how about a quick tour of Asia without leaving Mexico
it's diversity it's easy so to be exploring some of its Asian neighborhoods and hopefully speak to
some Asian immigrants or some Mexican Asians and learn about their stories Mexico as a country is
known to be welcoming to immigrants Mexico City is a global City and you can find people from all
over the world here and just like many other major cities you'll find pockets of cultural
neighborhoods like El barriochino pequeños and Little Tokyo and during today's tour of
course we're going to be trying food so I hope you're hungry also throughout our little tour of
Asia today we're going to be testing out a new travel Gadget the fluent talk T1 mini handheld
translator we're gonna try to test it out and find some Japanese speakers Chinese Korean
but it is Mexico City you never know how many languages we're going to run into let's see how
many languages we can test this out with today we've actually been to Asia before but we went
to Vietnam Cambodia and Thailand and it was an amazing time but our interaction with locals was
very limited due to language barriers yes and we do hope to make it back out to Asia some day
but before we do it'll be interesting to test this baby out and see how good it works
let's start today's tour in Koreatown is a Hidden Gem in Mexico City during the 1990s there was
a wave of migration from Korea as a result of international Commerce agreements between Mexico
Korea and Taiwan there are an estimated 10 000 Koreans living in Mexico city with most living in
the sonarossa neighborhood which is located within Colonia Juarez sonar Rosa is known for being lgbtq
friendly and for its vibrant nightlife and now sonarus overlap so you'll find colorful streets
with Korean style shops bars cafes and restaurants one of the restaurants we're checking out in
pequeño Seoul is called pocharosa which what does pocha mean in Korean because pocha to Mexican
Americans is usually a dirty word let's go find out pocha Rosa is a pub and coffee bar where you
can get Korean style drinks coffee tea and food according to a random Google search bocha is the
word used to refer to Korean street food or Market I couldn't resist the opportunity to get something
Asian Mexican fusion and of course I went with a horchata boba tea so this is the orchata Rosa it
must be one of the house drinks and then we went to the little store next door we'll show you in
a minute and I got these snacks I know that chips these days are mostly air but man this
is exaggerated I'm afraid to open it I feel like it's gonna explode as soon as I open it and Kevin
takes one for the team but no explosions oh good thank you and they actually tasted shrimpy I got
me a Soju garajio koreano another cool Mexican and Korean Fusion this thing looks delicious
I love fusions oh they're so good this is
well we look for Korean speakers to help us test out the translator we're going to
check out the store next door and test out one of its features one of the cool things
about this device is that it has a camera in the back so we could actually check out the labels
in Korean and translate them into English on the screen so let's check this out all right
let's take them to align with the reference line which I think is that middle part right there
yep full of savory peanut cream oh see I would have thought that was hazelnut I did not realize
that was peanut if I had a peanut allergy that would be serious good to know thank you
what do you think of the Korean town in Mexico City and how long have you
been here your Spanish was really good earlier when we spoke all right
um
foreign
people are just right we get along everything's good between us
good good translation okay
so let's talk about these Gadget the flu and talk T1 meaning we were able to test it out
uh with different languages translating from English to Korean Korean to Spanish Spanish to
Korean and as far as using it it offers like you saw in the video the voice translation it offers
text translation you take quick pictures of the text and it'll translate it for you turning it
on was fairly easy too the first time you turn it on for the day it might take two minutes or
so but then the rest of the day is just one click and a couple seconds away and clicking just the
one button it'll save your settings so like we were using it last night from Korean to English
from English to Spanish it's actually really impressive that without Wi-Fi you can use this
thing and you have access so like 36 languages and 88 accents uh and speaking of no Wi-fi it actually
comes with one year of free global data so you can use it in the most remote of places even in
El Rancho de Mexico yeah another cool feature is that even let's say after that one year of
unlimited global data is up you can purchase a package connect to Wi-Fi or you'll still have
access to 13 offline language pairs so a couple challenges with a device was that when we were
out and about using it we were using it I think in like a loud environment and we were sticking very
quickly and so it wasn't picking up on everything that we were saying is accuracy is up to about 95
which is still really really good impressive for something that you just speak into but where what
I see this being most helpful and even though we tried it in social situations is an emergency
situation like imagine having only a basic level of a language like we're fluent in Spanish but if
we're in China and we lost our passports and lost our phones and we need help getting to the nearest
Embassy that's exactly what I would use this for and and I would be thankful to have someone
situation like you arrived to the airport in Japan and your luggage is not there you know how are you
going to speak to the people at the airport yeah this is coming super handy in order to translate
and try to get those things so that's the cool thing about it is that it goes Beyond like the
social situations that we used it in which was fun but really this is this comes in handy as a
lifesaver in those challenging situations while you're traveling next up El Barrio
japones just across the road while there isn't an officially marked Japanese neighborhood in Mexico
City at least not like Chinatown which we'll see later there is a street just north of Paseo De
La reforma near the Angeles independencia that is lined up with Japanese style restaurants and bars
and while we're now hoping to find a potential Japanese speaker to keep
testing out the T1 mini with we're also going to indulge in some sushi
and more Soju we chose this restaurant called aburiya because just look at this
Ambiance it looked like the perfect spot to feel like we're traveling in Japan
we've actually eaten here before and decided to come back because
we really did like it we're gonna order a few of the things that we
liked last time and try something new and I see that they have suggestions of
the month Japanese Mexican suggestions so I'm excited maybe we'll try one of these
look in Japanese Korean food like where else do you find fun combos like this the restaurant
recommended the sake sponge cocktail which is sake of course white wine some Sprite some Citrus
and raspberries it's sweet just at the top of the sugar but down here it's so refreshing oh my God
my understanding in the Japanese concept I mean I don't know anything about this but is that sake
and citrus flavors are meant to prep your palette for the delicious food we're about to eat so if
that's true this thing does the trick they have a variety of Korean and Japanese imported drinks got
some bubble tea you got some Korean rice wine oh this is the one we tried last time this is really
good I think we should get another one Peach flavor yogurt flavor oh look yeah cool right
wow oh my gosh this is coffee flavor man most of these I've I've never tried before
but they all seem really interesting what a cool way to come and explore
Korean and Japanese and in different Asian communities wait Chupa troops that's Mexican
right all right all right we're in Mexico so this
is something we had last time that we loved and had to order again is
and with the grilled veggies
so
right here we got a Mexican Japanese sushi roll Fusion it's some delicious looking salsa
matcha I'm not sure Japanese would consider this sushi but fusions make the best food sometimes
yeah that's good yeah
in front of the chef was a great decision because we got to watch him work his magic
all night and make great conversation then we ordered more Soju and our favorite sushi
roll at this place so we asked for our favorite role here which is the magura
it's a tuna roll with surimi avocado Tuna on top bathe and eel sauce which we really
like eel sauce and a spicy mayo that's hard for to throw in a seared tuna roll
foreign
in Korean
I know
yeah
I would like to learn more about you I heard you speaking Spanish but I also
understand that you're Japanese can you tell me where you were born and raised
Italian
foreign
for some reason the translator responded to me in Japanese I may have pressed something
accidentally but we had some great conversation with Hugo anyway and learned that he is a
third generation Japanese Mexican and that his grandmother moved to Mexico many years ago foreign
no that's wrong yeah it's a Japanese word that's
why I didn't catch it it was so nice to meet the owner of what's your name again
when did you ever imagine meeting three Asian Mexican men named Hugo fabiani Miguel never
ever in my life and one of them being the owners oh we thought we're gonna ask this
random stranger eating others turns out to be the owner honestly I I it makes the food even so much
better because they're so humble and so nice to us they're like yo next time you come order
this it's like off the menu thank you so much yoga we really appreciate it yeah as you guys
check definitely check out his restaurant he's got two locations it's called one here in the
colony Last Stop on our tour of Asia El Barrio Chino this is the largest and most established
Asian neighborhood in Mexico City nestled right within Centro historico the Chinese
people have a long history of immigration to Mexico some came with the famous Manila
Galleon trade which connected Acapulco to the Philippine islands for about 250 years then
waves of Chinese immigration brought workers and labor from both the United States and
Mainland China long story short there is now a thriving Chinese community in Mexico City
check this out these are called balbons I believe a staple Asian treat found right
here in Mexico City's Chinatown and I got the most Mexican flavor I could pick out
which was a rompope or eggnog flavor a dueling one sounded pretty good too it's
you know my one of my childhood candies oh my gosh look at this
all right I'll let you know how this is
oh yeah this is dessert this is dessert I don't know how Chinese
is this but it's pretty good it's been a fun day of Asian fusions
how did you learn to make these Chinese buns and where did you get the idea for this business
Amigos
um
we learned from some friends who are Chinese we took the recipe and
started making this product how did you make Chinese friends did
you meet Chinese people here in Mexico or did someone travel to China China
is
we travel to China
the recipe and brought it modified it that was actually a perfect translation
what I really love about this gadget is how small it is it's smaller than an iPhone or
any phone really and its weight is really really light when you can carry it around it was like
nothing and you know it's it's awesome you can stretch it out and use it in different
ways I look forward to using it out next time we travel to Asia like we haven't been to Japan
we haven't been to China or Korea none of the neighborhoods so I went to those neighborhoods
um and speaking of those neighborhoods here in Mexico City we went through them so fast we have
to go back and and explore them some more like eat some more of the food we had a lot of Mexican
Asian fusions but there's so much that I want to try if you all are interested in seeing a more
in-depth video of any of those neighborhoods let us know in the comments below but anyways
if you're interested in grabbing one of these for your yourselves we're going to drop the
link in the description and the pin comment below honestly this is like the gadget of the year I'm
really happy that we have one I'm so excited to use it and we made friends yeah made friends is
just super cool and uh you know how cool that this thing connected us to so many different
things that was nice so thanks for joining us on today's adventure if you made it this far be sure
to like and drop us a comment and fluentalk has something they want to say to you they
take care of themselves bathe and then until the next one