I went to a Mexican bakery for some pastries and the clerk said something in Spanish. I said lo siento mi español es malo. And he said, mi ingles es malo! And we both laughed and it was a perfect moment of connection.
Similar story - ordered in broken Spanish at a Mexican bakery, and the lady responded in broken English. The guy she was chatting with said "Woah, I didn't know he spoke Spanish... And I didn't know you speak English!"
As a thai person, it's really amazing when foreigner talking with our langauge and we don't care how bad your accent are, just being polite with words is perfect
Most SEA people are like this. We'd be ecstatics if foreigners are willing to try to talk in our mother tongue, even when it was bad. We appreciate their effort and feel honored.
I have had this SAME experience MANY times in Taiwan… but it was always young people who imagined I was speaking English … older people immediately understood and were surprised that I spoke Mandarin (or the little Taiwanese that I know.) Once the one young teenage clerk replied in Mandarin “ Sorry I don’t speak English.. when I was in high school, I didn’t study very hard… maybe I should’ve studied harder, then I could’ve spoken English well.. (blah blah blah)😂 Then the male clerk speaking Mandarin said to her “Hey! He’s speaking perfect Mandarin.. what are you talking about!!” I was just shocked that she’d start rambling on about her failures as a student, etc..
In Taiwan people would speak Chinese (I know hardly any) to me and English to my Taiwanese girlfriend 😂 (she’s an aboriginal so many think she’s a foreigner)
So you can now understand how much pressure they have to learn English, because usually American or British people don't speak other languages, and it seems English is mandatory everywhere, when it should not necessarily be the case. The clerk was actually too nice giving you that explanation, and here you are making fun of him/her... And then Westerners wonder why the rest of the planet hates Westerners...
Literally my experience in Japan. Elderly people gladly speak with you in Japanese, but youngsters no way. They start acting like they know english and then they freak out and run away
I just got back from Japan and had the same experience; I am nowhere near fluency, but I know enough to get around. Older people were very willing to speak to me slowly, help me with words I didn't know, and gently correct my mistakes. Younger people absolutely could not be fucked to deal with it. 😅
That's because young people have a complex because they think they ought to be able to speak English. But old people couldn't care less so they just talk to you naturally.
Haha I ordered in Japanese in a Japanese restaurant in the US and the waitress smiled and said "English is fine." My Japanese friend whispered to me, "The people who work here are Korean!" Thanks for the likes; I'm glad so many people can relate to the wonderful blend of cultures in the US.
Right, she'll have me saying I should just ask your mother to take my order she probably be nicer 😆 or maybe not the apple don't fall too far from the tree
Japanese people laugh when they are nervous or uncomfortable. This is a very common behavior in Japan towards foreigners. It surprises them and embarrasses them.
Actually many times, when they giggle or repeat what you say, it is a sign of big sympathy, mixed with anxiety. But the creators of this video are doing their best to make up conflict and sensationalism, so to get many views.
The guy in the video was born and raised in Japan and is ethnically half Japanese, but apparently he hasn't understood the way Japanese people behave, including his own family members, the way you just explained it. OR, and obviously this is really wild take, the guy in the video has at least as good and understanding of Japanese customs and people as you do and said it was very rude because it is🙄
@@alvarobarcala Thank you for writing this. I understand the video as you described but I think the video misleading it. I watched a lot of anime and movie from japan, from it I learn a lot of japanese culture
In Shanghai, China friends husband who is Latino knows Mandarin fluently. They were at a restaurant and the husband obviously ordered and the server looked at him bewildered like "whut sorry i dont understand" in mandarin and the person on the other table replied back in mandarin "he said that perfectly you should have understood". I get why they might be a little shocked but it just comes off as rude especially when people already did their best to speak in your own mother tongue
Exacty, and just like with that guy what's so funny about asking where the bathroom is?? I guess this is somewhat the same but I'm learning Chinese right now and I'm noticed a couple of times people have stated that I'm only doing it to get a guy... And at first I just used to ignore that statement but now that I'm in school for it it actually pisses me off. Who the hell would put in this much effort just to get into a relationship
@@Mickeii617 that's so fricking unhelpful. So what if you were. That's more effort than other people. My issue is that I don't get the foreigner treatment and I also just started learning Chinese 4 months ago. Because I look Chinese even though I'm Filipino. 😭😭 I always end up having to say "对比起， 我懂一点点中文“
I studied mandarin, and generally Chinese strangers are very supportive if you speak small phrases, but impossible to speak to if you try and have an actual conversation or ask/say something meaningful. I think it's because there's a prevailing belief that non chinese people literally can't learn to speak it.
Yea I think it's just a weird phenomenon where people are somehow not understanding what ignorant racism looks like. These folks just never seen foreigners speak their language before and aren't really listening.
I’m so proud when someone talks in my mother tongue. This is plain rude. Just saw a chinese girl a couple of days ago and she heard me talking polish with my sister (this is happening in central london), she ran up to us and said that she knows how to speak polish too, in polish!!! We were so hyped and she got to practice her polish skills, win win for both sides. She said she loved the Polish literature and wanted to be able to experience it in the original language, that’s why she learned the language. So cool! Honestly it inspired me to start looking into another language that I want to learn!
I have the same reason as her for wanting to learn languages. I love creative work from all over the world, especially music, and I want to learn the languages to be able to understand what they mean. There are a lot of languages I want to learn so it'll be a life long endeavour.
I'm studying Spanish. And I'm a cashier and at my job, we have a lot of Spanish speaking customers, and a handful of times, they didn't understand English, so I repeated what I could in Spanish, and they said what and I'd repeat myself in Spanish again, and they would tell me they don't speak English. Id be like, um... okay, that was Spanish.
@@donnasteinberg5253sometimes people expect you to speak in a certain language and try to figure out if they hear words/patterns in that specific language. if they dont hear it they might not recognize the other language right away especially when the person is switching the language. (try to figure out a what a word means with that sound/pronouncing in a language where this does not exist, its like matching a circle into a square visually spoken) happend to me as well asking others to repeat again to figure out what was said, being bi-lingual by upbringing and learning 2 more languages. you have to be on the same "frequence" to hear, also other rhythm/stressing words in the listeners native language can lead to that. its sufficient either that they dont understand the language well you were speaking first or you dont pronounce the 2nd well enough to make it "click" or they werent prepared to hear from you spanish.
@viridiae9317 I totally understand what you're saying. I was reading articles in Duolingo that talked about switching your mind back-and-forth between languages and when people can do it quickly and when they can't and different things about that, just like what you were saying. And really, it's only been few and far between. In most cases, they usually understand me after I do repeat myself.
Bro I've heard this a million times but when I went to japan and just said some simple things at restaurants or some local stores they were very friendly and replied in japanese. Sometimes they even started talking a bit too much that I had to say I don't speak THAT well lmao
I was leaving a restaurant in Italy with my three American friends and we all speak Italian but were talking to each other in English. As we left, we said “ciao” to the waiters and I heard them say “grazie” and then they proceeded to laugh and mock us by saying “it’s not grazi, it’s grazie” in Italian even though we didn’t say either of those words. I think there are rude and warm people wherever you go
I worked at a grocery store years back and when i spoke soow, broken Spanish to the Spanish speaking customers, they smiled so genuinely and would even give tips on how to speak better. To them, the mere fact that I made an attempt was enough to bring them joy and appreciation
Yes! It was so easy for me to get better at speaking Spanish because Spanish speakers (at least in the America's - I don't know about Spain) are so happy to speak with you, they don't rush to correct you, they're never rude and if you're not sure they're so helpful. Tan amable y agradable con la idioma ❤
I had this moment in spain. We walked to a restaurant and ordered in spanish but the man kept insisting he didn't speak english so we said, "thats fine we speak spanish" he walked away and got the server from the restaurant next door to take our order. So in perfect spanish we ordered our food and the new server gave our server a look that said, " you idiot"
@@kenjifox4264 for dinners, around 10% is customary across Europe if the service is good (or rounding up to the nearest or second nearest 5 or 0) , but it’s not forced as in the US, so that’s why people think it’s not a thing. I’d say tipping is not very frequent for lunch, though. Tipping delivery is also common, especially if they are quick.
Depends where in Spain I would not be surprised if the waiter himself was an inmigrant who did not speak Spanish very well, if at all. In Mallorca for instance, there are many German speaking people working on summer who can't say a word in Spanish, and this piss off the locals quite much of course...
Why don't we take it positively??? She is shocked in an appreciative way that you are talking to them in their language and that too their language known to all that it is a real hard language on earth. One person ran away to the kitchen when I casually ordered in their language (me being a foreigner to her just by the different looks of me from her nationals). It was an appropriative shock which came down on this person like a lightning. Later on, this person told me that they never expected for me to talk to them so casually like a native speaker. Let us just enjoy these small things all of us.
I have a friend from the US who lived in Japan for years. One day on the train he heard a couple talking smack about him, assuming he spoke no Japanese. He spoke up and said, in perfect Tokyo-style Japanese, "Ah, you folks must be foreign-born. I know a native Japanese person would never say such an impolite thing about a foreign visitor." They very awkwardly said, "Oh, you speak Japanese?" and were thereafter very polite to him.
I speak the Irish language, there are few regions in my country that still choose to use it daily. I was on the west coast on the very small island of Inis Oírr, and I asked a waitress if she had a table for seven. She responded to my question in English. Our language is dying and still, she refused to converse with me in it, just because I am from the city… people love to gatekeep smh
Years ago I once got lost in Tokyo. I tried asking for directions IN Japanese to a passerby and the person replied "I don't speak English!" and ran off. 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️
I mean tbh you cant blame them. There's so many things to consider but in general, the native speaker would always assume that foreingers are not fluent enough even though u speak perfect Japanese. It lies on expressing credebility to prove that you are fluent enough. Though sometimes they can be ignorant probably from social anxiety arising from language barrier.
I had a friend come over from America, and she was Japanese-American but knew no Japanese at all. The waitress asked my friend what we are all ordering and my friend replied in English she had no idea what she was saying. So then I answered back in Japanese and the woman was a bit taken aback but understood me and got us the drinks, food, etc... But, every time the waitress come back to the table she kept asking my friend about what we're ordering next/etc, and she kept having to go "Yeahhh... I don't speak Japanese......." to which I'd answer her again lol it lasted the entire evening and it was kind of funny that she just couldn't grasp that the only one who looked Japanese spoke no Japanese but all the other foreigners were able to lol
'They must be showing off how well they can speak English to their foreign friends! Come on, I'm nervous that the actual foreigners will speak English at me, stop speaking English' 😅my guess
Her brain might've been struggling to accept reality, haha! I'd find it difficult too if someone clearly looked like they were from my country but didn't speak our language, but I'd stop myself from making that mistake by the third interaction... Maybe she was tired, who knows, but that's a funny scenario lol.
@@lulul0l039 lol we actually kept on saying back to the waitress in Japanese "Our friend is American and they don't speak any Japanese, but next we'll have the..." and then we would answer the question she was asking our friend lol
I’m from Britain, born and raised; my parents was from Hong Kong. I get people try to speak to me in Mandarin; I reply in my Home Counties accent ‘Sorry, please speak English’, this really flummox them 🤣. My mother tongue is Hakka Chinese, my Cantonese is enough to order food, and my Mandarin is non-existent, however my first language is English. First of all, HK people mainly speak Cantonese, Hakka and other localised dialects. Mandarin was only recently introduced (1997). So to assume every Chinese person in Britain can speak Mandarin, you’ll have hear them speak their dialect first before engaging them with your knowledge of Chinese 😄
If the waitress says _eigo wakaranai desu_ after you’ve spoken to her in perfect Japanese, here is the correct response: talk to your friends in full Japanese in front of the waitress so she can hear you saying _Looks like the waitress doesn’t understand Japanese_ Then ask her in Japanese: _where in China are you from?_
I've done this in a restaurant. Ordered in perfect Japanese and she looked around and tried her best to talk to me in English. I restarted the conversation by asking if she spoke Japanese, and she said "Hai". Then reordered exactly the same way and she completely understood.
Living in Japan myself, I found that Tokyo and Yokohama were both cities that had thus type of attitude. In the smaller towns and villages though, they love it! Japanese people tend to be extremely proud of their heritage, culture, and language. So to see a foreigner try was always encouraged with enthusiasm. The only real barrier I encountered was people wanting to practice English while I was trying to practice Japanese lol.
Yes, I get this type of treatment in Tokyo/Yokohama usually. Kyoto is very nice, I found. Osaka and Mito seemed less welcoming than Tokyo. I will visit other places next. But I do think it’s a case by case thing, I’ve met nice people and rude people in various areas.
I always say I am a Spanish speaker and can't speak English or say I have an interview at a Shanghai company in 2 weeks so I need to practice Japanese, but I can speak English to them after that...
Cause we don't understand u. Cause u think u talk Japanese but u sound like English and it sounds so funny it's like a toddler trying to speak WE JUST DONTTT UNDERSTAND ITTT. And that guy sounds so cringe, guy at the end when he tries to speak Japanese I mean. It's a meme here. It's a character. Comedians here, use that character as American tourists also it sounds like they're gay, so yeah we laugh
だってほとんどの人たちは日本来ても普通の顔して英語で話しかけてくるんだもん！だから日本語使ってくれたらうれしくて驚いちゃうんだよ🌟 Almost visitors talk to us with not Japanese language! That’s why we get surprising when you guys start speaking Japanese suddenly. However we are very happy if you try speak Japanese even not fluently 🌟
Solo he visto España por Google Earth me gustaría un día ir de visita :) en mi país igual decimos "buenos días" y cuando alguien termina de comer y se retira del restaurante le decimos "buen provecho" es lindo 😁
Dude I love Spain. Last time I visited, I got out of the car at like 10pm after a 22hr drive and three elderly spanish ladies that were walking back to their place from the beach immediately came up and started talking to me. No idea what they said but they had the warmest smiles.
When i went to japan for the first time i went to the beef bowl chain sukiya and asked a question in english and was told "i dont understand english in japanese " so i asked the same question in japanese ans she responed again "i dont understand english" again so i looked at her and laughed and said but is understand japanese. She stood there frozen, and then her coworker took over and apologized, i just thought of it as they never have been around a foreigner who understands, let alone is talking to them in thier native tongue. I had a pretty fun time in japan. My only issue was that every time i was walking, people would actively avoid walking around or near me. Bags would change arms as if i wanted to take them right off their arms. My favorite interaction was with a bus driver. On my last day there, i used the bus and over paied. i tried to tell the bus driver it was ok i wont be needing the money anymore im.not comming back. He took out his coin purse and gave me the difference (my change), and told me he hoped to see me another time.
I wonder if there is an accent. I mean, I'm sure there is. An Indian man was speaking in an English class, in English, but his accent was very thick, and it was in an area of Chicago they may not be familiar with that accent. The kids all kept asking what he was saying. It may sound rude, but it is just the way humans are sometimes, there's a loss in translation.
In all honesty, Americans do have a potato in the mouth and as a native Spanish speaker, if the person is just a beginner, can be quite hard to understand. Given the closeness of Japanese phonetics to ours I guess it will be the same for them.
@@evr134this is the 2nd time I’ve read someone say this. What does this mean? I asked my native Spanish speaking father in law and he doesn’t know wtf it means “Americans sound like they have ball in the mouth” As someone who’s trying to learn the language I’m paranoid that I sound like this 😂
When I was in Germany and mentioned to people that I'm from America, they wanted to speak English with me because they were excited to practice their English with a native speaker. Which I can understand, I jump at the opportunity to practice my German with someone who speaks the language (which is very rare where I live), but it sometimes got frustrating because I wanted some immersion to improve my language skills. They were a very polite people though, always happy that I was at least doing my best.
My friend is half Latina and half German but she grew up in Japan, so she speaks Japanese fluently, and she said people would often ignore her or respond in English instead of Japanese when she spoke to them in Japanese.
that's like actually frustrating and I haven't experienced it, like if I just spoke to you in your native language.... why would you just like.. ignore it or .. y'know?? like wtf is your deal lmao
The interesting thing about that is, they don’t even know if she knows another language or not. They just assume English, but what if it was German, and those were the only languages she spoke?! Or only Japanese? The hate for foreigners even if no one is doing anything wrong is outrageous. I understand to an extent, but if they are someone trying to be polite as possible and follow your customs/ not actually foreign, there is zero reason
I follow a Japanese girl in tiktok who is half Japanese and half... Nigerian? Anyway, until recently, she ONLY spoke Japanese, and people would still talk to her in English in Japan as a child.
Idk if anyone else has experienced this but when I was very beginner Japanese, using broken sentences and a mix of Japanese and English, people would respond like I wasn't a foreigner, using long complex sentences that would make me sweat buckets. However now I can speak it and understand very well they've suddenly decided that they want to speak English to me...I've been tempted lately to tell people I'm German and don't know any English. Though, knowing Japanese people they would probably just start speaking perfect German to me lmao
I lived in Germany for 7 years. I eventually learned quite a bit of German, but would never say I was completely fluent. At the end of seven years I could definitely understand everything being said around me, would watch TV and movies in German, belonged to a Volksmarching club, and played semiprofessional American football on a German team in Bamburg. It was really hard for me to structure sentences together in German because the syntax is so different. I lived in Schweinfurt the last 3 years I was in Germany (I’d lived in Berlin and Landstuhl previously, Franconia was my favorite of the 3 places I’d lived. At the time I lived in Schweinfurt, worked in Wurzburg, and played football in Bamburg) and had a really nice Italian restaurant about 3 blocks away I’d walk to at least once a week. The menu was printed in German, and I’d go to order in German, and the guy that ran the place; whom was Italian said to me once “Just order in English, I’m Italian and can’t really understand your German…”
Well, idk if you vibe it, but what I do while living in China now is I warn us Europeans not to get soaked with Korean/Japanese/Chinese, cuz this is the way - specially for Chinese - to invade us 😢
As a flight attendant for over 25 years I know this happens everywhere when people don’t expect you to speak their language. It’s like a glitch. It even happened to me when I thought someone spoke English but in fact he spoke Dutch to me and I asked him to repeat himself 😅and Dutch is my native language.
Same! Also a flight attendant here and also speak dutch but the glitch never happened to me, it happened to other dutch Speaking people when I spoke to them haha. I'm good with languages and my brain switches fast so I guess it depends on who this happens to
@@carmenm.4091 it was actually a fact. When you speak multiple languages (more than 2) because I speak 5 Fluently...it will likely not happen to you. Can't tell you number of times when Dutch pilots I've spoken to needed a moment or two to realize I was speaking in dutch 🤣 they only spoke dutch and English.
@@Roxjetlagged Sorry, dan heb ik je verkeerd begrepen. Het leek alsof je tegen mij zei in je laatste zin dat ik niet goed kan switchen tussen talen. Ben tweetalig opgevoed en doe mijn hele leven niet anders, dus dat kwam binnen.
Nervous laughter is definitely a thing that is meant to be self-deprecating but is interpreted differently in Europe and the US, as if they are laughing at you, when actually they are laughing in embarrassment about themselves. Led to a loooot of misunderstandings in my mixed family.
Nervous laughter is a thing everywhere though? I dont see a reason to laugh nervously in this scenario, she is at her job. She should've just given the direction
@@Easa-rx7ir forreal, sometimes i swear people act like japanese are whole other species like no, we are all human and even with cultural differences i think I'll be able to understand their feelings
@@smudge8882 Any If you can speak to me in my native native language (which can be rare) i would be so thrilled. But equally if you spoke to me in Hindi too.
I totally agree. I feel so proud when I see a non-native speak Hindi. If I act surprised it is to encourage them for their hard work and consistency. I don't see how that would offend someone. Love to North East INDIA, from Goa, INDIA bro 🌊🐬🌴🐚 🇮🇳 Jai Hind.
I get this but it is something you gonna have to live with. Lived in taiwan for a year and i spoke mandarin fluently as a southeast asian and i get those reactions like “wow you speak chinese?” And stuff and at first it kinda makes me happy to know that the effort of me learning it paid off and it gets a bit annoying getting it after 10x times but after 20x times you get used to it. It’s not rude it’s more of an acknowledgement like they are pleasantly surprised that you learn their language.
My Japanese teacher told me that Japanese people don't expect non-Japanese to speak their language so they get taken by surprise. He said it was best to give them a warning that you are going to speak in Japanese by starting your sentence with a long and quite loud 'ano..'
@@call_megumi ig it does depend on where u live. here in aus since we multicultural we are cool with any language being thrown at us, though it seems for jap they are polar opposites
"My Japanese teacher told me that Japanese people don't expect non-Japanese to speak their language so they get taken by surprise" Please tell me this is a quote from the 18th century.
@@_sparrowhawkit’s really not that surprising honestly, it’s not just a Japanese thing, it’s any bilingual speaking country outside english-speaking ones, especially in Asia that can relate to this. You could watch vlogs of foreign travellers that can speak multiple languages and very often the people around them are shocked when they suddenly start speaking their own language.
But tbh. I see this only happen with japanese people, I love Japan but I don't get why most people basically refuse to speak with someone who speaks it perfectly or flyent enough. J don't see that happen with Korea, China, Arab countries, etc
In Lithuania I bought the same kind of cigarette every day at the same kiosk from the same two shop assistants. I tried asking for it in English, in Lithuanian and in Russian. For 3 months they pretended that they didn't understand me. Honestly, I'm sure, that they know what I wanted even without asking (the same smokes, every day), but they still wanted me to feel unwelcomed! 🤷🏼♀️
Was it a racial thing? I'm sorry brother, I'm from rural Slovakia, and I can imagine the same thing happening in my hometown for example. I hope you liked the place tho. Sorry for the ignorance
@@hegyeske1 It was a racist thing, I'm sure! They were mean to me, they acted weird, they pointed at 5 different smokes before they pretended to understand. But hell, I asked for 'LD blue', what is literally written on the box! (and one of them pointed at 'Kent silver', than 'Marlboro Red'... Nothing close to the 'blue LD'...) 🤷🏼♀️ And thanks for asking, I hated every minutes of staying there! 😔
Many people are Not prepared to hear another language they dont expect. Starting with a hello in their language usually helps in that way. That has been my experience
Yeah, this is very much it. I have been abroad and heard my own native language (swedish) and it was so unexpected that for a bit it just sounded like gibbrish. "Hey" is definetly a reboot. Also sometimes if service staff is super tired, the .exe crashes. Have a friend who speaks mainly english, if I follow him at a shop in the afternoon it will not matter how clear my swedish is, they will speak english.
Cultures are different. You’re most likely to get this type of reaction as shown in the video in Japan, but for example in Spanish speaking countries it’s the opposite. And this comes from personal experience… so really, it just depends on the places you’re going to.
When I visited in ‘18 everybody I attempted to speak Japanese with was very polite. One of them even knew some English and asked how long I’d been learning and I said I’ve been learning on the internet for 6 months, practicing at home by myself. She seemed so happy about it 😅 and said my pronunciation is great, especially with no instructor. It was very sweet.
I lived in Japan for a few years and can't recall having any any experiences like this either. A lot of people are shy or nervous at first, but once they realize you can speak at least basic Japanese they're usually excited to talk.
@@RosesAreDead_0 I used japanesepod101! First I learned my hiragana and katakana (plus the words they teach during those lessons). I would pause the videos and make flash cards. Then during my work breaks I would quiz myself. After I got 100% on the flash cards from a specific lesson I moved onto the next lesson. I always kept all the flash cards in my deck though, so I was retaining the previous lessons too. I hope this helps!
Thank you! Thats very helpful ^^ Also, does japanesepod101 teach you the difference between casual japanese and polite japanese? Also, does it teach kanji?@@rachel4339
Yes.. I'm English.. was in Japan until I was eight and then worked there most of my twenties. Japanese people were unfailingly kind and welcoming. I heard plenty of racism and bigotry.. from westerners towards Japanese people not the other way around!
I was in Japan doing a language summer program (mind you i've been learning Japanese for over 8 years) and i went out to dinner with like 7 ppl, where half of us looked very foreign (two latino guys, one black person, one white person) and two ppl were half-Japanese and one guy was fully Korean. Of course, the waiter kept asking the Korean guy (the most "Asian-looking" of all of us) what we wanted, even though he was the one who knew basically no Japanese and the two half-Japanese ppl and i are basically fluent.... And everyone at that table (except the Korean guy) were capable of ordering their food in Japanese, so we all proceeded to do so... The waiter was very shocked when the Korean guy struggled the most to order smth and asked us for guidance, we all cheered him on when he got it right but goddam was it a funny experience... On a separate occasion, with people from the same group, I tried to translate something at UNIQLO bc they basically accused my friend of stealing, but they told me they "don't speak English and they will call the employee who speaks English" even though I was speaking Japanese to them. Sure, i was flustered so I'm sure my Japanese wasn't perfect but when the person who spoke English showed up, I ended up explaining the same thing I did to the previous people in Japanese and somehow she understood. I don't know why it took an English-speaking Japanese person to understand me in Japanese but that was an even weirder experience...
I think part of these "prejudiced" attitudes come from folks who have been ingrained with the thought of defending their Culture by all means and not welcoming foreigners so much to the point they might end settling themselves up over there. Sounds offensive, I do know, but it's a mix of collective insular mindset along with Fears of being "invaded" even though they also invaded other lands over History. Furthermore the "Empire" territory is not so huge to store much more Immigrants.
@@monimonica9529 No no I actually now exactly what you mean what you're talking about very closely resembles the "Nihonjinron" ideology that developed after WWII. It's super interesting, I did a research paper abt it and its basically exactly what you said!
Probably because of your accent. You must be very proud of your language skills but sometimes you just must admit that you have an accent. English speaking Japanese person was able to register it. Others might not. It also happened with me when I tried to speak English in American bank. They promptly suggested me to wait for the employee who spoke my language. It happened once. So, just be realistic.
I'm originally from SouthEast Asia. Sometimes, in a situation like that, I speak for Southeast Asia at least, if they misunderstood you for whatever reason (nothing to do with your fluency), they can appear to their colleagues as careless and inattentive if there was another colleague more 'appropriate' to deal with the situation. Basically, If they misunderstood your perfect Japanese, no amount of them saying: 'she's fluent, my fault!' is going to stop their boss from saying: 'Why didn't you get so and so to deal with the client?'. This could be doubly embarrassing...
@@monimonica9529 why is prejudiced in quotation marks? Are you implying it wasnt prejudiced? Just because Japan has invaded kther countries, that doesnt mean they deserve to be invaded by third world countries. Japan is a beautiful country and it will only continue to stay that way if it stays japanese. Japan doesnt have room for any immigrants
Oh, this brings back memories of when I lived in Japan! It's funny, in America, we assume that everyone speaks English and are surprised when they don't. Whereas in Japan it's the opposite and they expect that people who don't look Japanese don't speak it and are surprised when they do! Sometimes the initial shock has to wear off before they can recognize a gaijin is indeed speaking Japanese.
America is more diversed in population so it’s normal for people in a lot of ethnicity to live in america but there’s not as many westerner living in japan so they immediately assume that doesn’t look japanese=tourist
Depends were you live in the US really. States like AZ, NV, NM, and TX were there's a lot of Spanish speakers you'll find a lot of Americans learning Spanish as well. Comes in handy for those freshly self imported Central Americans that don't speak English at all.
@SternLX I live in Arizona and I've been learning Spanish almost a year, but even here, where we have lots of Spanish speakers, people assume you speak English. That said, if you speak only Spanish, this is probably one of the best states for you to be in, since there is usually someone who speaks Spanish in every store, restaurant, etc. But if you only speak Japanese, good luck!
@@eirschu8973Excuse me?! THEIR language?!?! They learned their language AND their smug sense of entitled superiority from us, thank you very much! 😂🇬🇧
As an American of Korean descent who emigrated to the US at the age of 6, whenever I speak my first language of Korean to a Korean in America, I get spoken back in English; always felt like a slap in the face. I try not to let it bother me too much.
I totally relate. This happened to me while I was there back in the 90s. .. I was ordering food at a restaurant speaking Japanese, and the waitress kept on asking what else I wanted to my Japanese friends. It’s crazy.
@@syjka1535 not necessarily, in the UK we do just fine understanding the crazy broken English that's thrown about now. Japanese people are just xenophobic as a majority
@@syjka1535NO. It could be perfect pronunciation and they still pretend they don’t understand. If it hasn’t happened to you just wait. Or you’ve never lived in Japan.
My Fil was in the Canadian Air Force and stationed overseas. He tried to buy milk for his family, but the clerk acted like they didn't understand. He went away, learned how to swear and went back. They laughed and sold him the milk! 😂
As a Japanese, I do tend to not understand certain words spoken by the English, if there is a pronunciation difference. Or accent, however you’d like to call it. Here in Osaka, with whoever I talk, we have a similar or exact accent, as we got taught that way, so we built a habit. But when the English, that speak Japanese fluently, ask me a question, I get incredibly confused for a few words, even if they pronounced it correctly. Ive never been outside of Osaka, so I don’t know how is it like for others, but I sincerely struggle at some point, so I try to speak English with them. (I am always so surprised to hear people knowing Japanese so fluently, and I am more than grateful to be able to share the language with foreigners. I will try my best from now on to understand the accent difference, and speak Japanese with you all properly
Just yesterday i was speaking to a lady in spanish and she said, "no entiendo engles", turned to my coworker carlos, and he repeated what i said in spanish, word for word. I even got the grammar 100%. I said, "i know im pretty out of it today, but i was speaking spanish, right?" Sometimes people dont expect it! Lol
This happened to me but the lady said “I don't speak your language” and my mom had to ask for me Weird thing is I'm Mexican too??? And speak fluent Spanish??? I look a bit racially ambiguous I think but still???
It could be the accent. As foreigners we do not understand that we have a thick accent speaking a foreign language but it may not be understandable for them even if the grammar is correct.
As a Spanish speaker working as a waiter for now, sometimes foreigners think they are speaking good Spanish but it's actually very difficult to understand them 😅 Sometimes it's even difficult to get that they are supposedly speaking Spanish 😅 Edit: you even said "engles" when it's actually "inglés".
I get that a lot as a Chinese American who speaks spanish with a Mexican accent. Spanish speakers will glitch and try to talk back to me in broken English still because they don’t register that I’m speaking fluent spanish to them
Exactly. They're not being rude, their brain is in "try to understand English" mode. Although we have a significant Asian population in Latin America, Asian people usually work hard and keep to themselves so people still feel surprised when they see an Asian person speak Spanish. Just like I'm sure a Chinese person would be surprised to see my brown self speaking in a Chinese dialect. I've found myself trying to understand a video in English and I can't understand a worrrrd, I think I'm having a stroke and then I figure out it's in another language 💀
its ok, i was listening to a clerk and the person in front of me in line speak spanish. i understand Spanish enough to understand context. he was completely bad at it to where even i could tell. too fast, broken and didnt even sound like he was completing his words like he was drunk. complete gibberish but they kept going so i guess by some miracle they understood what he was trying to say.
I had this happen at work. Was asking someone questions in Spanish, then she would look at her partner to "translate" because I'm white, and he stared back at her, waiting for her to respond. She said "I don't understand English". He said "good thing it wasn't English..." She still refused to answer until he repeated, literally, verbatim, what I said.
You are very right 👍👍👍 The brain didn't expect it ever, then the brain goes into an illusion and we should help them to come back to their consciousness...
Yes exactly, her brain was expecting English but when he spoke Japanese it didn't make sense. The exact same thing happened to me many years ago in Korea, a Korean man said his name was Prince but I couldn't understand the word even though he pronounced it perfectly, three or four times he repeated it and eventually I realised he was speaking English haha OMG I was shocked that I had been unable to understand him for those few moments.
This happens to me frequently in Thailand. I will order in very clear Thai, but the server will often look confused and repeat my order back while looking at my wife. My wife will then turn to me and ask "is that right?" in Thai and I'll say "yep" and the server will then finally acknowledge me. It doesn't happen every time and it's really not a big deal. They are mentally preparing themselves to speak English with you and are simply caught off guard when you speak their language, so it takes them a moment to re calibrate.
I am not sure if it is rude. When speaking in another language other than your mother tongue sometimes it sounds different and can be hard to understand by the natives especially if you are not very fluent . The accents also make a difference. You may have an English accent kinda but speaking another language and it sounds really different/incorrect. Sometimes it sounds like a whole separate language.
@@KGPS-ye2bu I'm a fluent speaker, they understand me perfectly. That's what's funny. They understand every word out of my mouth but they act as if it's not happening, like somehow the words spilled out of my mouth on accident. It's definitely not rude, they're just surprised
I don’t speak Japanese except for few basic words like Arigato, Sumimasen, etc. I never faced this at all. Even Japanese who don’t speak English responded to me with gestures and Google translate and few basic English words. And whenever I was lost for directions and if a Japanese person found me trying to find way. Even without me asking for it, they used to come and help me.
Well duh. Because America (and Canada Australia and the UK) have all become such multicultural countries thanks to colonialism. Literally looks around you, you can see people from at least 5 different ethnicities if you just look down the street. If you go to Japan, 99% of the people will look Japanese.
I worked at a family owned traditional Chinese takeout on a college campus and most of the clientele were Chinese students studying abroad here in America. There were alot of special orders that were off menu and had little to no translation so I spent a whole year learning to take food orders in Chinese. The Chinese staff would help me learn more when it was slow so when it was busy, it always felt like a test. When a Chinese customer calls in to make a food order they speak in Chinese and don’t even pause before giving their order so when I would repeat their order back to them in Chinese they would immediately stop me and ask if anyone spoke Chinese. And when I told them they are busy they would get would either tell me they’ll wait or just hang up and come in personally. Every time they waited, one of the Chinese staff would look at the phone and hang up on them saying that my Chinese isn’t bad, they’re just being unreasonable. A few of our regulars were very kind and would even help me learn new words. And the one time it really helped was when a girl came in and she looked stressed and tired, didn’t even look up at me when she ordered. So when I repeated the order back to her, she finally looked up and was surprised and happy and told me my pronunciation was very good. I couldn’t speak a lot but she appreciated that I made the effort so I could understand her. That was a very unique experience for me and it made me realize how important it is to make the extra effort to connect with others, especially those that are in a foreign country and are looking for a semblance of familiarity. Of course I could’ve been like the many others that were rude about wanting to speak exclusively Chinese, but then I never would’ve been able to experience how it felt to be a foreigner in another world and learn to connect with them
I however would be very very happy when someone wants to learn my native language even when they are trying. Sometimes it's the accent that they speak that it's difficult to understand. I speak Dutch and i know some chinese in my country or vietnamese knows to speak some dutch words and i feel so at awe. Once i went to a supermarket and spoke another language to the chinese guy at the cashier and he spoke in fluent dutch i was so shocked i was like wow amazing!
I like that you brought awareness to this because not everyone likes that you can understand their language 😂😂 I remember some French girls gossiping about my friend and they were shocked when she replied back to them in French
Happened to my brother in Turkey. He went for a vacation with a friend to Istanbul he was sitting in a park with his friend and a couple started talking badly about them in French the whole time.. One of them dropped her wallet he picked it up and gave it to her she said ''Merci''.. He answered ''De rien''.. So they started fast walking because they were so embarrassed 😂😂😂
Ha ... same for me and my wife in Shanghai, when we order food they talk to her but I answer in Chinese instead. Somehow the brain short circuits until they realize looks and language doesn't always match ...
I'm white, lived in Japan for years, and speak Japanese fluently. As a part of my role there, I frequently had to speak with people I had never met before. I think the experiences described in the video are often blown out of proportion. I definitely had similar encounters, but they were really rare in comparison to the many people who just acted pretty normally. The negative instances just tend to stand out a lot more vividly in our memories.
@@sebastianmosqueda5959 Learn the 100 most commonly used words. Learn sentence structure. A lot of it is just committing to memorizing a bunch of words and then where to put them. Also, a little bit of cultural things like not using "I" or "My". Usually its assumed you're referring to yourself.
It seems to me that in LATAM we are the only ones to be happy when a foreigner speaks or at least tries to speak in Spanish. If someone takes the time to learn your language you should be happy, showing that that person at least is interested in your culture.
@humor1012 Es la razón por eso porque como el norte de América LATAM tienen mucha diversidad? (Lo siento si alguno no tiene razón aún aprendiendo español 😅)
I went to school in Japan for a year and was learning more of the language. Got told to use it more in public (which I tried) and almost everyone apart from some lovely elderly folks would just reply back in English and it was a huge slap in the face 🙃 However me and my husband did get to have lovely chats with a sweet nan and pop who owned a little eatery near our place. So that was something 🥹
Because of Covid for my Advanced Intermediate Japanese class in college we got to do a video chat with Japanese college students. Its hard having a conversation with three other people let alone in a different language but the two girls idk why kept laughing/ignoring me everytime I tried to speak and ask them questions. The only dude was actually nice and understood that I was still learning. But once I asked if we could switch to English(they were taking an English class and our professors said that we could switch to English after 20 minutes) it was complete silence. Going to school with a lot of students having English as a second language I don't understand bashing someone trying to speak your language.
@@SukMadik-papuThey were learning English just like I was learning Japanese. Their professor wouldn't tell them to switch to English if she didn't think they could speak it. I'm by no means fluent but at least I tried.
@@imapotato7391 They were so rude (I'm not going to deny it), but I still thinking they didn't know English, English classes are bad, they only teach basic stuff. Only the people like me who try hard and put hours into learning English are the only ones who can speak English (I'm Mexican)
I’m currently in Japan and i haven’t experienced anything really like this. People do naturally assume I don’t speak Japanese, and when I do speak it they’re often taken aback and very happy. That’s also what I think happened to the 2nd guy in the video and the Starbucks employee. Our brains do often play tricks that if we assume that someone speaks another language it might seem that they aren’t speaking our language, but in the months i’ve been here, I have yet to experience such a thing. Edit: I’m white, have blonde hair and blue eyes so it’s not like they think I’m Japanese lol
Same. I would speak Japanese but almost every response is in English lol I'm no expert or polyglot but I found it hilarious and am still checking my inflection for flaws.
@@kurootsuki3326wait he was born and raised in Japan yet he's still not used to japanese people being surprised when a foreigner speaks fluent japanese? If a foreigner casually spoke my native tongue, id be pretty surprised too.
It was 100% rude. She completely ignored him and asked his friend. He didn't speak English and that's what she said she didn't speak. For all she knew, he was french.
Some people are in awkward situations and don't know how to express themselves. We can't always be sure what's going on in someone's thoughts, so let's not judge too harshly and swiftly. As far as laughing at the man in the video, there could have been another reason. I've seen people do videos where they surprisingly speak a foreign language very well, and the other person greets him with kindness. Sometimes folks hear horrible rumors and they don't always know what to , especially when it comes to Americans. Interactions are very complex and we can't rush an assessment when we don't have scientific facts to back up our suspicions.
As a Japanese person, I have to say that this is very common around us. We tend to be afraid to talk to foreigners because we are not confident in our communication skills, (to person that we think we can’t communicate with because of their appearance) even if they speaks Japanese. I apologize for your strange experience in Japan. I love speaking English with people from other countries❤
This comment coming from a Japanese person makes no sense and is a bit of an eye opener into their illogical mindset. Japanese people don't want to talk to none-Japanese looking people (who speak to them in Japanese) because they aren't confident in their own English speaking ability. They then go onto say they love speaking English even though the topic is about non-Japanese people speaking Japanese to Japanese people. They simply don't get it and probably never will. Hilarious 😂
In my experience, people are always shocked when a foreigner speaks their language fluently. It's a great feeling to see their surprise and admiration.
I also don't get why you would be offended that they giggle or find it funny when they don't expect you to speak the language but you do. The point made by the white guy in the second half of the video is obviously shaped by the American perspective that no assumption must be made about anyone based on ethnicity, skin color, background, nationality, whatever. But guess what, humans are curious and inquisitive by nature and sometimes they'll just find it amusing that you look like a British person and yet you speak fluent Japanese. There is no malice in it, there is no intent to disparage you, so why react with this dumb 'lady, you are not supposed to do that' attitude.
I was on the other side once. In an airport I was asked by a staff member if I am traveling alone, but she asked me in German so she repeated the word “alleine” and all I could understand was “a line” because I wasn’t expecting someone in Sri Lanka to speak German with me😬 my brain just couldn’t comprehend it and it took a lot of back and forth until I finally got it… Idk if she just wanted to be nice or if she wanted to test me if my passport is real and that I’m German, because if it’s the latter I almost failed the test😅 I still feel bad because I probably made her feel like her German was bad
Sounds like she was testing if you were German and/or spoke Deutsch. Tricky! Eine sehr Gut Arbeit from her ! 🧐 (mein Vater war Schweizer aber mein Deutsch ist nicht Gut & Genug). Ich liebe Englisch.
I know what you mean, my husband often beings colleagues from all over the world, Libya, Brazil, India ect. I speak decent English so that's not a problem. But when in the midst of a conversation, and one of our kids asks me something on German, my brain goes "....." until it kicks into gear again and properly reverts back from English to German. 🤭🤭👍👍
the only way that couldve happened if you forgot some of your native language because you were in another country or something and almost only spoke another language
I get this when my mum comes over and speaks Spanish with me and I have to switch back and forth with my bf, but I feel like the instances in the video were quite different and mean on purpose
Yes, that's a very strange feeling. Someone made me feel like that at the Schiphol Airport. But in my main language 😢 I am Portuguese and while at the line in a coffe shop, I listened this girl talking portuguese to her phone. Ok. When it was my time to pay, I asked for "A coffe, please." (In Portuguese) and she pretend to not know the language and asked me to say it in English. What I did... But I lost my "coffee desire" 😅 What a strange feeling, indeed.
Where I am there are many "English only" workplaces. You are only allowed to speak English and the phone call was probably a personal one. Though at the airport that doesn't exactly make sence.
❤️🤣 _I still get people making feel weird about speaking English even though it’s my native language. Btw- you are truly motivational. I’m basic conversational Mandarin, Spanish, Hindi, Arabic because of you._
As an American who went to university in a city, it is *wild* to me that people get surprised or confused by people speaking languages they don't "look like" they should speak. I've heard so many languages coming out the mouths of so many different kinds of people, I would always just roll with it. However, related, there was one incident when I was working in a convenience store in college where a gentleman came up to me and asked a question in Italian. I gave him a very blank stare and he said, in English, "you don't speak Italian???" When I said no, he scoffed and kept talking in Italian while I continued to stare at him. Finally he said, "you're really not Italian?" and when I said no, he laughed, shook his head and walked out. I am Irish and Polish by descent, I don't look Italian at all.
@@Bosolevu I am, pretty explicitly, not confusing the two. That is why I opened my entire comment with, "As an American." My whole point was that this is not something that happens in our country so I never thought about the fact that it happens in other places.
Soooo relatable. I'm half Filipino but I look white and that's how they treat me too. From their perspective they are enjoying the interaction and are surprised and enjoyed that they heard you speak Japanese but from our perspective you just laughed at us and we don't understand why so it feels very rude because we don't understand the joke
that is so weird i really don’t get why people do that i live in the university area in turkey and there are lots of foreign students here. they surely have an accent because they’ve been learning turkish for like 3 years max and not actively studying it at that (turkish is quite hard, i admire them!) when they talk to me i always understand and i bet other turkish people do to because it’s not like they are talking gibberish lol
I was in high school in America & i speak fluent tagalog. I was running to get picked up after school & 2 filipino students were laughing at me while saying “keep running like that you gona fall” i turned around & spoke to them in tagalog & they were so embarrassed.
Yeah! So do I! I watch these videos just saying bad experiences from people, but in these 3 years and half I've been living in here and as soon as I speak japanese to them, they feel surprised and happy and start asking many questions like: why is your japanese so good?? How many years have you been living in Japan?? No awkward reaction or rudeness, never!
Thank you so much! yes, I've been teaching english here although I'm not native speaker, my English is better than average japanese teachers 😅😅 so I could get a job. But actually, I moved out to Japan because I got married to a japanese guy 😊
The same for me. Instead, these people of the video, like so many foreign bloggers in Japan, get that kind of response because they have a weird attitude towards Jaoanese people. Actually they love to provoke Japanese people just for the sake of making sensacionalist content in their videos.
Yeah, been in Japan over 10 years, the only time I’ve ever seen this happen is in skits done by these Japan blogger people. That’s not to say that it never happens, but I’ve never seen it in over 10 years
I had that same experience as a blk woman out her in LA while speaking spanish... They don't want you to be a part of their culture, but they love mine.
As an American, the Scottish accent is the hardest to understand in the UK. I had my uncle driving me around Edinburgh. I literally thought he was speaking of foreign language. Just my foreign ears.
As a foreigner in India, i know how this feels. However, not everyone has the intention to mock. Some simply just was too shocked or surprised for their brain to register what u just said. Others are simply just not having the brain capacity (like literally, not saying this to insult), cud be the difference in accent or tone or just the fact that they never thought its possible for a foreigner to speak such fluent language of their own. I believe to give the benefit of doubt first and then judge last. After all theres no point in judging a stranger who u met for a few moments if they aren’t going to be in your life no more.
Yeah I think this is part of it, where even if someone becomes fluent, when you go to another place there are tiny details in pronunciation or tone that someone whose brain hasn't heard a lot of foreign languages kinda just tunes out what was just said unintentionally. Different languages use different parts of the brain so I imagine hearing different languages probably works different parts of the brain as well, and someone not accustomed to that probably will need much more exposure to adjust
In india I can understand as in india English is becoming go to language most people can speak and understand..but in Japanese they only talk in Japanese so in india is very rare someone speaks on Hindi as it's not necessary but in Japan it is necessary to learn japanese so if any foreignee starts speaking Japanese I think this cannot be surprising
The Starbucks barista laughed out of embarrassment and confusion. In the West we're punished as small children if we laugh upon being scolded, and we learn very quickly not to laugh from embarrassment but it's a natural reaction, actually.
I suspect this as well. She's involuntarily laughing from the slight short circuit her brain made in that moment. Very similar to when you hear the punchline to a joke; the unexpected twist releases endorphins.
@@maxien101Is likely just hard to deal with it his entire life: by descent he's not Japanese but by place of birth and experience (thus, ethnically) he very much is, and he's been dealing with this daily his entire life.
I recently moved to a village on the outskirts of Tokyo and the people here are super nice and helpful. I don't speak Japanese yet (I'm studying) and my son has also recently started studying Japanese and they treat him very well at school. Many people take care of us and accompany us around, letting their children play with mine. If I don't understand something, they all pull out their phones to translate what they are saying. It`s a world of friendliness and respect. J'adore
It goes both ways, Im not Japanese but Im Asian and while walking with my niece in Japan a White couple started talking shit about her not knowing Im from the US. I turned around and asked him if he wanted to fight and he shut up real quick😂
@@sleepy.timaeus.arts. Considering Im American and pretty good size for an Asian standing at 6ft 230 pounds I think I could stand my ground. He prob thought I didnt understand him and his girlfriend and was surprised when I called him out on his bullshit
I have literally had this exact experience. Mostly there were no problems but I recall a crazy experience where I (white but I speak Japanese) walked into a restaurant and asked for a table for X number of people. They kept ignoring me and looking at my friend behind me who is Taiwanese American. They couldn’t hear me over the deafening sound of my white face. As an aside, even though elderly Japanese sometimes use outdated/offensive language without realizing it, generally if I spoke Japanese they spoke back normally. If this happened it was almost always with younger people.
What I want everyone who wants to come and enjoy Japan to know is that many Japanese people have a tendency to laugh to hide their embarrassment or when they are nervous, and it is not an action that they are doing to be rude to you, but a desire to be as friendly as possible, even in a nervous situation. This may seem very strange to those who are not familiar with Japanese culture. However, if you keep this in mind, your trip to Japan will be much more enjoyable.
Except that she was not being deliberately rude! Her brain needed time to adjust to the concept that a foreigner spoke Japanese! I see more in him being deliberate in trying to shock her without preparing her! She was shocked and her brain shut down! That’s what many of these bilingual TH-camrs do, trying to shock the natives without giving any consideration not time for the native speaker to make a mental adjustment! Those natives that have had experiences with the Japanese-speaking foreigners would respond faster! Those that have not had such previous experiences, take a while to adjust mentally!
@@lenitaa7938, yeah, that is all BS noise. it is disrespectful and deliberate. i barely have experience with people who speak the languages i do not. when i do, shutting down and acting like i cannot understand their english, for example, is not apart of the protocol.
In my language Tamil when a foreigner speaks in Tamil even if it is totally broken, we think it is cute and love the fact the fact they are trying hard to learn it so we respect that
When I was in Japan, I noticed that the people anticipated your ignorance. When you show the opposite, they are taken back and at times seem disappointed that you're not what they assumed. It's part of their cultural arrogance. 🤔
Cultural arrogance is when most visitors expect the locals to communicate in English and eventually the locals learn to expect what most visitors expect, a very few visitors who behave unexpectedly surprise the locals, and then you say "Oh, it's their arrogance."
Yeah it’s happening at work but they are white. I’m Hispanic but don’t know Spanish and very Americanized. 😭 you said it perfectly- disappointed that their assumptions are incorrect.
Never been to Japan myself or worked with Japanese. But when I learnt a few sentences in Italian while working with Italian customers they were soawed by me putting that kind of efforts. They in fact used to correct my mistakes and were ultra nice to me. It gave me motivation to learn it further and will some day certainly visit Italy with my family.
suddenly remembered last time when i was in kamakura with my mom at a restaurant filled with japanese people i asked the staff where was the restroom in japanese as my mom wanted to go and he was like "what?" then after 3x he finally answered and laughed at me while looking at his coworker. it was the first time being treated like that in Japan it caught me off guard tbh (oh yeah the other male famima staff in osaka was so rude laughing at us because i was asking about the requirements for getting the JJK clear file) i look East Asian but i'm sure they knew we weren't Japanese (the female staff who was in charge of taking our orders was nice though)
That happens a lot when people don't expect that you know their language. It isn't malicious, happens all the time when my black ass busts out the Chinese.
@@michaelbrandon1222 It’s extremely hurtful. I’m also black American. In the US black people complain all the time over racism I personally have not experienced in the U.S., but when it comes to a situation like this in another country, this to me is racist and incredibly hurtful, especially when you want to assimilate into the culture you live in.
@@TRUMPmyOSHI well yeah, Asians like Chinese and Japanese especially are "racist" as hell, more so just not adjusted to the sensitivities of the west, it is what it is, you're just an outsider to them lol.
Apparently Japan and France have the same similarities. French people can be so rotten and douchebags when foreigners try their best to communicate in French. @@AntharieAzarenna
I had a similar experience speaking Greek in hospital in Cyprus. It was amazement. Curiosity. It wasn’t offensive. So many people don’t bother to learn the language of the place they are in.
And here I always ended up with the opposite experience when in Japan with my very limited and basic Japanese. I’d ask a question and the person would break into a smile and start with the rapid fire Japanese, delighted as they assumed i would understand. I’d be there frozen like 😳 I got very good at then saying I only spoke a tiny bit Japanese….😂
I had the same problem LOL 😂 I understood _some_ (miniscule amount) because of jrock and like a week of online lessons but for some reason, people kept assuming I spoke fluent Japanese. Thankfully 👁️👄👁️ seems pretty universal
@@dontnoticemesenpai6745 i know quite simple japanese but struggle hearing what people say when they talk fast, i ended up with the same problem when if i tried to open a conversation or question in japanese they got very surprised and answered in more complicated japanese than i understand, so i just stuck with english most of the time or else they got the idea that i know more japanese than i do and they start talking too much and too fast for me to keep up lol surprisingly many knew enough basic english in tokyo that it went fine for me to just use that. and everyone was so kind and pleasant i was shocked at the service i had in every place there. i am a very short girl and have a very timid energy about me so maybe that is some reason why people there treat some foreigners differently idk
A lot of people don't understand that even if you know perfectly the language, you have the accent and sometimes dialect that will confused the local people you are communicating with. I speak french (Canada) and a lot of time people from other nationality (asian, african, european, even usa and other part of canada) will make the perfect sentence in french and I won't understand a thing! All the because of the accent or the word use don't make sense for where i'm from! So even if you speak japanese, korean or chinese (where pronounciation is VERY important), it doesn't mean that they will understand you!
This is right bro, like i just confused why they said its rude in this video. Like me, even i talk using english to foreigners, and sometime they think i speak using my nation language, and iam fine with that, i know the problem is because my accent.
I've frequently encountered people who try to say things in Mandarin and I just can't understand them at all and basically need to mentally reconstruct what they were trying to say in order to figure out which words they mispronounced.
I went to a Mexican bakery for some pastries and the clerk said something in Spanish. I said lo siento mi español es malo. And he said, mi ingles es malo! And we both laughed and it was a perfect moment of connection.
My husband stopped by a taco truck, he is very fluent in Spanish and the young lady was Ignoring him. I told him to leave the tacos.
What does that mean? Sorry I don't know spanish
@@_.crystall._ "sorry my spanish is bad" and the guy said "my english is bad!"
Similar story - ordered in broken Spanish at a Mexican bakery, and the lady responded in broken English. The guy she was chatting with said "Woah, I didn't know he spoke Spanish... And I didn't know you speak English!"
🥹
I remember reading that in Japan, you will be treated as a guest, but always reminded that you ARE a guest
Totally right and fine as long as it suits you and you are aware about that
They treat their “guests” really rudely
@@HifdonIm the J violence is verbal or sneaky..different culture..different way to harm others
its called being racist lmao
@@HifdonIm Asians in general seem very aloof ?
As a thai person, it's really amazing when foreigner talking with our langauge and we don't care how bad your accent are, just being polite with words is perfect
It is called cultural intelligence. Polite is the key for good understanding regardless of languages.
Good to know, I'm trying to learn Thai!
Most SEA people are like this. We'd be ecstatics if foreigners are willing to try to talk in our mother tongue, even when it was bad. We appreciate their effort and feel honored.
SEA is probably the only Asian country where people are super happy you speak their language or at least try to
I love Thai language ❤
I have had this SAME experience MANY times in Taiwan… but it was always young people who imagined I was speaking English … older people immediately understood and were surprised that I spoke Mandarin (or the little Taiwanese that I know.)
Once the one young teenage clerk replied in Mandarin “ Sorry I don’t speak English.. when I was in high school, I didn’t study very hard… maybe I should’ve studied harder, then I could’ve spoken English well.. (blah blah blah)😂 Then the male clerk speaking Mandarin said to her “Hey! He’s speaking perfect Mandarin.. what are you talking about!!”
I was just shocked that she’d start rambling on about her failures as a student, etc..
I guess she was a poor student because she didn't pay attention haha
It’s an indirect way of saying “I don’t want to speak to a foreigner.”
So she just like mentally autocorrected, essentially. Neat.
In Taiwan people would speak Chinese (I know hardly any) to me and English to my Taiwanese girlfriend 😂 (she’s an aboriginal so many think she’s a foreigner)
So you can now understand how much pressure they have to learn English, because usually American or British people don't speak other languages, and it seems English is mandatory everywhere, when it should not necessarily be the case. The clerk was actually too nice giving you that explanation, and here you are making fun of him/her... And then Westerners wonder why the rest of the planet hates Westerners...
Literally my experience in Japan. Elderly people gladly speak with you in Japanese, but youngsters no way. They start acting like they know english and then they freak out and run away
Lol
I just got back from Japan and had the same experience; I am nowhere near fluency, but I know enough to get around. Older people were very willing to speak to me slowly, help me with words I didn't know, and gently correct my mistakes.
Younger people absolutely could not be fucked to deal with it. 😅
The younger generation seems less progressive than the older and that’s actually concerning…
@@TRUMPmyOSHI your just seeing this now?
That's because young people have a complex because they think they ought to be able to speak English. But old people couldn't care less so they just talk to you naturally.
Haha I ordered in Japanese in a Japanese restaurant in the US and the waitress smiled and said "English is fine." My Japanese friend whispered to me, "The people who work here are Korean!" Thanks for the likes; I'm glad so many people can relate to the wonderful blend of cultures in the US.
😂😂
That is HILARIOUS 🤣
Yeah I would say a majority of ramen and sushi restaurants here in the states are run by Korean families. If not Latinos. 😆
@@JuQui228or Vietnamese!! They're everywhere😹😹
Only un USA😂😅
Say something rude and they’ll all of a sudden understand 😂
Fr
Right, she'll have me saying I should just ask your mother to take my order she probably be nicer 😆 or maybe not the apple don't fall too far from the tree
Its the asian girl that don't speak japanese. The other two in the clip does.
Just dont say arigato at the end 😅
Giant bellends😂😂😂
Japanese people laugh when they are nervous or uncomfortable. This is a very common behavior in Japan towards foreigners. It surprises them and embarrasses them.
This 👆
Actually many times, when they giggle or repeat what you say, it is a sign of big sympathy, mixed with anxiety. But the creators of this video are doing their best to make up conflict and sensationalism, so to get many views.
The guy in the video was born and raised in Japan and is ethnically half Japanese, but apparently he hasn't understood the way Japanese people behave, including his own family members, the way you just explained it.
OR, and obviously this is really wild take, the guy in the video has at least as good and understanding of Japanese customs and people as you do and said it was very rude because it is🙄
@@alvarobarcala Thank you for writing this. I understand the video as you described but I think the video misleading it. I watched a lot of anime and movie from japan, from it I learn a lot of japanese culture
I think the laugh was more of feeling amazed when foreigners spoke Japanese, not being rude😅
In Shanghai, China friends husband who is Latino knows Mandarin fluently. They were at a restaurant and the husband obviously ordered and the server looked at him bewildered like "whut sorry i dont understand" in mandarin and the person on the other table replied back in mandarin "he said that perfectly you should have understood".
I get why they might be a little shocked but it just comes off as rude especially when people already did their best to speak in your own mother tongue
Exacty, and just like with that guy what's so funny about asking where the bathroom is?? I guess this is somewhat the same but I'm learning Chinese right now and I'm noticed a couple of times people have stated that I'm only doing it to get a guy... And at first I just used to ignore that statement but now that I'm in school for it it actually pisses me off. Who the hell would put in this much effort just to get into a relationship
@@Mickeii617 that's so fricking unhelpful. So what if you were. That's more effort than other people.
My issue is that I don't get the foreigner treatment and I also just started learning Chinese 4 months ago. Because I look Chinese even though I'm Filipino. 😭😭 I always end up having to say "对比起， 我懂一点点中文“
I studied mandarin, and generally Chinese strangers are very supportive if you speak small phrases, but impossible to speak to if you try and have an actual conversation or ask/say something meaningful. I think it's because there's a prevailing belief that non chinese people literally can't learn to speak it.
doesn't Americans make fun of people who speaks English with am accent? it's the same in every culture.
Yea I think it's just a weird phenomenon where people are somehow not understanding what ignorant racism looks like. These folks just never seen foreigners speak their language before and aren't really listening.
I’m so proud when someone talks in my mother tongue. This is plain rude. Just saw a chinese girl a couple of days ago and she heard me talking polish with my sister (this is happening in central london), she ran up to us and said that she knows how to speak polish too, in polish!!! We were so hyped and she got to practice her polish skills, win win for both sides. She said she loved the Polish literature and wanted to be able to experience it in the original language, that’s why she learned the language. So cool! Honestly it inspired me to start looking into another language that I want to learn!
I have the same reason as her for wanting to learn languages. I love creative work from all over the world, especially music, and I want to learn the languages to be able to understand what they mean.
There are a lot of languages I want to learn so it'll be a life long endeavour.
Loved that
That is a beautiful story ❤ Makes me want to start learning ASAP !!
Would you mind suggesting some polish novels/books? I've only ever read Solaris and nothing else
@@Curiouscucumber738witcher
I'm studying Spanish. And I'm a cashier and at my job, we have a lot of Spanish speaking customers, and a handful of times, they didn't understand English, so I repeated what I could in Spanish, and they said what and I'd repeat myself in Spanish again, and they would tell me they don't speak English. Id be like, um... okay, that was Spanish.
It's possible they didn't understand your spanish
@@suzubee9602or they’re just being rude. That’s always a possibility
It was very simple, what I said, and is said to them by Spanish speaking cashiers all the time.
@@donnasteinberg5253sometimes people expect you to speak in a certain language and try to figure out if they hear words/patterns in that specific language. if they dont hear it they might not recognize the other language right away especially when the person is switching the language. (try to figure out a what a word means with that sound/pronouncing in a language where this does not exist, its like matching a circle into a square visually spoken) happend to me as well asking others to repeat again to figure out what was said, being bi-lingual by upbringing and learning 2 more languages. you have to be on the same "frequence" to hear, also other rhythm/stressing words in the listeners native language can lead to that. its sufficient either that they dont understand the language well you were speaking first or you dont pronounce the 2nd well enough to make it "click" or they werent prepared to hear from you spanish.
@viridiae9317 I totally understand what you're saying. I was reading articles in Duolingo that talked about switching your mind back-and-forth between languages and when people can do it quickly and when they can't and different things about that, just like what you were saying. And really, it's only been few and far between. In most cases, they usually understand me after I do repeat myself.
Bro I've heard this a million times but when I went to japan and just said some simple things at restaurants or some local stores they were very friendly and replied in japanese.
Sometimes they even started talking a bit too much that I had to say I don't speak THAT well lmao
In Italy if you say “ciao” or “grazie,” Italians are so appreciative and wonderful about it. Im so privileged to be here. ❤🇮🇹
Italians are just so warm and beautiful…love their culture..hence I married a lovely Italian man❤
I was leaving a restaurant in Italy with my three American friends and we all speak Italian but were talking to each other in English. As we left, we said “ciao” to the waiters and I heard them say “grazie” and then they proceeded to laugh and mock us by saying “it’s not grazi, it’s grazie” in Italian even though we didn’t say either of those words.
I think there are rude and warm people wherever you go
@@zozie275 indeed, hope you left a bad review after
@@zozie275 Ha! The inconvenient truth...lol
Unless you are brown...
I worked at a grocery store years back and when i spoke soow, broken Spanish to the Spanish speaking customers, they smiled so genuinely and would even give tips on how to speak better. To them, the mere fact that I made an attempt was enough to bring them joy and appreciation
Claro mi hermano, pero si es un gusto poder conversar con un extranjero y más si intenta aprender nuestro idioma!😊
Jaja ofc bro. Thats the best for us.
Latin descent tend to be far more friendly and welcoming naturally than some people from Asia. Just what I have noticed and experienced.
los latinos son más amables que los japoneses jajajaja
Yes! It was so easy for me to get better at speaking Spanish because Spanish speakers (at least in the America's - I don't know about Spain) are so happy to speak with you, they don't rush to correct you, they're never rude and if you're not sure they're so helpful. Tan amable y agradable con la idioma ❤
I had this moment in spain. We walked to a restaurant and ordered in spanish but the man kept insisting he didn't speak english so we said, "thats fine we speak spanish" he walked away and got the server from the restaurant next door to take our order. So in perfect spanish we ordered our food and the new server gave our server a look that said, " you idiot"
I'd have gone over to the other restaurant to tip the other waiter. Just to make it stick ;)
@@peterpain6625 I think there is no tipping culture in Spain.
@@kenjifox4264 for dinners, around 10% is customary across Europe if the service is good (or rounding up to the nearest or second nearest 5 or 0) , but it’s not forced as in the US, so that’s why people think it’s not a thing. I’d say tipping is not very frequent for lunch, though. Tipping delivery is also common, especially if they are quick.
@@grandegracia tipping is not forced in the US. But they force a 20% “service charge” if your group is of 15 persons or more.
Depends where in Spain I would not be surprised if the waiter himself was an inmigrant who did not speak Spanish very well, if at all. In Mallorca for instance, there are many German speaking people working on summer who can't say a word in Spanish, and this piss off the locals quite much of course...
Why don't we take it positively???
She is shocked in an appreciative way that you are talking to them in their language and that too their language known to all that it is a real hard language on earth.
One person ran away to the kitchen when I casually ordered in their language (me being a foreigner to her just by the different looks of me from her nationals). It was an appropriative shock which came down on this person like a lightning. Later on, this person told me that they never expected for me to talk to them so casually like a native speaker.
Let us just enjoy these small things all of us.
Because he was literally born there, he is a native speaker.
I have a friend from the US who lived in Japan for years. One day on the train he heard a couple talking smack about him, assuming he spoke no Japanese. He spoke up and said, in perfect Tokyo-style Japanese, "Ah, you folks must be foreign-born. I know a native Japanese person would never say such an impolite thing about a foreign visitor." They very awkwardly said, "Oh, you speak Japanese?" and were thereafter very polite to him.
I speak the Irish language, there are few regions in my country that still choose to use it daily. I was on the west coast on the very small island of Inis Oírr, and I asked a waitress if she had a table for seven. She responded to my question in English. Our language is dying and still, she refused to converse with me in it, just because I am from the city… people love to gatekeep smh
@@medb8882Human tribalism is the most retarded thing to exist and makes most people suck
He was most likely correct. Foreign born indeed. Japanese people will do that when they get home or in the car. Away from ears
@@medb8882wth that’s so stupid of her, i don’t even have the words.
Japanese person's biggest fear: direct confrontation with sustained eye contact
Years ago I once got lost in Tokyo. I tried asking for directions IN Japanese to a passerby and the person replied "I don't speak English!" and ran off. 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️
😂😂😂😂😂😂 Am Dying ...
I can't....
Japan is so weird
I mean tbh you cant blame them. There's so many things to consider but in general, the native speaker would always assume that foreingers are not fluent enough even though u speak perfect Japanese. It lies on expressing credebility to prove that you are fluent enough. Though sometimes they can be ignorant probably from social anxiety arising from language barrier.
@@carlbaun9840based
i’m sorry about that as Japanese.
we don’t used to talking with people who are not from japan.
@user-lz7xz8jw8c Evidently, some us get it (I do too) but it's amusing to see
I had a friend come over from America, and she was Japanese-American but knew no Japanese at all. The waitress asked my friend what we are all ordering and my friend replied in English she had no idea what she was saying. So then I answered back in Japanese and the woman was a bit taken aback but understood me and got us the drinks, food, etc... But, every time the waitress come back to the table she kept asking my friend about what we're ordering next/etc, and she kept having to go "Yeahhh... I don't speak Japanese......." to which I'd answer her again lol it lasted the entire evening and it was kind of funny that she just couldn't grasp that the only one who looked Japanese spoke no Japanese but all the other foreigners were able to lol
'They must be showing off how well they can speak English to their foreign friends!
Come on, I'm nervous that the actual foreigners will speak English at me, stop speaking English'
😅my guess
Her brain might've been struggling to accept reality, haha! I'd find it difficult too if someone clearly looked like they were from my country but didn't speak our language, but I'd stop myself from making that mistake by the third interaction... Maybe she was tired, who knows, but that's a funny scenario lol.
@@lulul0l039 lol we actually kept on saying back to the waitress in Japanese "Our friend is American and they don't speak any Japanese, but next we'll have the..." and then we would answer the question she was asking our friend lol
Sounds like they're not very intelligent people. Guess they didn't get any tests to prepare them for that situation
Maybe she was so busy and on auto pilot that she didn’t remember that the American Japanese didn’t speak Japanese
You have to expect people to be surprised. There is no "not supposed to" when it comes to reacting to a new situation.
Good point
👍
I think it’s that he expected a Tokyo person to be used to it
But I agree
On the other hand, in China you speak just a couple of words in Mandarin and they congratulate you
Specially to an old adult. He will make a double flip and beg you to marry his daughter.
Facts
I’m from Britain, born and raised; my parents was from Hong Kong. I get people try to speak to me in Mandarin; I reply in my Home Counties accent ‘Sorry, please speak English’, this really flummox them 🤣. My mother tongue is Hakka Chinese, my Cantonese is enough to order food, and my Mandarin is non-existent, however my first language is English. First of all, HK people mainly speak Cantonese, Hakka and other localised dialects. Mandarin was only recently introduced (1997). So to assume every Chinese person in Britain can speak Mandarin, you’ll have hear them speak their dialect first before engaging them with your knowledge of Chinese 😄
The comment above yours shows hilarious duality.
@@montezaegThat dad goes through genders like I change socks
If the waitress says _eigo wakaranai desu_ after you’ve spoken to her in perfect Japanese, here is the correct response:
talk to your friends in full Japanese in front of the waitress so she can hear you saying
_Looks like the waitress doesn’t understand Japanese_
Then ask her in Japanese:
_where in China are you from?_
Lmao they’ll definitely understand after that one!
Genius
I've done this in a restaurant. Ordered in perfect Japanese and she looked around and tried her best to talk to me in English.
I restarted the conversation by asking if she spoke Japanese, and she said "Hai".
Then reordered exactly the same way and she completely understood.
Reverse racism smort
@user-qy9rg3nt2l haha I guess their brains need a moment to warm up 😂
Living in Japan myself, I found that Tokyo and Yokohama were both cities that had thus type of attitude. In the smaller towns and villages though, they love it! Japanese people tend to be extremely proud of their heritage, culture, and language. So to see a foreigner try was always encouraged with enthusiasm. The only real barrier I encountered was people wanting to practice English while I was trying to practice Japanese lol.
Yes, I get this type of treatment in Tokyo/Yokohama usually. Kyoto is very nice, I found. Osaka and Mito seemed less welcoming than Tokyo. I will visit other places next. But I do think it’s a case by case thing, I’ve met nice people and rude people in various areas.
I always say I am a Spanish speaker and can't speak English or say I have an interview at a Shanghai company in 2 weeks so I need to practice Japanese, but I can speak English to them after that...
@@aoeu256this guys using his big brain 😂😂😂
Cause we don't understand u. Cause u think u talk Japanese but u sound like English and it sounds so funny it's like a toddler trying to speak WE JUST DONTTT UNDERSTAND ITTT. And that guy sounds so cringe, guy at the end when he tries to speak Japanese I mean. It's a meme here. It's a character. Comedians here, use that character as American tourists also it sounds like they're gay, so yeah we laugh
@@TRUMPmyOSHI
Come visit Fukuoka next time!😄
だってほとんどの人たちは日本来ても普通の顔して英語で話しかけてくるんだもん！だから日本語使ってくれたらうれしくて驚いちゃうんだよ🌟
Almost visitors talk to us with not Japanese language! That’s why we get surprising when you guys start speaking Japanese suddenly. However we are very happy if you try speak Japanese even not fluently 🌟
でも言い方が明らかに悪意があるよ
"日本語でも大丈夫？😂"は完全に見下してるとしか思えない
Meanwhile, in Spain, if you just say "Buenos días" we already love you xD
Solo he visto España por Google Earth me gustaría un día ir de visita :) en mi país igual decimos "buenos días" y cuando alguien termina de comer y se retira del restaurante le decimos "buen provecho" es lindo 😁
lol if you’re from latam they tell you to go back to your country.
Dude I love Spain. Last time I visited, I got out of the car at like 10pm after a 22hr drive and three elderly spanish ladies that were walking back to their place from the beach immediately came up and started talking to me. No idea what they said but they had the warmest smiles.
Unless you’re from latam in which case alot of Spaniards will say racist shit lol
Spanish is most beautiful language in the world. ❤❤❤
When i went to japan for the first time i went to the beef bowl chain sukiya and asked a question in english and was told "i dont understand english in japanese " so i asked the same question in japanese ans she responed again "i dont understand english" again so i looked at her and laughed and said but is understand japanese. She stood there frozen, and then her coworker took over and apologized, i just thought of it as they never have been around a foreigner who understands, let alone is talking to them in thier native tongue.
I had a pretty fun time in japan. My only issue was that every time i was walking, people would actively avoid walking around or near me. Bags would change arms as if i wanted to take them right off their arms.
My favorite interaction was with a bus driver. On my last day there, i used the bus and over paied. i tried to tell the bus driver it was ok i wont be needing the money anymore im.not comming back. He took out his coin purse and gave me the difference (my change), and told me he hoped to see me another time.
I wonder if there is an accent. I mean, I'm sure there is. An Indian man was speaking in an English class, in English, but his accent was very thick, and it was in an area of Chicago they may not be familiar with that accent. The kids all kept asking what he was saying. It may sound rude, but it is just the way humans are sometimes, there's a loss in translation.
In all honesty, Americans do have a potato in the mouth and as a native Spanish speaker, if the person is just a beginner, can be quite hard to understand. Given the closeness of Japanese phonetics to ours I guess it will be the same for them.
W bus driver moment
Japan is a very pretty country, but, in my opinion, they are some of the most xenophobic/racist people in the world, same goes for South Koreans.
@@evr134this is the 2nd time I’ve read someone say this. What does this mean? I asked my native Spanish speaking father in law and he doesn’t know wtf it means “Americans sound like they have ball in the mouth”
As someone who’s trying to learn the language I’m paranoid that I sound like this 😂
When I was in Germany and mentioned to people that I'm from America, they wanted to speak English with me because they were excited to practice their English with a native speaker. Which I can understand, I jump at the opportunity to practice my German with someone who speaks the language (which is very rare where I live), but it sometimes got frustrating because I wanted some immersion to improve my language skills. They were a very polite people though, always happy that I was at least doing my best.
Yeah, that's a common thing. Just ask them to speak German with you next time. Most of us are happy to oblige.
I am an American that is fluent in German and this always makes me want to die
Exactly the same in Japan except people are more often scared to talk to you at all
Ich antworte nie auf Englisch, wenn ich auf deutsch angesprochen werde. Allerdings habe ich auch genug Gelegenheit, mein Englisch anzuwenden.
@@maximkretsch7134 das ist super. Du bist ein Held.
最近の日本(特に東京)は外国人観光客がかなり多いので、多くの日本人は日本語を話す外国人には好意的な対応をするでしょう。
逆に、日本人は日本国内で外国人が翻訳ソフトを使わずに「なぜ日本では英語が通じないの？」という態度をとることにうんざりしています。
My friend is half Latina and half German but she grew up in Japan, so she speaks Japanese fluently, and she said people would often ignore her or respond in English instead of Japanese when she spoke to them in Japanese.
that's like actually frustrating and I haven't experienced it, like if I just spoke to you in your native language.... why would you just like.. ignore it or .. y'know?? like wtf is your deal lmao
The interesting thing about that is, they don’t even know if she knows another language or not. They just assume English, but what if it was German, and those were the only languages she spoke?! Or only Japanese? The hate for foreigners even if no one is doing anything wrong is outrageous. I understand to an extent, but if they are someone trying to be polite as possible and follow your customs/ not actually foreign, there is zero reason
I follow a Japanese girl in tiktok who is half Japanese and half... Nigerian? Anyway, until recently, she ONLY spoke Japanese, and people would still talk to her in English in Japan as a child.
It's their polite way of saying, "You're not Japanese so speak another language". The older generation love it when you speak their native language.
@@jevonsims900 I hope they speak sign language because they're gonna catch these hands
Idk if anyone else has experienced this but when I was very beginner Japanese, using broken sentences and a mix of Japanese and English, people would respond like I wasn't a foreigner, using long complex sentences that would make me sweat buckets. However now I can speak it and understand very well they've suddenly decided that they want to speak English to me...I've been tempted lately to tell people I'm German and don't know any English.
Though, knowing Japanese people they would probably just start speaking perfect German to me lmao
They're terrible at German, don't worry about it. They won't attempt it.
I lived in Germany for 7 years. I eventually learned quite a bit of German, but would never say I was completely fluent. At the end of seven years I could definitely understand everything being said around me, would watch TV and movies in German, belonged to a Volksmarching club, and played semiprofessional American football on a German team in Bamburg. It was really hard for me to structure sentences together in German because the syntax is so different.
I lived in Schweinfurt the last 3 years I was in Germany (I’d lived in Berlin and Landstuhl previously, Franconia was my favorite of the 3 places I’d lived. At the time I lived in Schweinfurt, worked in Wurzburg, and played football in Bamburg) and had a really nice Italian restaurant about 3 blocks away I’d walk to at least once a week.
The menu was printed in German, and I’d go to order in German, and the guy that ran the place; whom was Italian said to me once “Just order in English, I’m Italian and can’t really understand your German…”
@@jackhaughthat is amazing, are you now back in Japan?? I'm German, really proud of you for keeping up with us for 7 years 😂 Liebe Grüße
"I'm German and don't know any English" is the most german thing to say with perfect grammar 😂
Well, idk if you vibe it, but what I do while living in China now is I warn us Europeans not to get soaked with Korean/Japanese/Chinese, cuz this is the way - specially for Chinese - to invade us 😢
As a flight attendant for over 25 years I know this happens everywhere when people don’t expect you to speak their language. It’s like a glitch. It even happened to me when I thought someone spoke English but in fact he spoke Dutch to me and I asked him to repeat himself 😅and Dutch is my native language.
Same! Also a flight attendant here and also speak dutch but the glitch never happened to me, it happened to other dutch Speaking people when I spoke to them haha. I'm good with languages and my brain switches fast so I guess it depends on who this happens to
@@Roxjetlagged that’s not a very kind thing to say to a colleague. Het is mij maar één keer overkomen hoor. Niet zo neer buigend!
@@carmenm.4091 huh? I was not insulting anyone. What are you talking about.
@@carmenm.4091 it was actually a fact. When you speak multiple languages (more than 2) because I speak 5 Fluently...it will likely not happen to you. Can't tell you number of times when Dutch pilots I've spoken to needed a moment or two to realize I was speaking in dutch 🤣 they only spoke dutch and English.
@@Roxjetlagged Sorry, dan heb ik je verkeerd begrepen. Het leek alsof je tegen mij zei in je laatste zin dat ik niet goed kan switchen tussen talen. Ben tweetalig opgevoed en doe mijn hele leven niet anders, dus dat kwam binnen.
The problem is you go to Japan without the understanding that in Japan they just speak Japanese
Nervous laughter is definitely a thing that is meant to be self-deprecating but is interpreted differently in Europe and the US, as if they are laughing at you, when actually they are laughing in embarrassment about themselves. Led to a loooot of misunderstandings in my mixed family.
I agree, nervous laughter is a thing. I didn't know people would think of it negatively in some places.
Nervous laughter is a thing everywhere though? I dont see a reason to laugh nervously in this scenario, she is at her job. She should've just given the direction
Agreed - I wouldn't get butt hurt at nervous laughter, deliberate rudeness is a different matter...
@@Easa-rx7ir forreal, sometimes i swear people act like japanese are whole other species like no, we are all human and even with cultural differences i think I'll be able to understand their feelings
Nope. Don’t get that in this instance. RUDE
I am Brazilian, went to a Brazilian restaurant, ordered in Portuguese, and the guy answered me in Japanese.
Putz kkkk
Mas por que o cara não respondeu em português?
@@poorme1art 知りませんね。
?!! This was at a Brazilian restaurant in Brazil?
@@musicfan300 No, a restaurant in Japan.
@@hcm9999I mean that's a very important context... They just hired a Japanese person to work there. No Portuguese required.
When some foreigners speaks in Our Native tongue we take pride and feel pleased to speak with him or her . Love from Northeast India. 🇮🇳
I know there's many languages in India. Do you mean Hindi or a different one? I love India - the culture there is so amazing!
@@smudge8882 Any
If you can speak to me in my native native language (which can be rare) i would be so thrilled. But equally if you spoke to me in Hindi too.
I totally agree. I feel so proud when I see a non-native speak Hindi. If I act surprised it is to encourage them for their hard work and consistency. I don't see how that would offend someone. Love to North East INDIA, from Goa, INDIA bro 🌊🐬🌴🐚 🇮🇳 Jai Hind.
Why just some specifically?
Lol you guys have like 100 languages😂
I get this but it is something you gonna have to live with. Lived in taiwan for a year and i spoke mandarin fluently as a southeast asian and i get those reactions like “wow you speak chinese?” And stuff and at first it kinda makes me happy to know that the effort of me learning it paid off and it gets a bit annoying getting it after 10x times but after 20x times you get used to it. It’s not rude it’s more of an acknowledgement like they are pleasantly surprised that you learn their language.
My Japanese teacher told me that Japanese people don't expect non-Japanese to speak their language so they get taken by surprise. He said it was best to give them a warning that you are going to speak in Japanese by starting your sentence with a long and quite loud 'ano..'
imagine being caught off guard by your own language lmao
@@call_megumi ig it does depend on where u live. here in aus since we multicultural we are cool with any language being thrown at us, though it seems for jap they are polar opposites
"My Japanese teacher told me that Japanese people don't expect non-Japanese to speak their language so they get taken by surprise" Please tell me this is a quote from the 18th century.
@@_sparrowhawkit’s really not that surprising honestly, it’s not just a Japanese thing, it’s any bilingual speaking country outside english-speaking ones, especially in Asia that can relate to this. You could watch vlogs of foreign travellers that can speak multiple languages and very often the people around them are shocked when they suddenly start speaking their own language.
But tbh. I see this only happen with japanese people, I love Japan but I don't get why most people basically refuse to speak with someone who speaks it perfectly or flyent enough. J don't see that happen with Korea, China, Arab countries, etc
In Lithuania I bought the same kind of cigarette every day at the same kiosk from the same two shop assistants. I tried asking for it in English, in Lithuanian and in Russian. For 3 months they pretended that they didn't understand me. Honestly, I'm sure, that they know what I wanted even without asking (the same smokes, every day), but they still wanted me to feel unwelcomed! 🤷🏼♀️
Probably because you’re Russian, and not welcome?
Was it a racial thing? I'm sorry brother, I'm from rural Slovakia, and I can imagine the same thing happening in my hometown for example. I hope you liked the place tho. Sorry for the ignorance
@@hegyeske1 It was a racist thing, I'm sure! They were mean to me, they acted weird, they pointed at 5 different smokes before they pretended to understand. But hell, I asked for 'LD blue', what is literally written on the box! (and one of them pointed at 'Kent silver', than 'Marlboro Red'... Nothing close to the 'blue LD'...) 🤷🏼♀️
And thanks for asking, I hated every minutes of staying there! 😔
Sorry you were treated poorly. and I agree with you, they are not nice.
@@lmTheMinkI would start showing them picture of the pack on the phone, so they stop pretending to be idiots))
I’m in my 2nd year of self studying this Language.This definitely boosted my will to learn it more….definitely…
Many people are Not prepared to hear another language they dont expect. Starting with a hello in their language usually helps in that way. That has been my experience
Why
@@JmKrokY because they dont expect it
@@JmKrokYit's like a boot disk for the brain.
Yeah, this is very much it.
I have been abroad and heard my own native language (swedish) and it was so unexpected that for a bit it just sounded like gibbrish.
"Hey" is definetly a reboot.
Also sometimes if service staff is super tired, the .exe crashes.
Have a friend who speaks mainly english, if I follow him at a shop in the afternoon it will not matter how clear my swedish is, they will speak english.
Cultures are different. You’re most likely to get this type of reaction as shown in the video in Japan, but for example in Spanish speaking countries it’s the opposite. And this comes from personal experience… so really, it just depends on the places you’re going to.
When I visited in ‘18 everybody I attempted to speak Japanese with was very polite. One of them even knew some English and asked how long I’d been learning and I said I’ve been learning on the internet for 6 months, practicing at home by myself. She seemed so happy about it 😅 and said my pronunciation is great, especially with no instructor. It was very sweet.
I lived in Japan for a few years and can't recall having any any experiences like this either. A lot of people are shy or nervous at first, but once they realize you can speak at least basic Japanese they're usually excited to talk.
pls I need tips... How'd you learn japanese by yourself on the internet? Im doing that too right now, but it's a little difficult, you know?
@@RosesAreDead_0 I used japanesepod101! First I learned my hiragana and katakana (plus the words they teach during those lessons). I would pause the videos and make flash cards. Then during my work breaks I would quiz myself. After I got 100% on the flash cards from a specific lesson I moved onto the next lesson. I always kept all the flash cards in my deck though, so I was retaining the previous lessons too. I hope this helps!
Thank you! Thats very helpful ^^
Also, does japanesepod101 teach you the difference between casual japanese and polite japanese? Also, does it teach kanji?@@rachel4339
Yes.. I'm English.. was in Japan until I was eight and then worked there most of my twenties. Japanese people were unfailingly kind and welcoming. I heard plenty of racism and bigotry.. from westerners towards Japanese people not the other way around!
I was in Japan doing a language summer program (mind you i've been learning Japanese for over 8 years) and i went out to dinner with like 7 ppl, where half of us looked very foreign (two latino guys, one black person, one white person) and two ppl were half-Japanese and one guy was fully Korean. Of course, the waiter kept asking the Korean guy (the most "Asian-looking" of all of us) what we wanted, even though he was the one who knew basically no Japanese and the two half-Japanese ppl and i are basically fluent.... And everyone at that table (except the Korean guy) were capable of ordering their food in Japanese, so we all proceeded to do so... The waiter was very shocked when the Korean guy struggled the most to order smth and asked us for guidance, we all cheered him on when he got it right but goddam was it a funny experience...
On a separate occasion, with people from the same group, I tried to translate something at UNIQLO bc they basically accused my friend of stealing, but they told me they "don't speak English and they will call the employee who speaks English" even though I was speaking Japanese to them. Sure, i was flustered so I'm sure my Japanese wasn't perfect but when the person who spoke English showed up, I ended up explaining the same thing I did to the previous people in Japanese and somehow she understood. I don't know why it took an English-speaking Japanese person to understand me in Japanese but that was an even weirder experience...
I think part of these "prejudiced" attitudes come from folks who have been ingrained with the thought of defending their Culture by all means and not welcoming foreigners so much to the point they might end settling themselves up over there. Sounds offensive, I do know, but it's a mix of collective insular mindset along with Fears of being "invaded" even though they also invaded other lands over History. Furthermore the "Empire" territory is not so huge to store much more Immigrants.
@@monimonica9529 No no I actually now exactly what you mean what you're talking about very closely resembles the "Nihonjinron" ideology that developed after WWII. It's super interesting, I did a research paper abt it and its basically exactly what you said!
Probably because of your accent. You must be very proud of your language skills but sometimes you just must admit that you have an accent. English speaking Japanese person was able to register it. Others might not. It also happened with me when I tried to speak English in American bank. They promptly suggested me to wait for the employee who spoke my language. It happened once. So, just be realistic.
I'm originally from SouthEast Asia. Sometimes, in a situation like that, I speak for Southeast Asia at least, if they misunderstood you for whatever reason (nothing to do with your fluency), they can appear to their colleagues as careless and inattentive if there was another colleague more 'appropriate' to deal with the situation. Basically, If they misunderstood your perfect Japanese, no amount of them saying: 'she's fluent, my fault!' is going to stop their boss from saying: 'Why didn't you get so and so to deal with the client?'. This could be doubly embarrassing...
@@monimonica9529 why is prejudiced in quotation marks? Are you implying it wasnt prejudiced?
Just because Japan has invaded kther countries, that doesnt mean they deserve to be invaded by third world countries. Japan is a beautiful country and it will only continue to stay that way if it stays japanese.
Japan doesnt have room for any immigrants
I will never EVER make people feel ashamed of. ❤
Oh, this brings back memories of when I lived in Japan! It's funny, in America, we assume that everyone speaks English and are surprised when they don't. Whereas in Japan it's the opposite and they expect that people who don't look Japanese don't speak it and are surprised when they do! Sometimes the initial shock has to wear off before they can recognize a gaijin is indeed speaking Japanese.
America is more diversed in population so it’s normal for people in a lot of ethnicity to live in america but there’s not as many westerner living in japan so they immediately assume that doesn’t look japanese=tourist
Depends were you live in the US really. States like AZ, NV, NM, and TX were there's a lot of Spanish speakers you'll find a lot of Americans learning Spanish as well. Comes in handy for those freshly self imported Central Americans that don't speak English at all.
@SternLX I live in Arizona and I've been learning Spanish almost a year, but even here, where we have lots of Spanish speakers, people assume you speak English. That said, if you speak only Spanish, this is probably one of the best states for you to be in, since there is usually someone who speaks Spanish in every store, restaurant, etc. But if you only speak Japanese, good luck!
Lmao only in America people assume everyone in the world speaks their language 😂😂😂
@@eirschu8973Excuse me?! THEIR language?!?!
They learned their language AND their smug sense of entitled superiority from us, thank you very much! 😂🇬🇧
As an American of Korean descent who emigrated to the US at the age of 6, whenever I speak my first language of Korean to a Korean in America, I get spoken back in English; always felt like a slap in the face. I try not to let it bother me too much.
Speak english thats why also english is your first language if you came at 6
For me It's because I'm embarrassed of my poor Korean language skills 😢 sorry!
Shut up@@Joe-bh5ou
@@Joe-bh5ou Do you think they spoke no language before they were 6 years old? Do you know what "first" means?
They speak english in America thats why. Don’t lose sleep over it
I totally relate. This happened to me while I was there back in the 90s. .. I was ordering food at a restaurant speaking Japanese, and the waitress kept on asking what else I wanted to my Japanese friends. It’s crazy.
To some, foreigners are invisible there.
That means your japanese was bad. Your friend used to listen yours but they were not. Plus if they did take wrong order, it could be problem for them.
@@syjka1535 not necessarily, in the UK we do just fine understanding the crazy broken English that's thrown about now. Japanese people are just xenophobic as a majority
Just accept that every country has racists.
@@syjka1535NO. It could be perfect pronunciation and they still pretend they don’t understand. If it hasn’t happened to you just wait. Or you’ve never lived in Japan.
I don't mind if people are surprised that I can speak the local language
I think it's kind of cute the way they respond
My Fil was in the Canadian Air Force and stationed overseas. He tried to buy milk for his family, but the clerk acted like they didn't understand. He went away, learned how to swear and went back. They laughed and sold him the milk! 😂
"Oi teme, gyunyu doko ga aru"
As a Japanese, I do tend to not understand certain words spoken by the English, if there is a pronunciation difference. Or accent, however you’d like to call it. Here in Osaka, with whoever I talk, we have a similar or exact accent, as we got taught that way, so we built a habit. But when the English, that speak Japanese fluently, ask me a question, I get incredibly confused for a few words, even if they pronounced it correctly. Ive never been outside of Osaka, so I don’t know how is it like for others, but I sincerely struggle at some point, so I try to speak English with them.
(I am always so surprised to hear people knowing Japanese so fluently, and I am more than grateful to be able to share the language with foreigners. I will try my best from now on to understand the accent difference, and speak Japanese with you all properly
You seem very sweet 🥰
Thank you 😌💕
@@TRUMPmyOSHI My pleasure
@@kimberlywilson7929 So do you !!
@@saennnx 😊💕
Just yesterday i was speaking to a lady in spanish and she said, "no entiendo engles", turned to my coworker carlos, and he repeated what i said in spanish, word for word. I even got the grammar 100%.
I said, "i know im pretty out of it today, but i was speaking spanish, right?"
Sometimes people dont expect it! Lol
*ingles
This happened to me but the lady said “I don't speak your language” and my mom had to ask for me
Weird thing is I'm Mexican too??? And speak fluent Spanish???
I look a bit racially ambiguous I think but still???
@@nakimushi3881 Must be a brain glitch thing ;) Happens to a Scottish friend all the time.
It could be the accent. As foreigners we do not understand that we have a thick accent speaking a foreign language but it may not be understandable for them even if the grammar is correct.
As a Spanish speaker working as a waiter for now, sometimes foreigners think they are speaking good Spanish but it's actually very difficult to understand them 😅 Sometimes it's even difficult to get that they are supposedly speaking Spanish 😅
Edit: you even said "engles" when it's actually "inglés".
She might not have laughed AT you but she could be laughing because she was happy to hear Japanese unexpectedly. (Happy laughter).
I get that a lot as a Chinese American who speaks spanish with a Mexican accent. Spanish speakers will glitch and try to talk back to me in broken English still because they don’t register that I’m speaking fluent spanish to them
Exactly. They're not being rude, their brain is in "try to understand English" mode. Although we have a significant Asian population in Latin America, Asian people usually work hard and keep to themselves so people still feel surprised when they see an Asian person speak Spanish. Just like I'm sure a Chinese person would be surprised to see my brown self speaking in a Chinese dialect.
I've found myself trying to understand a video in English and I can't understand a worrrrd, I think I'm having a stroke and then I figure out it's in another language 💀
its ok, i was listening to a clerk and the person in front of me in line speak spanish. i understand Spanish enough to understand context.
he was completely bad at it to where even i could tell. too fast, broken and didnt even sound like he was completing his words like he was drunk.
complete gibberish but they kept going so i guess by some miracle they understood what he was trying to say.
I had this happen at work. Was asking someone questions in Spanish, then she would look at her partner to "translate" because I'm white, and he stared back at her, waiting for her to respond. She said "I don't understand English". He said "good thing it wasn't English..." She still refused to answer until he repeated, literally, verbatim, what I said.
Nice Fan Fic
@@rachaelhill6 she's racist at that point
His face spoke English, she couldn't hear what she saw.
Underrated synesthetic comment
this is somehow makes sense
thats perfect 😁😂
You are very right 👍👍👍
The brain didn't expect it ever, then the brain goes into an illusion and we should help them to come back to their consciousness...
Yes exactly, her brain was expecting English but when he spoke Japanese it didn't make sense. The exact same thing happened to me many years ago in Korea, a Korean man said his name was Prince but I couldn't understand the word even though he pronounced it perfectly, three or four times he repeated it and eventually I realised he was speaking English haha OMG I was shocked that I had been unable to understand him for those few moments.
This happens to me frequently in Thailand. I will order in very clear Thai, but the server will often look confused and repeat my order back while looking at my wife. My wife will then turn to me and ask "is that right?" in Thai and I'll say "yep" and the server will then finally acknowledge me. It doesn't happen every time and it's really not a big deal. They are mentally preparing themselves to speak English with you and are simply caught off guard when you speak their language, so it takes them a moment to re calibrate.
I am not sure if it is rude. When speaking in another language other than your mother tongue sometimes it sounds different and can be hard to understand by the natives especially if you are not very fluent . The accents also make a difference. You may have an English accent kinda but speaking another language and it sounds really different/incorrect. Sometimes it sounds like a whole separate language.
@@KGPS-ye2bu I'm a fluent speaker, they understand me perfectly. That's what's funny. They understand every word out of my mouth but they act as if it's not happening, like somehow the words spilled out of my mouth on accident. It's definitely not rude, they're just surprised
@@KGPS-ye2buif they're repeating it back at the wife, they've understood it
I don’t speak Japanese except for few basic words like Arigato, Sumimasen, etc. I never faced this at all. Even Japanese who don’t speak English responded to me with gestures and Google translate and few basic English words. And whenever I was lost for directions and if a Japanese person found me trying to find way. Even without me asking for it, they used to come and help me.
Weird. When a foreigner speaks in perfect English to an American, we don’t even question.
Well duh. Because America (and Canada Australia and the UK) have all become such multicultural countries thanks to colonialism. Literally looks around you, you can see people from at least 5 different ethnicities if you just look down the street. If you go to Japan, 99% of the people will look Japanese.
Put a border between an international language and national one 😂
Ehh kinda not the same thing
Unless that foreigner happens to actually BE ENGLISH - then you tell us we're speaking it wrong! 😂
No, but you ignore them, or give them dirty looks.
I worked at a family owned traditional Chinese takeout on a college campus and most of the clientele were Chinese students studying abroad here in America. There were alot of special orders that were off menu and had little to no translation so I spent a whole year learning to take food orders in Chinese. The Chinese staff would help me learn more when it was slow so when it was busy, it always felt like a test. When a Chinese customer calls in to make a food order they speak in Chinese and don’t even pause before giving their order so when I would repeat their order back to them in Chinese they would immediately stop me and ask if anyone spoke Chinese. And when I told them they are busy they would get would either tell me they’ll wait or just hang up and come in personally. Every time they waited, one of the Chinese staff would look at the phone and hang up on them saying that my Chinese isn’t bad, they’re just being unreasonable. A few of our regulars were very kind and would even help me learn new words. And the one time it really helped was when a girl came in and she looked stressed and tired, didn’t even look up at me when she ordered. So when I repeated the order back to her, she finally looked up and was surprised and happy and told me my pronunciation was very good. I couldn’t speak a lot but she appreciated that I made the effort so I could understand her. That was a very unique experience for me and it made me realize how important it is to make the extra effort to connect with others, especially those that are in a foreign country and are looking for a semblance of familiarity. Of course I could’ve been like the many others that were rude about wanting to speak exclusively Chinese, but then I never would’ve been able to experience how it felt to be a foreigner in another world and learn to connect with them
it's kind of disturbing how many came into a foreign country with racist intent/attitude and views.
There's is just so much wrong about that.
I however would be very very happy when someone wants to learn my native language even when they are trying. Sometimes it's the accent that they speak that it's difficult to understand. I speak Dutch and i know some chinese in my country or vietnamese knows to speak some dutch words and i feel so at awe. Once i went to a supermarket and spoke another language to the chinese guy at the cashier and he spoke in fluent dutch i was so shocked i was like wow amazing!
I like that you brought awareness to this because not everyone likes that you can understand their language 😂😂 I remember some French girls gossiping about my friend and they were shocked when she replied back to them in French
Happened to my brother in Turkey. He went for a vacation with a friend to Istanbul he was sitting in a park with his friend and a couple started talking badly about them in French the whole time.. One of them dropped her wallet he picked it up and gave it to her she said ''Merci''.. He answered ''De rien''.. So they started fast walking because they were so embarrassed 😂😂😂
this is what I do when people gossip about me in italian not knowing it’s one of my first languages😂
@@areyoukirringmeirriyaa👀 how do you have more than one first language?
@@sub7se7enmeaning, they speak more than on language. Italian being their mother tongue.
@@areyoukirringmeirriyaaI'm learning Italian rn!😁 it's fun!
Ha ... same for me and my wife in Shanghai, when we order food they talk to her but I answer in Chinese instead. Somehow the brain short circuits until they realize looks and language doesn't always match ...
I'm white, lived in Japan for years, and speak Japanese fluently. As a part of my role there, I frequently had to speak with people I had never met before. I think the experiences described in the video are often blown out of proportion. I definitely had similar encounters, but they were really rare in comparison to the many people who just acted pretty normally. The negative instances just tend to stand out a lot more vividly in our memories.
It’s just a skit based on awkward or funny things that happen to gaijin
Do you have any tips for learning Japanese?
Even if the scenes described are true i found stupid to feel that ofended.
The overall culture decides what is rude not some individual foreigner. That's my opinion anyway.
@@sebastianmosqueda5959 Learn the 100 most commonly used words. Learn sentence structure. A lot of it is just committing to memorizing a bunch of words and then where to put them. Also, a little bit of cultural things like not using "I" or "My". Usually its assumed you're referring to yourself.
What happens to me a lot is when I ask a question, the server or staff will answer the question to the Japanese person I’m with instead of to me.
Just use your hands to narrow your eyes then repeat the question.
@@chucknutly3290🤣
@@chucknutly3290 It is foolish to go to that country yourself and act in a discriminatory manner.
@@miles2706 Not when you're there by invitation of the Yakuza. If I felt disrespected myself they would expect me to let it be known.
It seems to me that in LATAM we are the only ones to be happy when a foreigner speaks or at least tries to speak in Spanish. If someone takes the time to learn your language you should be happy, showing that that person at least is interested in your culture.
Yes of course You are the only ones
@humor1012 Es la razón por eso porque como el norte de América LATAM tienen mucha diversidad? (Lo siento si alguno no tiene razón aún aprendiendo español 😅)
I know some basic Spanish because of the community I grew up in but am terrified of speaking it because I just know that I sound like Peggy Hill lmao
@@Jovisstfan this comment section is full of people saying that they do that
@@gingeralice3858 and having the ability to laugh at yourself is going to make you a lot of friends
I went to school in Japan for a year and was learning more of the language. Got told to use it more in public (which I tried) and almost everyone apart from some lovely elderly folks would just reply back in English and it was a huge slap in the face 🙃
However me and my husband did get to have lovely chats with a sweet nan and pop who owned a little eatery near our place. So that was something 🥹
As someone learning Chinese and Japanese that's a bit scary to read. Like I dont want to fly there to embarrass myself
Because of Covid for my Advanced Intermediate Japanese class in college we got to do a video chat with Japanese college students. Its hard having a conversation with three other people let alone in a different language but the two girls idk why kept laughing/ignoring me everytime I tried to speak and ask them questions. The only dude was actually nice and understood that I was still learning. But once I asked if we could switch to English(they were taking an English class and our professors said that we could switch to English after 20 minutes) it was complete silence. Going to school with a lot of students having English as a second language I don't understand bashing someone trying to speak your language.
probably they don't speak English, i don't know the % but japanese doesn't know english, but yeah that feeling is horrible.
so rude
@@SukMadik-papuThey were learning English just like I was learning Japanese. Their professor wouldn't tell them to switch to English if she didn't think they could speak it. I'm by no means fluent but at least I tried.
@@imapotato7391 They were so rude (I'm not going to deny it), but I still thinking they didn't know English, English classes are bad, they only teach basic stuff. Only the people like me who try hard and put hours into learning English are the only ones who can speak English (I'm Mexican)
Maybe they laughed because you feel inclined to refer to your japanese class as “advanced intermediate”
I’m currently in Japan and i haven’t experienced anything really like this. People do naturally assume I don’t speak Japanese, and when I do speak it they’re often taken aback and very happy. That’s also what I think happened to the 2nd guy in the video and the Starbucks employee.
Our brains do often play tricks that if we assume that someone speaks another language it might seem that they aren’t speaking our language, but in the months i’ve been here, I have yet to experience such a thing.
Edit: I’m white, have blonde hair and blue eyes so it’s not like they think I’m Japanese lol
Out of curiosity, where in Japan are you staying?
the guy in the video is born and raised in japan, different context
Same. I would speak Japanese but almost every response is in English lol I'm no expert or polyglot but I found it hilarious and am still checking my inflection for flaws.
@@kurootsuki3326wait he was born and raised in Japan yet he's still not used to japanese people being surprised when a foreigner speaks fluent japanese? If a foreigner casually spoke my native tongue, id be pretty surprised too.
Only blessed or ignorant don’t get this treatment.
it's not rude, some Japanese are just shy to speak to foreigners.
In the Philippines, laughing is more of a "you’re cute" for speaking my language. " they’re tickled that you know it, not laughing at you.
You think a 30 year old guy couldn't tell a difference between those? Wtf
attention seeker
he's native, he knew and was insulted
I think the repetition of what you said was less done to make fun of you, more done out of pure surprise and amazement
100%. It’s not rude it’s more of a compliment and happiness
It was 100% rude. She completely ignored him and asked his friend. He didn't speak English and that's what she said she didn't speak. For all she knew, he was french.
She treated a foreign speaker as English even though he spoke Japanese. Stop these excuses, it's pathetic honestly
Some people are in awkward situations and don't know how to express themselves. We can't always be sure what's going on in someone's thoughts, so let's not judge too harshly and swiftly. As far as laughing at the man in the video, there could have been another reason. I've seen people do videos where they surprisingly speak a foreign language very well, and the other person greets him with kindness. Sometimes folks hear horrible rumors and they don't always know what to , especially when it comes to Americans. Interactions are very complex and we can't rush an assessment when we don't have scientific facts to back up our suspicions.
“Lady, you’re not supposed to do that” 😂😂
That guy was born and lived most of his life in Japan so I’m sure this hurts him even more because it probably happens to him a lot. 😞
🤣🤣🤣 guy is a Karen. The japanese probably laughed cause he/she didnt expect him to speak Japanese. A harmless laugh holy fck.
@@MelissaJetztHe should expect it. He acts like every japanese should know he speaks japanese 🤣🤣🤣 what a male karen.
@@MelissaJetzt also its look unprofesional and disrrspecting. such a shame japan
@GoGodman they respect you but also not really. They like to hide the negative things about you or me most of the time
As a Japanese person, I have to say that this is very common around us. We tend to be afraid to talk to foreigners because we are not confident in our communication skills, (to person that we think we can’t communicate with because of their appearance) even if they speaks Japanese. I apologize for your strange experience in Japan. I love speaking English with people from other countries❤
This comment coming from a Japanese person makes no sense and is a bit of an eye opener into their illogical mindset. Japanese people don't want to talk to none-Japanese looking people (who speak to them in Japanese) because they aren't confident in their own English speaking ability. They then go onto say they love speaking English even though the topic is about non-Japanese people speaking Japanese to Japanese people. They simply don't get it and probably never will. Hilarious 😂
Its ok ! I like japanese people ! It is common ! Not able to speak english is totally fine ! english is such a overrated
At least make a kiosk or sth. What's all the high-tech japan fantasy all about
Hi! im learning japanese. Im from Argentina Can you help me improve my lenguage?
@@dulcedeinvierno1 quiero tambien 😊
In my experience, people are always shocked when a foreigner speaks their language fluently. It's a great feeling to see their surprise and admiration.
I also don't get why you would be offended that they giggle or find it funny when they don't expect you to speak the language but you do.
The point made by the white guy in the second half of the video is obviously shaped by the American perspective that no assumption must be made about anyone based on ethnicity, skin color, background, nationality, whatever. But guess what, humans are curious and inquisitive by nature and sometimes they'll just find it amusing that you look like a British person and yet you speak fluent Japanese. There is no malice in it, there is no intent to disparage you, so why react with this dumb 'lady, you are not supposed to do that' attitude.
Not in France, their they expect you to speak french, if not they can be rude about it
They're always complaining about how they're treated in Japan , while never wanting to leave ...... I don't effin get it !
I was on the other side once. In an airport I was asked by a staff member if I am traveling alone, but she asked me in German so she repeated the word “alleine” and all I could understand was “a line” because I wasn’t expecting someone in Sri Lanka to speak German with me😬 my brain just couldn’t comprehend it and it took a lot of back and forth until I finally got it… Idk if she just wanted to be nice or if she wanted to test me if my passport is real and that I’m German, because if it’s the latter I almost failed the test😅 I still feel bad because I probably made her feel like her German was bad
Sounds like she was testing if you were German and/or spoke Deutsch. Tricky! Eine sehr Gut Arbeit from her ! 🧐 (mein Vater war Schweizer aber mein Deutsch ist nicht Gut & Genug). Ich liebe Englisch.
I know what you mean, my husband often beings colleagues from all over the world, Libya, Brazil, India ect. I speak decent English so that's not a problem. But when in the midst of a conversation, and one of our kids asks me something on German, my brain goes "....." until it kicks into gear again and properly reverts back from English to German. 🤭🤭👍👍
the only way that couldve happened if you forgot some of your native language because you were in another country or something and almost only spoke another language
check with your doctor@@koppsr
I get this when my mum comes over and speaks Spanish with me and I have to switch back and forth with my bf, but I feel like the instances in the video were quite different and mean on purpose
Yes, that's a very strange feeling. Someone made me feel like that at the Schiphol Airport. But in my main language 😢 I am Portuguese and while at the line in a coffe shop, I listened this girl talking portuguese to her phone. Ok. When it was my time to pay, I asked for "A coffe, please." (In Portuguese) and she pretend to not know the language and asked me to say it in English. What I did... But I lost my "coffee desire" 😅 What a strange feeling, indeed.
Where I am there are many "English only" workplaces. You are only allowed to speak English and the phone call was probably a personal one.
Though at the airport that doesn't exactly make sence.
Maybe she is learning Portuguese and was talking to the phone for the lesson on sound...maybe...
❤️🤣 _I still get people making feel weird about speaking English even though it’s my native language. Btw- you are truly motivational. I’m basic conversational Mandarin, Spanish, Hindi, Arabic because of you._
"making feel weird" and English is your native language? Sure.
@@gomertube Implied joke which requires a sense of humor I guess.
Oh you mean you're funny rather than mean-spirited?@@karatekidakakatelyn8114
I’m so glad my videos are motivating you!
@@gomertubetypo, get over it.
Instead of being impressed by him speaking fluent Japanese, she disrespects him!
As an American who went to university in a city, it is *wild* to me that people get surprised or confused by people speaking languages they don't "look like" they should speak. I've heard so many languages coming out the mouths of so many different kinds of people, I would always just roll with it.
However, related, there was one incident when I was working in a convenience store in college where a gentleman came up to me and asked a question in Italian. I gave him a very blank stare and he said, in English, "you don't speak Italian???" When I said no, he scoffed and kept talking in Italian while I continued to stare at him. Finally he said, "you're really not Italian?" and when I said no, he laughed, shook his head and walked out. I am Irish and Polish by descent, I don't look Italian at all.
Don't confuse a migrant country of the USA to the old world with proper cultures, traditions, languages and very distinctive looks.
@@Bosolevu I am, pretty explicitly, not confusing the two. That is why I opened my entire comment with, "As an American." My whole point was that this is not something that happens in our country so I never thought about the fact that it happens in other places.
@@Bosolevu..... what ???
@@cranberryjuice8740 He's the typical hateful bigot. You have to ignore these people.
@@BosolevuYou speak with forked tongue
Soooo relatable. I'm half Filipino but I look white and that's how they treat me too. From their perspective they are enjoying the interaction and are surprised and enjoyed that they heard you speak Japanese but from our perspective you just laughed at us and we don't understand why so it feels very rude because we don't understand the joke
Ohhhh my!!! You look like my Colombian friend 😊
that is so weird i really don’t get why people do that
i live in the university area in turkey and there are lots of foreign students here. they surely have an accent because they’ve been learning turkish for like 3 years max and not actively studying it at that (turkish is quite hard, i admire them!) when they talk to me i always understand and i bet other turkish people do to because it’s not like they are talking gibberish lol
No, they're genuinely racist, you apparently don't know any Japanese people
@@mmuo372racism
I was in high school in America & i speak fluent tagalog. I was running to get picked up after school & 2 filipino students were laughing at me while saying “keep running like that you gona fall” i turned around & spoke to them in tagalog & they were so embarrassed.
I had the opposite experience. When I was in Japan, service workers were thrilled when I spoke in Japanese. I guess it depends on the person
Yeah! So do I! I watch these videos just saying bad experiences from people, but in these 3 years and half I've been living in here and as soon as I speak japanese to them, they feel surprised and happy and start asking many questions like: why is your japanese so good?? How many years have you been living in Japan?? No awkward reaction or rudeness, never!
@@juliemorimoto1370 I love that for you! Are you teaching English there? That’s something I’ve wanted to do for years, but it never panned out.
Thank you so much! yes, I've been teaching english here although I'm not native speaker, my English is better than average japanese teachers 😅😅 so I could get a job. But actually, I moved out to Japan because I got married to a japanese guy 😊
The same for me. Instead, these people of the video, like so many foreign bloggers in Japan, get that kind of response because they have a weird attitude towards Jaoanese people. Actually they love to provoke Japanese people just for the sake of making sensacionalist content in their videos.
Yeah, been in Japan over 10 years, the only time I’ve ever seen this happen is in skits done by these Japan blogger people.
That’s not to say that it never happens, but I’ve never seen it in over 10 years
I had that same experience as a blk woman out her in LA while speaking spanish... They don't want you to be a part of their culture, but they love mine.
My English mother-in-law used to ask my husband whether I wanted tea etc. For context I speak with a fairly posh Edinburgh accent 🤣
That's just ordinary passive-aggressiveness.
@@gomertube , depending how you say it. It could also be just innocent teasing.
I'm from the United States and most people here do not understand people from the United Kingdom.
As an American, the Scottish accent is the hardest to understand in the UK. I had my uncle driving me around Edinburgh. I literally thought he was speaking of foreign language. Just my foreign ears.
No one cares about your posh accent Lorna stop trying to impress everyone it's tacky.
As a foreigner in India, i know how this feels. However, not everyone has the intention to mock. Some simply just was too shocked or surprised for their brain to register what u just said. Others are simply just not having the brain capacity (like literally, not saying this to insult), cud be the difference in accent or tone or just the fact that they never thought its possible for a foreigner to speak such fluent language of their own. I believe to give the benefit of doubt first and then judge last. After all theres no point in judging a stranger who u met for a few moments if they aren’t going to be in your life no more.
Yeah I think this is part of it, where even if someone becomes fluent, when you go to another place there are tiny details in pronunciation or tone that someone whose brain hasn't heard a lot of foreign languages kinda just tunes out what was just said unintentionally. Different languages use different parts of the brain so I imagine hearing different languages probably works different parts of the brain as well, and someone not accustomed to that probably will need much more exposure to adjust
Yeah the dude is just insecure and wanted some clout for it
@@banyanyas839yeah glad someone else can see it
what's the Indian situation? btw different regions are different so if you go north east maybe you'll experince a different cultures there.
In india I can understand as in india English is becoming go to language most people can speak and understand..but in Japanese they only talk in Japanese so in india is very rare someone speaks on Hindi as it's not necessary but in Japan it is necessary to learn japanese so if any foreignee starts speaking Japanese I think this cannot be surprising
The Starbucks barista laughed out of embarrassment and confusion. In the West we're punished as small children if we laugh upon being scolded, and we learn very quickly not to laugh from embarrassment but it's a natural reaction, actually.
I suspect this as well. She's involuntarily laughing from the slight short circuit her brain made in that moment. Very similar to when you hear the punchline to a joke; the unexpected twist releases endorphins.
You think a grown ass man couldn't differentiate between a laugh brone out of embarrassment and a laugh intended as mocking? Where's ur head at.
@@woutertronwas typing this very thing--same circuit as comedy! Though with different details as to the "setup", but close enough. cheers!
@@maxien101Is likely just hard to deal with it his entire life: by descent he's not Japanese but by place of birth and experience (thus, ethnically) he very much is, and he's been dealing with this daily his entire life.
They are not trying to be rude but they are in awe and humbled by your effort to have learned to speak their language.
I recently moved to a village on the outskirts of Tokyo and the people here are super nice and helpful. I don't speak Japanese yet (I'm studying) and my son has also recently started studying Japanese and they treat him very well at school. Many people take care of us and accompany us around, letting their children play with mine. If I don't understand something, they all pull out their phones to translate what they are saying. It`s a world of friendliness and respect. J'adore
It goes both ways, Im not Japanese but Im Asian and while walking with my niece in Japan a White couple started talking shit about her not knowing Im from the US. I turned around and asked him if he wanted to fight and he shut up real quick😂
Exactly. White people don’t understand how common this is even in the usa
I did this once in a club in Taiwan as well
damn, that escalated quickly 😂
😭😭 be glad he wasn't one of the crazy Americans, bc he def wouldve taken you up on that offer if he was!
@@sleepy.timaeus.arts. He would have unfortunately gotten the Johnny Somali treatment
@@sleepy.timaeus.arts. Considering Im American and pretty good size for an Asian standing at 6ft 230 pounds I think I could stand my ground. He prob thought I didnt understand him and his girlfriend and was surprised when I called him out on his bullshit
I have literally had this exact experience. Mostly there were no problems but I recall a crazy experience where I (white but I speak Japanese) walked into a restaurant and asked for a table for X number of people. They kept ignoring me and looking at my friend behind me who is Taiwanese American. They couldn’t hear me over the deafening sound of my white face.
As an aside, even though elderly Japanese sometimes use outdated/offensive language without realizing it, generally if I spoke Japanese they spoke back normally. If this happened it was almost always with younger people.
What I want everyone who wants to come and enjoy Japan to know is that many Japanese people have a tendency to laugh to hide their embarrassment or when they are nervous, and it is not an action that they are doing to be rude to you, but a desire to be as friendly as possible, even in a nervous situation.
This may seem very strange to those who are not familiar with Japanese culture. However, if you keep this in mind, your trip to Japan will be much more enjoyable.
I bet if you told the waitress “Fine, I’ll take my money elsewhere,” that she’d suddenly understand you.
Except that she was not being deliberately rude! Her brain needed time to adjust to the concept that a foreigner spoke Japanese!
I see more in him being deliberate in trying to shock her without preparing her! She was shocked and her brain shut down!
That’s what many of these bilingual TH-camrs do, trying to shock the natives without giving any consideration not time for the native speaker to make a mental adjustment!
Those natives that have had experiences with the Japanese-speaking foreigners would respond faster! Those that have not had such previous experiences, take a while to adjust mentally!
@@lenitaa7938, yeah, that is all BS noise. it is disrespectful and deliberate. i barely have experience with people who speak the languages i do not. when i do, shutting down and acting like i cannot understand their english, for example, is not apart of the protocol.
@@lenitaa7938not you justifying blatant rudeness.
@@larryANDlaurent whoever made the comment before you is an idiot
@@lenitaa7938that’s complete bs
In my language Tamil when a foreigner speaks in Tamil even if it is totally broken, we think it is cute and love the fact the fact they are trying hard to learn it so we respect that
As a Filipino, we’re always amazed of foreigners speaks fluently of our language.
I wish I could, but I always seem to either miss a word, or mess up the grammar. Nagsasalita lang ako ng kaunting Tagalog, or something like that...
Suprised is normal, Dont say it rude, rude
When I was in Japan, I noticed that the people anticipated your ignorance. When you show the opposite, they are taken back and at times seem disappointed that you're not what they assumed. It's part of their cultural arrogance. 🤔
Cultural arrogance is when most visitors expect the locals to communicate in English and eventually the locals learn to expect what most visitors expect, a very few visitors who behave unexpectedly surprise the locals, and then you say "Oh, it's their arrogance."
and ignorance. Most times you pretend you don't know and when they end up teaching you, they always love that feeling even for an 1nen sei.
Yeah it’s happening at work but they are white. I’m Hispanic but don’t know Spanish and very Americanized. 😭 you said it perfectly- disappointed that their assumptions are incorrect.
It's just two sides of a paper. It could be seen as patronizing or condescending but it's their way of being respectful and taking care of foreigners
Never been to Japan myself or worked with Japanese. But when I learnt a few sentences in Italian while working with Italian customers they were soawed by me putting that kind of efforts. They in fact used to correct my mistakes and were ultra nice to me. It gave me motivation to learn it further and will some day certainly visit Italy with my family.
Buona fortuna!
suddenly remembered last time when i was in kamakura with my mom at a restaurant filled with japanese people i asked the staff where was the restroom in japanese as my mom wanted to go and he was like "what?" then after 3x he finally answered and laughed at me while looking at his coworker. it was the first time being treated like that in Japan it caught me off guard tbh (oh yeah the other male famima staff in osaka was so rude laughing at us because i was asking about the requirements for getting the JJK clear file)
i look East Asian but i'm sure they knew we weren't Japanese (the female staff who was in charge of taking our orders was nice though)
Same happened to me but in France 😐
That happens a lot when people don't expect that you know their language. It isn't malicious, happens all the time when my black ass busts out the Chinese.
@@michaelbrandon1222 It’s extremely hurtful. I’m also black American. In the US black people complain all the time over racism I personally have not experienced in the U.S., but when it comes to a situation like this in another country, this to me is racist and incredibly hurtful, especially when you want to assimilate into the culture you live in.
@@TRUMPmyOSHI well yeah, Asians like Chinese and Japanese especially are "racist" as hell, more so just not adjusted to the sensitivities of the west, it is what it is, you're just an outsider to them lol.
Apparently Japan and France have the same similarities.
French people can be so rotten and douchebags when foreigners try their best to communicate in French.
@@AntharieAzarenna
I had a similar experience speaking Greek in hospital in Cyprus. It was amazement. Curiosity. It wasn’t offensive. So many people don’t bother to learn the language of the place they are in.
And here I always ended up with the opposite experience when in Japan with my very limited and basic Japanese. I’d ask a question and the person would break into a smile and start with the rapid fire Japanese, delighted as they assumed i would understand. I’d be there frozen like 😳 I got very good at then saying I only spoke a tiny bit Japanese….😂
your accent must be good 😭
@@luvcherry 😂😂😂😂 barely speaks but has the accent down
I had the same problem LOL 😂 I understood _some_ (miniscule amount) because of jrock and like a week of online lessons but for some reason, people kept assuming I spoke fluent Japanese.
Thankfully 👁️👄👁️ seems pretty universal
@@dontnoticemesenpai6745 i know quite simple japanese but struggle hearing what people say when they talk fast, i ended up with the same problem when if i tried to open a conversation or question in japanese they got very surprised and answered in more complicated japanese than i understand, so i just stuck with english most of the time or else they got the idea that i know more japanese than i do and they start talking too much and too fast for me to keep up lol
surprisingly many knew enough basic english in tokyo that it went fine for me to just use that. and everyone was so kind and pleasant i was shocked at the service i had in every place there. i am a very short girl and have a very timid energy about me so maybe that is some reason why people there treat some foreigners differently idk
This conversation has a lot more nuance to it than just "Its rude that youre ignoring my speaking your language".
A lot of people don't understand that even if you know perfectly the language, you have the accent and sometimes dialect that will confused the local people you are communicating with. I speak french (Canada) and a lot of time people from other nationality (asian, african, european, even usa and other part of canada) will make the perfect sentence in french and I won't understand a thing! All the because of the accent or the word use don't make sense for where i'm from!
So even if you speak japanese, korean or chinese (where pronounciation is VERY important), it doesn't mean that they will understand you!
Thank you
This is right bro, like i just confused why they said its rude in this video. Like me, even i talk using english to foreigners, and sometime they think i speak using my nation language, and iam fine with that, i know the problem is because my accent.
I've frequently encountered people who try to say things in Mandarin and I just can't understand them at all and basically need to mentally reconstruct what they were trying to say in order to figure out which words they mispronounced.
This is kinda cope cause people will "understand" other Asians speaking way more incorrectly than you.
I completely agree with you. I think it’s a matter of accent (and especially in Asian countries, intonation) that confuses people.