A tight skirt. - Sounds pretty sexy - Yeah - If you're seeing this comment!
It was a fight. We were 7, they were 14
Hey guys and girls it's Cathy Cat. Many Japanese people that we talk with sometimes say "I don't
have any foreign friends, I don't know any foreigners." this time I am gonna go, dig a little bit deeper
and ask Japanese people what kind of interaction with foreigners they have
so let's go and find out what kind of interactions Japanese people would think of first when I asked them
if they've met any foreigners. Let's go and Ask Japanese.
Intercultural Exchange? - Those people from Sri Lanka
We were all meeting up. 3 women from Sri Lanka were at our station
They asked us how to get to Asakusa. - Together we went to Shinjuku
and showed them how to change trains there. - We all took pictures
right? - And our group was 2 boys
and 3 girls. The Sri Lankans were a lot older.
Those three spoke to us in English, and that was tough
but we somehow conversed with gestures
and they asked us a lot of things. We talked how long it took us to get there
They asked what class we were in. We were quite shy
and couldn't talk much but
we learned that foreigners are very direct
We wondered if we might be hard to talk to because of that
but ..- We were glad they spoke to us
If foreigners talk to you first it's easier? - Yeah and easier to open up
We had lots of fun right. - We did. - Why did you
take photos? - They said "Let's take a photo"
at the end. It was inside the station not at a tourist
spot. I think they wanted to keep it as memory of speaking with Japanese.
And we also took a pic too. - So you rode the train together
First they asked us how to buy a ticket...
and we told them.
And they went all the way to Shinjuku. We knew how hard it is to change trains there
we were going to Shinjuku anyways and told them to come with us
and the followed. I wouldn't have said that alone, but we were a group
and we had fun. - Sounds like a big group
in the end. - We were 8 in total.
What a group! - Japanese walk hurried
well we were hurrying, but
they seemed to have their own way, and wanted to see a lot
like flowers... - They took pictures there...
and we had to be with them in order not to lose them.
I think it must have been their first time in Japan. They wanted to see lots.
But we were hurrying... they must think Japanese are busy
now. - We wanted to take them fast to their location.
They were actually ok with taking their time and they didn't care about train times
at all. Maybe they didn't even worry about their hotel check in time
When Japanese travel abroad, we worry a lot about times and such.
But they didn't seem to. When foreigners come to Japan...
they seem to have their own time.
We felt that. - They said their thanks and took pictures.
We forgot to ask their details, so we don't have the pictures.
We had fun. - It was a good experience. - If you saw it please comment!
Or post it on Instagram with the #askjapanese hashtag!
My boyfriend is living in Germany now.
Is he on working Holiday there?
He is not on working holiday. He is playing in a soccer team
in Germany. - That's pretty amazing. What team?
Yeah he is in a team. - Getting a salary? - Yeah.
Wow. - SV ROTT!!!
1927! Landesliga Staffel 2! Wow!
He graduated University and thought about quitting soccer
or looking for jobs or joining a Japanese soccer team.
In Japan there are 3 leagues
But in J3 you play soccer but don't get any money.
In that case wouldn't it be better to earn money playing soccer?
So he went there.
What did he say when he said he would go to Germany? - Well long distance
made me sad but...
he is following his dreams. That's great.
How are you keeping in touch? - Social media.
did he say anything funny about german culture?
I remembered a word in our conversation. "Halloasku"
That's German. Right? - Hallo...? - Halloask!
Ask? - Should mean "how are you?"
Alles klar? Alles Gute???
It should mean "how are you?" - Maybe it's a local dialect?
In Germany the way they count floors differs. Here we count
1-2-3 but in German it goes 0-1-2-3
Yeah. - I head that.
I am surprised there is a 0 floor.
When I met Germans at work I showed them where the
restrooms were, explaining it to them in the German system.
Because they were from Germany. - You knew then!
I went to Korea. - Why?
It was to visit a sister school. - A sister's school?
A sister school. - I see!
Not a school of sisters! A sister school!
Yeah haha. - Did you feel a different culture
in Korea? - They can't flush their toilet paper.
Same as in Taiwan. Did you see any differences?
They had a tight skirt.
That sounds sexy. - It was.
At my job there are lots of foreigners
I don't know English but I try to communicate. - What do you do? - Sell food
What are common questions or problems?
They often want to split the bill but...
I sometimes struggle with that. - Is that difficult at your restaurant?
We generally don't do that.
But foreigners want to know what they ordered and how much it was
and dealing with that in English... - how do you deal with that
I had to write it all out in English, all the dishes they had
and explain it again. - That's a bit much. - It was tough.
When it's busy, it takes me my whole shift to do.
I got into a fight. - What? - I used to work at a club
as security. We had to tell them to go outside.
We thought they had calmed down but they fought outside
We were 7 they were 14. - Where were they from? - Asia.
What was the issue? - They fought within their own group
they wanted to have fun with girls in the club
but fought over a girl and then fought.
They didn't fight with the club, but in their own group? - We tried to stop them and got dragged
into their fight. - How did you resolve that?
We told them off and asked them to calm down.
I see. Adult behavior. - They were drunk
and didn't see reason. We asked them to leave
and with the air outside they realized their faults
and calmed down. - Sounds dangerous. - It was.
Many Japanese people don't have that many chances to meet up with foreigners but that might
change in the future. There are lots of changes happening in Japan right now.
Please let me know if you have any chances of intercultural exchanges at your school maybe
at your work. Let us know in the comments down below. If you're new don't forget to subscribe
because that fish here will be very happy. If you've been here don't forget to give us a like.
So we can keep making these videos. Thank you for checking in and I catch you
soon on Ask Japanese. Bye.