Benny Lewis | Benny's 2 month Japanese level @irishpolyglot | Uploaded November 2013 | Updated October 2024, 15 hours ago.
fluentin3months.com/manga-hall
Last weekend, I stumbled upon an interesting event; Valencia's Japan Weekend. I thought that this would be an excellent occasion to level up and use my Japanese in person for the first time! You can't get better than an event just about the country whose language you are learning... right?
The theme of the exposition, was "Manga Hall", and there were lots of animé characters, computer games, manga of course, and aficionados dressed up in cosplay. Me and my camerawoman walked around for a while, recorded an intro for the video and then started to see that unfortunately most people attending were Spaniards.
I went to the information desk to ask (in Spanish) if there was someone from Japan who could talk to me about Japanese culture or travelling in Japan - a nice little quick video to mark my first time ever speaking Japanese in person. But there wasn't (misleading event name or what!)
"Does anyone here, even a Spaniard, speak Japanese by any chance?" I added - she laughed at the very strange question, and we walked away disappointed.
That's why, when I saw in the distance the only Asians in the building dressed up in the most ridiculous girly very Japanese manga looking costumes, I thought that they had to be Japanese! I got my microphone out, got the camera rolling, walked up to ask them about what their stall was about (I think it was called "Sweet Pink Cat"), and... well you can see what happened in the video!
Yep... they were Chinese! While it's obvious they look Chinese in retrospect, you try going to a Manga event in Spain, seeing these girls from a distance and not over-enthusiastically going up to them to use Japanese.
I regret nothing! If you're dressed like that, in an event called "Japan weekend", you're asking to be spoken to in Japanese ;)
You can be confident at speaking any language in weeks instead of years. Find out how at Fluent in 3 Months: fluentin3months.com
Enjoyed this video? Subscribe to Benny's YouTube channel: youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=irishpolyglot
or catch up with him on Google+: plus.google.com/+bennylewis
Watch Benny speak at TEDx: youtube.com/watch?v=0x2_kWRB8-A
Follow Benny on Twitter: twitter.com/irishpolyglot
Join thousands of language learners around the world at the Fluent in 3 Months Facebook community: facebook.com/fluentin3months
Thanks for watching!
fluentin3months.com/manga-hall
Last weekend, I stumbled upon an interesting event; Valencia's Japan Weekend. I thought that this would be an excellent occasion to level up and use my Japanese in person for the first time! You can't get better than an event just about the country whose language you are learning... right?
The theme of the exposition, was "Manga Hall", and there were lots of animé characters, computer games, manga of course, and aficionados dressed up in cosplay. Me and my camerawoman walked around for a while, recorded an intro for the video and then started to see that unfortunately most people attending were Spaniards.
I went to the information desk to ask (in Spanish) if there was someone from Japan who could talk to me about Japanese culture or travelling in Japan - a nice little quick video to mark my first time ever speaking Japanese in person. But there wasn't (misleading event name or what!)
"Does anyone here, even a Spaniard, speak Japanese by any chance?" I added - she laughed at the very strange question, and we walked away disappointed.
That's why, when I saw in the distance the only Asians in the building dressed up in the most ridiculous girly very Japanese manga looking costumes, I thought that they had to be Japanese! I got my microphone out, got the camera rolling, walked up to ask them about what their stall was about (I think it was called "Sweet Pink Cat"), and... well you can see what happened in the video!
Yep... they were Chinese! While it's obvious they look Chinese in retrospect, you try going to a Manga event in Spain, seeing these girls from a distance and not over-enthusiastically going up to them to use Japanese.
I regret nothing! If you're dressed like that, in an event called "Japan weekend", you're asking to be spoken to in Japanese ;)
You can be confident at speaking any language in weeks instead of years. Find out how at Fluent in 3 Months: fluentin3months.com
Enjoyed this video? Subscribe to Benny's YouTube channel: youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=irishpolyglot
or catch up with him on Google+: plus.google.com/+bennylewis
Watch Benny speak at TEDx: youtube.com/watch?v=0x2_kWRB8-A
Follow Benny on Twitter: twitter.com/irishpolyglot
Join thousands of language learners around the world at the Fluent in 3 Months Facebook community: facebook.com/fluentin3months
Thanks for watching!
