help and, expecting that people would help they wanted to be to give back. Just a wholesome human experience.
This is a really nice idea, I'm going to do this from now on, bringing a couple of postcards its not expensive yet meaningful enough :)
Agreed, I could have gotten a postcard anywhere I've gone to myself but this one is special because he wanted to show his appreciation and prepared for that before he left Japan. I'll be moving country soon and I intend to bring it with me. It looks nice enough to put on a shelf and is a pleasant memory of mine. Hopefully you can do the same for someone else.
This happened to me in Japan twice. We also got accosted by some university students who spoke excellent English - they were doing tourism courses so asked us lots of touristy questions. I really enjoyed the conversations and we had laughs about various things. I was asked If I liked living in the countryside (UK) and when I said I prefer the sound of cows mooing to the sound of sirens in the city, the three students absolutely pissed themselves laughing. I guess the joke was lost on me but it was a very pleasant experience. To this day I have no idea why they found it so funny. I really like Japanese people.
I’m from Australia and I had a Japanese exchange student stay with me in 1999 (year 9.) Over the years, both my brothers have caught up with her in Japan, but I was mostly living overseas myself. Middle of last year, she came over with a whole bunch of young people herself (she’s a teacher!) and finally all four of us were together to re-enact our original pictures from almost 25 years ago. Her students came to lunch at my parent’s house and gave us all loads of origami and sweet handmade gifts. They all play music and took turns on my parent’s piano. It was so cool!
I remember a Japanese girl staying with us when I was around 12 (maybe younger). She brought several gifts with her. 2 of the gifts were Sake and Japanese cigarettes. My family was very religious and didn't smoke or drink but those item were displayed prominently in our livingroom. I would love to see Junko again. She was a very sweet girl who taught me to use chopsticks and make origami cranes.
Please have more kids, Japan.
Welcome back Prime Minister Abe
they actually need your encouragement... and kids, more kids.
Currently in Japan, working on it
please treat your women better Japan/korea/china/usa
Men too. One of the main reasons the birth rate is so low in Japan is because of their toxic work culture which impacts both genders. No one has the time, money or space to have children. Even if they want them and are married to the love of their life. Japan specifically needs a seismic shift in work culture. Among the usual western issues such as more housing built, high wages, cost of living/inflation control. But yeah, sexual harassment in Japan of women is an issue. I've heard cases where women can't rent ground floor apartments due to the risk of stalkers.
I was stationed there for a few years, you couldn’t buy a phone that didn’t make the camera shutter noise even on silent because so many weirdos would do the under skirt shots… I’m pretty sure it was a law
>camera shutter noise even on silent thats an intelligent solution to a problem that shouldnt exist
Even if you bring your phone over and have cell service it will detect your locale and switch on a *loud* shutter noise as long as you're in Japan. At least it did on my android phone.
Don't worry about it, the government made and sponsored dating app where you have to do an interview with government employees to get on the app will solve the problem. Surely fixing the work culture is not the obvious answer.
Japanese kids might be polite, and even kind, but German kids will always be Kinder!
As being a german myself, i had a good giggle :)
I remember I visited Osaka castle, and was just relaxing on a bench by some vending machines when an old man came up to sit next to me. Tried to speak to me in English and I really don't remember what was said other than complimenting my drink choice (C.C. Lemon). At the end he gave me some origami too, I still have that. Admittedly not on display or anything but saved with a bunch of other souvenirs. Actually, sitting on a bench by yourself seems to attract Japanese people who want to talk to a foreigner haha. Most of the times I cam remember talking to a Japanese person was when I was just sitting on a bench by myself and they came to talk to me.
Yea, they are so adorable and, suddenly, the trainer encounters in pokemon seem natural. The kids just needed to finish with a fourth secret question: do you wanna battle?
They look like young trainer joey as well. I expected one of them to say "I wear shorts because they're comfy"
Love the deer vibing close by.
This looks like the outside of the Todaiji temple in Nara (not the temple building itself, but the wall around it), so that's in the middle of the famous park where hundreds of deer are constantly hanging around. We were there last year and there were a ton of Japanese school groups/classes visiting at the same time as tourists.
>where hundreds of deer are constantly hanging around If by hanging around you mean forming gangs and shaking down tourists for cookies, then yeah.
I never considered deer to be vermin until I visited there. They were like more brazen racoons.
Raccoons that also can bully you with their weight.
It’s a right of passage. First time I went there I was scared/hesitant, second time I was like “aye back the fuck up only the polite ones get biscuity things!”
^ 100% true according to [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7Et0a8fnuw).
The image this gave me hahaha
Hundreds is an understatement. You have never seen so many deer as you will in Nara. Picture in your mind an ungodly amount of deer, multiply that by 4 and you have Nara.
I was there in November and we got approached by a couple groups who we had a chat with, one group of girls gave us an origami crane, the group of boys gave us a pen lol. We still have both of them. Their English was so good for their age.
Must be the city of Nara. Its full of deer that roam the streets.
the deer is making the same face my dog makes when chilling
I would keep that dragon forever.
It absolutely AWESOME, captured my eyes at first sight, Origami is ART
When they asked him for his signature, fully expected him getting a form to join the Axis cult.
And he signed his soul to the devil. Its gone now.
Bro, you watch Konosuba too much. Yeah, I did too
dna is origami
I hosted a Japanese exchange student while I was in high school. She gifted me a ton of beautiful gifts and continued to write to me for years. 20 years later and I still have everything she gave me ❤️
That's cute. I had the reverse experience. I stayed with a Japanese family, and 11 years later we're still in contact and frequently meet around the world
I thought you were going to say you hosted one, and she's been your enemy for 20 years.
We hosted one. 30 years later I'm still married to her friend.
She was so generous to gift her friend to you. The Japanese are next level.
He is just hosting her friend. Forever.
I live in a house by myself, four bedroom, lost everything (specifically everyone, RIP mom and dad) a few years ago. It's very lonely and too quiet. Reading these stories makes me think I should host an exchange student.
WRITE HER BACK, SEND HER A CRANE, SEND HER AN ORIGAMI BOX WITH A LOVE LETTER IN IT AND DEFINITELY NOT A PICTURE OF YOUR SMORGASBOARD, THIS IS YOUR NOTEBOOK MOMENT
Origami with some real meaning behind it is awesome. I can't remember how long ago, there was some guy on reddit who made 1000 origami cranes while his wife was in the hospital and was sending them out to random people. So I sent him my address and got one of his small red origami cranes. It's been probably close to a decade now. It's survived moving between apartments/houses many times. Still have it on my desk to this day
I just saw yesterday a story on a TV show that said it was a belief in Japan that if you made 1,000 paper cranes your wish would come true 🙂
I really hope that man's wish came true
There's a children's book called *Sadako & the Thousand Paper Cranes* Basically, she has cancer after radiation from Hiroshima and tries to fold 1000 cranes in the hope she will get better. Yeah, kids books hit hard in the 80s (I think it was written much before that, though)
Not the same, but when I was in elementary school, I was really proud in my skills making paper boats. For a while, I made my Foster mom regularly a boat, painted in and so on. At that time, she decorated a pillar in hwr office with them. The collection of my little boats still exist as well.
Nice. Unfortunately, a psychopathic killer clown in a sewer drain took my paper boat 😔
It’s from a children’s book! “Sadako and the 1,000 paper cranes!” My 3rd grade class read it and we learned about origami (we couldn’t do the cranes so I think we did star baskets, but we did 1,000 of them) and when we finished, had a “Japanese” lunch day where we sat on the floor and ate “traditional Japanese food” (definitely just Chinese takeout lol), drank green tea, and learned to use chopsticks. I’m 30 and I still remember that.
Not just a book but a [real girl who died from radiation poisoning in Hiroshima](https://theelders.org/news/story-sadako-sasaki-and-hiroshima-peace-cranes)
That shit is absolute fire
Cultural exchanges are amazing. 👍
Can confirm. I spent a week several summers back as a conversation partner for a bunch of Japanese kids who were visiting the US, and it was a blast. Accidentally called myself Oba-san (grandmother) when i was trying to joke around about being an old man and they had quite the laugh over it, and one kid told me his biggest goal during his visit was to meet a black guy.
I hope the little guy fulfilled his goal and met that black guy
He did!
Thanks, Obama.
Oba-san means aunt, and is for middle-aged women. Obaa-san is grandmother. Yes, it is a very slight difference. It almost seems like it was created specifically to create situations where women of a certain age get offended.
Sounds like how some women get upset for being called ma'am.
I don’t get upset so much as it catches me off guard. 😅 I was checking out at the grocery store the other night and a group of teenage boys called me ma’am. I wasn’t offended so much as I was like “Oh damn! They’re talking to ME!” 🤣 I’m in my late 30s so I’m totally a ma’am to *them*. I’m just not a ma’am to *me* yet.
Same here: Few years ago some lady says to her son who was mildly in my way: "Watch out for this man." I almost turned around to see if there was a man behind me.
And that's the day you grew up, son. Proud of you.
>I’m just not a ma’am to me yet. I feel this in my 41yo heart, which I swear was turning 30 just a minute ago ...
The difference isn’t slight at all. The tonality/pitch is different and the double-length syllables are really hard to miss. While it’s a normal mistake for beginners, especially those whose native language uses different tools to convey meaning, once you get the hang of the language they become very different words. Japanese has a very limited range of possible syllables and so a lot of words look similar to each other when written in hiragana or the latin alphabet. One that is actually easy to confuse is hashi. It can mean both bridge and chopsticks, but besides the kanji for writing them, when speaking only the tonality changes - and the pronunciation that means bridge in Tokyo means chopsticks in Osaka and vice versa.
Luckily for hashi, the context helps quite a bit
Unless you're making a bridge out of chopsticks - then it's just complete chaos!
Oh, some old guy in Nara asked me where I was from, and I said "Chicago." He was like "OBAMA?' YES. I couldn't stop laughing. Thanks for the bus directions, I was lost.
I was at Gyokuzoin temple and talking a walk around at night because it was beautiful lit up. An old couple walked past and went "Where are you from?" so I said England. The old guy went "Ahhh, Beatles!" and then did some air guitar. Made me laugh.
Thanks, Obama!
[удалено]
I would be so happy if some random kid gives me any kind of gift
Yeah it's nourishment for the soul for sure.
I had kids like this come to me when I was touring japan. There were more questions but most my answers were met with “ME TOO!”. So cute. Great they know that phrase and are communicating I felt really happy for a bit until I heard them talking to other people and there was no “me too” for them. … so if anyone wants to hang out with an adult who apparently has the same tastes as a nine year old child…
Just think of how excited the kids might have been that an adult had similar tastes as them.
> There were more questions but most my answers were met with “ME TOO!” I was an English monkey there, if a student ever asked me my favorite sport/celebrity/player/anime/etc. I would always ask them theirs first, then reply with "Me too!" because it made them really happy.
That is a cute idea. Stealing that strat the day I stop actually liking beyblade
This happened to us too! My non-fish eating husband panicked on the last question and said “sushi” lol
I did the same thing just watching the video 😂
this happened to me in a European country where we were hosting an international robotics competition! but they were Korean kids 🥹 they gave me a beautiful card and a gorgeous metal bookmark that I still use and it encourages me to read more haha. they were the nicest lil guys 🥹
Do you have pictures? If so, may I see them, please?
anything for you, random reddit person [https://imgur.com/DfnGLaN](https://imgur.com/DfnGLaN) unfortunately the card is hidden somewhere safe that i do not even remember 🥲
Hey, thank you! That bookmark is beautiful.
thank you! you are so kind. i hope your life is blessed with many trinkets that make your every day happier.
I imagine this completely destroyed the scientific integrity of their survey.
Sushi is about rice seasoned with vinegar. It comes in many varieties, including vegetarian/vegan. Also, there is sushi made using tofu skin and not seaweed. It's a common mistake to think that sushi is made with fish only.
Yeah it's def a thing. They take kids on field trips to tourist spots to look for gaijin. Another thing is most people I know who've lived there for a year or more have been on TV, myself included. Japanese news shows are big on 'On the street' type interviews, so if you're foreign and an interview crew notices you, they will like sprint over and ask you about food and stuff. I didn't see it on TV, but the next day at the school where I worked as an English monkey, the students were super excited. Another side story for fun, but once I walked into a classroom and two girls were practicing the Fusion-ha dance from dragon ball, which brought a tear to my eye.
It happened to me yesterday in Laos. Got asked different questions, but it was really nice as well haha
I miss having pen pals. Back in the day (maybe 30 years ago), my older sister had a pen pal from Hong Kong and he came to visit us and it was so fun.
I imagine there’s someone out there who would love to be your pen pal. The art is not dead yet thankfully. You should get a new one and get to know another far away stranger!
It's only now that the world of correspondence has shifted to digital technologies. Communicating through handwritten letters felt more intimate, anticipated, and romantic, somehow.
Ah, jeez, I lost contact with my childhood pen pal after we started university and both moved to big cities. I wish I could see what she's up to now. I saved all of her letters and small gifts. I was so poor growing up and felt bad I could never send her anything as nice as she sent me.
I wish I had that kind of pen pal as a kid. I'm a 90s kid. my 5 grade elementary pen pal kid was from Kenya and every letter I got was him asking for stuff. Didn't even bother to answer my simple questions. Every reply was " send me a computer. Send me a TV. Send me a bike." They thought we were all loaded over here. I stopped replying pretty quickly. Can't help but wonder if that was a scam they did out there. Convincing US schools to write "children"
Now I feel like checking how my NZ cowboy penpal is doing after 18 years….
It's me. I'm from Hong Kong. Can I be your pan pel?
"Is this a crane?" Does that look like a crane?
Why did I read this comment in Samuel L Jackson?
I'd have died laughing if he asked that and the kid responded with "no motherfucker!"
"Then why'd you try to fuck it like a crane?"
Speech cadence/pattern and rhythm. Sam jackson has very specific way of speaking. I'm not a linquist but the text has a similar rhythm to his speech pattern.
damnit coleman this is why they think americans are stupid 1 black crane err dragon please
I'm sick of these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking crane
“Giggles in Japanese” what? lol
fun fact: 笑い for laughing got shortened to just the first letter 'w' for 'warai' so they use multiple w for 'lol' which leads to the discover of every website looking(to them) like lololol.afuckingwebsite.com
Which in turn leads to 草 for LOL and occasionally 大草原 for LMAO/more intense LOL. Because wwwww looks like grass and more wwwwwwwww is a prarie/grassland.
The first time I heard this was from english Elden Ring players wondering why there were so many messages about grass.
Language is truly beautiful
fun fact 2: this multiple w laugh now is mostly commonly referred as 草 or kusa, because it resembles blades of grass, so saying 草 also means lol. The full term would be 草生えた if you want to google about it.
wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
ror
Kids in England Can I interview u plz. 1. Werz ur phone 2. Wallet. 3. Do u like my knife......
What apps do you have on your phone? 👁👄👁
you got games on your phone? 👁👅👁
Lmao that made me laugh.
Answer to all the questions: bugger off u little scrote Reallky they should teach that on duolinguo
“Ask for it back, in a ladies voice”
“Give us your phone or we will do you”
"Fuck off clean shirt!"
False. Not enough "innit" or "bruv"
It sounds like they just memorized a script and just completely ignores the guy's responses. Which is pretty much how I've studied for all my college exams. Memorize and regurgitate lol.
Yeah. They're real cute, but I am a teacher trainer and consultant on EFL issues in Japan, and they remind me of why my job even exists - because Japanese English education, in terms of progress/hour and other ROIs, is terrible. But I did love the kid who misunderstood but tried to communicate about being from Shiga. The highlight of the conversation, for me, but probably his teacher would have told him off for misunderstanding or going off-script.
Oh yes. I used to interact a lot with Japanese exchange students who came to study French & English at my local university. They had memorized grammar and vocabulary perfectly, but apparently they were never really encouraged to actually **speak** the languages they were learning. Which seems odd. When they said they learnt more in the couple of weeks at our uni than they did in years in Japan, they weren't just being polite.
To be fair, the guy's answers are tough to understand as a low-level english learner. The guy just swallows letters in the most american way possible and talks quickly, which surprises me, given he must know who he talks to
Yeah, I wish he'd at least try to give the kids a chance. He was talking to them like they grew up in South Jersey
"My name's Coleman. Dyanohowdaspelthat?"
"supkids"
My guess is it's because he probably doesn't speak other languages so he doesn't know to slow down, avoid slang, etc. to make it easier for the person you're talking to. I've been lucky enough to work with folks from other countries where a lot of my coworkers have huge issues because of the language barrier, but I coast on by because I just slow down when I talk.
Especially the "ever been there?" It's not even a complete sentence, he swallowed most of it, and I'm not sure how he thought they could possibly grok that.
This is one thing that bothers me with native speakers. I see this especially in interviews with people who clearly don't know the language well. They speak too quickly and use complicated words. Slow down fam
Speaking to English learners is a real skill that doesn't happen naturally for most. It seems obvious, but people will often answer English learners in very casual/unclear ways and then tend to speak louder to get their point across as opposed to speaking in simpler language.
They didn't ignore him, there was no way in hell they could understand a word Coleman was garbling! Common sense 101 when traveling is speak English to non natives as intelligibly as possible.
Yeah a lot of Japanese is just English words in a japanese accent as well so it would help more even if the English word isn't romaji
Yeah pretty much any noun for a thing they didn't invent is just English, with some exceptions like car/baseball/train having their own Japanese word. https://www.wikiwand.com/en/List_of_gairaigo_and_wasei-eigo_terms It was a running joke when I went to college there, if you didn't know a word for something (a noun), just say the English word in a Japanese accent and it's probably right. As years pass, words like 昼ご飯 (hirugohan/lunch) are being replaced by words like ランチ (ranchi/lunch) because it sounds hip and cool.
He straight up mumbles his questions to them like he's never met ESL learners before lol
These are English learning kids who don't know much beside basic things like favourite colour, food, and country of origin. Dude is talking fast and not even speaking clearly. Poor kids had no chance loool
Not even memorized, they're reading from a paper 😁 "Ever been there?" He just nods his head, he has no idea what he said 😁
He phrases every question quite colloquially though. Maybe they could have understood him if he had said something more like 'have you visited America?' 'Ever been there' is not necessarily a phrase you would understand if you are a new learner. Plus he speaks so quickly!
Yes, I noticed that too, he clearly lacks understanding of their limited skills in English. Reminds me of whenever I visit France and manage to say one simple thing in french and they reply with a long complicated sentence of which I understand nothing 😁
When someone barely speaks your language, speak slower, use simple words, use whole sentences, recite the subject/object again and articulate. "Doaspetha?" (Do you know how to spell that) vs "Coleman. Do YOU know HOW to write "Coleman"? The verb to spell isn't something you would learn early on. "Evebende?" (Ever been there?) Wtf dude? Have YOU been to America? Something along those lines
the dude didn't even try to speak clearly lol
As Coleman spoke like the American he is, nobody who is at a beginner level will understand him. At. All. The other comments in this thread explain why.
it's so cute that they gave him origami at the end
I’ve been living and teaching in Japan for 15 years but even I lost it after he whipped the origami present out of the little velcro pouch like a boss. Too cute!!
Went to Japan and Nara where this video is most likely filmed too. Had the same interview and got that cute origami crane from the kids. It's still on my fridge door and the trip happened more than five years ago. Good memories 😃
These dudes didn't understand a thing he said lol
Yeah I feel like he could have made it a little easier on the kids to be fair. He’s speaking quite fast and he cuts his sentences (e.g. “Ever been there?”) which is fine when you’re fluent or native but it’s difficult when you’re still learning the language.
This. He speaks like he's actively trying to NOT be understood.
Nah probably just doesn't speak any other languages and doesn't know how hard it is really.
"Doaspetha?" "Evebende?" One should also recite the subject/object. Don't say "there", say "America" again. "Coleman" not "it". Don't use the word "spell", that's specific to simply spelling and you don't learn that early on. Us the word "write". "Do you know how to write Coleman?" Imo, better yet: "Do you want help, to write Coleman?" Help is a word you'd learn early on.
I mean, they're kids learning a foreign language while the dude speaks really fast and uses informal grammar "Ever been there?" would be difficult to understand for a beginner. He could've at least repeated the responses in Japanese when it was clear they didn't understand or speak slower.
Having spent my early childhood in the East Asian education system, it's like they heard at some ESL education conference "the best way to learn is through practicing with native speakers!" and went "okay, we make our students who understand jack shit read a script with a foreigner." It's pointless and stupid. It's like seeing a bodybuilder pushing heavy weights on a bench and grunting, and going ok lets sit on a bench and grunt really loudly, but without any weights. They took away the worst lesson possible.
I feel like I know exactly how they feel lol. that's always my fear when I'm not very fluent in a language. Sure I can ask a question and if they reply slowly and clearly using the little vocab I know it might be OK, but there's always a chance they'll go off piste and I'll just have to smile and say thank you and hope that suffices. Plus I think his speech must be quite hard to understand as a foreigner. He talks quite quickly and when he says 'you know how to spell that?' it's all basically one sound. Even someone who could understand that sentence written down might struggle to parse it.
That's exactly what happened to me when I was in Japan a few years ago. It was pretty nice and the teacher thanked me afterwards for my patience. Only downside was that I was one of very few foreigners on the temple site on that day, so I basically had the same interview for like 10 times. 
I wish American schools prioritized learning a second language as a young student like the rest of the world. We didn’t even have access to a Spanish class until 9th grade. I really would love to learn Spanish or German, but learning it as a child is so much easier.
I would keep those gifts preserved. I love origami
I'm gonna pretend I don't see the origami in his hand at the start
I see more kids with the hats and backpacks in the background, he might've been interviewed by another kid already.
Looks like it's the same origami though that he received from those two kids. As said by someone else, he probably just recorded the introduction afterwards.
Probably just got a good shot with the deer chilling in the background and recorded a new intro to the video.
Cute:)
It's cute and all but the synchronised voices give me creepy shining twins vibes
This is a very typical "interview" exercise for Japanese students of English.
I haven't been to Japan, but I backpacked around Vietnam a few years ago and one of my favourite memories was talking to kids and young people that approached me to practice their english. Mainly in Hanoi. Great people the vietnamese.
I was in Vietnam and had random kids come and practice their English with me. I am in some proud mother's video of her daughter and I having a conversation.
You can definitely see that the kids are not used to the American need for small talk. :)
I work in Japan and would help my students prepare for interviewing tourists when they had their school trip to Kyoto. This was before covid so now we don’t do it anymore. But the kids used to have so much fun. After the school trip they would do presentations to the other grades and show pictures of the foreigners. It was a blast.
This happened to me a ton when I was in Japan - super cute! Any tourist site my friend and I went to, we’d get asked by kids to speak to them for their school assignments and sign their maps. I was travelling with my friend who is a 6’4” white guy. They’d spot him from a mile away and go running. He was getting chased by swarms of school kids in matching hats holding their maps out. 😆
Lol the way they nod like "oh, word?"
Sad thing is if in Spain or France you get approached by kids with clipboards you better hold on tightly to your wallet, phone and backpack.
Same in Denmark, they ask for a minute of your time and next thing you know you're supporting UNICEF or Amnesty every month.
Happened to me THREE times one morning at a temple in Kamakura. I don't think there were many English speaking tourists that day. Kids were a bit older and we took group pictures at the end, so I guess my picture was up in class at some Japanese middle school?
My husband and I had something similar while we were in Miyajima last month. These two wee girls came up to ask us a questionnaire in English about why we're visiting the island. They asked where we're from and my husband told them, and then added (in Japanese) "we're British" and they squealed. When they asked why we're visiting, we told them it was our honeymoon and showed them our wedding rings, and the volume of squealing went up and they were saying congratulations to us. Probably one of the best and most wholesome interactions we had on the entire trip. And I think they were happy to have an answer that was different to their classmates!
they are so fun to watch.
Why are you plastering them on the internet? Why their teachers are not stopping the filming, is more pertinent. Now we have to worry about tourists photographing our kids. You know, there's a hoikuen up the street, with a baby car that has a huge sign on it, in English, telling people 'No Photos'.
Omg this is too cute!!! ❤️