what if i told you there's a way you can
get fit
learn a language and have fun all at the
same time well
check this out
[Music]
oh dear maybe not i think i'm gonna need
some aspirin
welcome to the world of eikaiwa tyson
speaking english
quite literally english conversation
exercise through voluntary muscle
english all right rolls right off the
tongue doesn't it
don't say a word
speaking english has been something of
an internet meme for many years now and
let's face it
it's not hard to see why i first came
across this language learning miracle
six years ago we're producing a series
on this channel called losing weight in
japan
an unsurprisingly ill-fated series in
which i tried to
lose 10 kilograms in 10 weeks needless
to say the only thing i lost at the time
was my dignity
now at the time i just assumed it was
some weird one-off special tv show that
was a parody or something you know who
would make this
but it turns out there's far more to it
than a bad case of diarrhea
because there are 24 episodes of
speaking english
each one introducing exciting and new
english phrases
from everyday life and situations in the
english-speaking world
i can't stand the sight of you i can't
stand the sight of you
i mean this was a real tv show that
somebody had spent money on
and broadcast on fuji television at five
o'clock
in the morning now imagine waking up 4
30 a.m you dive into the shower
you grab your morning coffee and then
when the clock strikes five
psycho
honestly the more you learn about
speaking english the more absurd
that it gets so today we'll discover why
this is one of the most ridiculous tv
shows you will ever see
including the questionable english
phrases they taught which came riddled
with some
pretty sinister undertakings at times
hand me your bag
and finally we'll test the show out on a
real-life japanese man who to be fair
took it incredibly seriously
now morning exercise is pretty popular
in japan as it is in asia
in general with radio taiso literally
radio calisthenics being
barked out of a speaker for workers to
perform in the morning before the
work day begins but zeke in english was
created against his backdrop
the show was comprised of three stages
it would start with a practical setting
where top-rated actors both japanese and
foreign acted out a dramatic scene with
powerful raw
emotions oh miss inayoshi
i'm so glad you could make it top rate
actors
the best in the business then one of the
characters would
be utterly distraught their lack of
english knowledge
and finally enter our heroes the zuikin
girls thank you for
inviting me tonight
i'll admit though my favorite scenes
aren't the weekend girls they're the
weekend boys who
execute the dances with an unmatched
level of enthusiasm
it looks like the camera crew burst into
a bar pointed at three drunk salarymen
in the corner and went [ __ ] it yeah
you'll do
you've got to give them some credit at
least for uh getting involved and
delivering those those sick moves it all
seems like harmless fun but at times it
does have
some pretty sinister undertones to it
all in this episode a character goes on
holiday
and then she's jumped by two shady men
with flawless disguises
shut up don't
say a word
don't move if you do i'll kill you
[Music]
i mean it's it's five o'clock in the
morning that's a little bit strong
isn't it everything you want
everything you want it's all right
they're dancing take anything you want
take anything you want yeah i rewind
though wait a minute go back let's take
a look at those uh those ferocious
criminal masterminds
hand me your bag oh i wonder who the
robber could be
it's a bit difficult to give a character
description to the police but with the
completely unobstructed view of his face
and wait a minute isn't that jason
alexander from seinfeld
what's going on there then i was
developed by
me and if you're wondering what in the
world of [ __ ] this guy is wearing a bit
of cultural trivia for you while in the
west our stereotype
image of a burglar is this or this
in japan they look more like this they
wear a bandana called a
hokamuri it's typically worn by farmers
but in this case it's tied up
into what can only be described as the
world's worst disguise
now credit where it's due to the show
there's scarcely a real life situation
that isn't covered in zika english's
extensive list of vocabulary from being
robbed by jason alexander to having
highly specific
medical emergencies brought on by a bad
case of diarrhoea
i am allergic to penicillin oh
penicillin oh very specific
okay please explain your symptoms
in detail as much as possible
i cannot treat you until i know more
you know for somebody who delivered the
phrase i am allergic
to penny city with surprising ease and
fluency she does she does give up very
easily doesn't she
essentially a japanese karen another
eyebrow-raising expression involves two
characters who've just watched a film
and the girl has trouble choosing her
words to describe how she felt at the
ending
of the movie the climax scene really got
to me
[Music]
sorry what exactly were they watching
so what are the two reasons that zouk in
english is fatally flawed and
let's face it i think i'm being a little
bit generous with just two reasons
floor number one is exaggerated
knowledge imagine if you've watched
a god forbid a full season of this show
you know all the phrases you know all
the
dances and techniques you're gonna have
some pretty gaping holes in your
knowledge the day you inevitably get
robbed
by two men
you okay sir yeah okay what happened
i was loved by two men two men robbed
you
oh god what do they look like i was
loved by
two men yes what were their faces what
do they look like
huh i was loved by two yeah
we've established there were two men sir
yeah i was lovely by two
we're not really getting anywhere are we
sir that'll be my whole life
yes spend my life spare me my
life okay it's desperately my own life
it's all rather strange was it
by any chance this man yeah
the mayor jason alexander i thought it
might be
yeah i have a backus of daily
i have a bacchus of daddy i have a
burgers up there here
i have a vacuum okay so the whole
premise of zika in english is that
as you move your body as you move your
muscles you're able to retain
and memorize phrases a lot easier that's
the whole sort of genius of this week in
english concept but let's call it out
what it is utter bollocks
but surely for the viewers of the show
who are learning these phrases these
really
important phrases they're probably going
to need to reenact the dance or
certainly reenact the pattern
which the words are said to recollect
the phrase and god forbid the day
that you need to use any of these actual
phrases the blood tests tell a rather
worrying story and ask you have a severe
allergic reaction to something we don't
know what it is but we need to know
or you will die in 24 hours now for the
last time
what drug are you allergic to i have an
allergy
to two to two allergy
do you remember i remember oh good
i am allergic to penicillin penicillin
yeah
i'm allergic to penicillin
despite these flaws natsuki did actually
get pretty worn out doing the fitness
aspect of it but the memorization
component definitely didn't work
i am
i've always been amazed at the lengths
people in japan go to to learn the
english language there's no
country in the world i suspect that has
as many resources about learning english
as japan i mean take this book the old
talashi fact
one of my favorite books the correct way
to use [ __ ] which teaches you
sentences in context with various
characters and figures throughout world
history
one of my favorite series of japanese
english textbooks
literally the words that don't appear in
the english exams
barbed wire
you know sometimes i like to look up at
the stars and picture an alternate
universe where
z week in english took off became
popular dominated
tvs and fitness regimes throughout the
lab miss inayoshi
i'm so glad you could make it although
to be fair it's an alternate universe
that i'm glad
i'm not in this week in english ended
after only one season
an undeniable tragedy as to the people
who watched zurich in english
we'll never really know how many how
many embraced its teaching methods what
i want to see is a documentary about the
zoikim boys
where are they now what happened what
happened to them after they
did that in the meantime i encourage you
to watch an entire episode as we kill
english
online on youtube and see the profound
effect it has on
your health you know both physical and
mental
uh as for me thus concludes one of the
weirdest videos
i've ever made as always some more
behind the scenes stuff check out the
abroad japan patreon but for now guys as
always many thanks for watching i'll see
you
next time right here on the abroad japan
channel and as for me
well i've got a case to solve
diarrhea yeah