First of all, I got a haircut!
I got quite a bit cut off.
My hair was about to here so a good chunk.
But I'm liking it.
It's really light, so much easier to take care of.
and I really needed a change.
I'm in a new house!
I've been quite busy with all of these changes.
I also went to New York. I just got back a couple of days ago.
Anyway, today, I've got a video for you.
Let's take a look!
Oh, this is nice
The appetizer.
It's like thousand island dressing.
I was like, that soup looks really good too.
How is it?
Very good.
This is the James Bond of our group.
He was Arabic and he went to live in France.
and he didn't know how to speak French.
and now he speaks very well, French.
So I told him, why? how come? How did you learn French?
He said to me, the best way to learn any language
just have a boyfriend or a girlfriend
and it's the sleep talking.
He said this is the best way you can learn any language.
Is that how you learned English?
No, at school.
So in Japan, a lot of people are afraid to speak English
because they think they're going to get the pronunciation wrong.
or say something wrong.
Do you have anything like that?
No, even though I don't pronunciate very well English.
but at least - - because I'm not an English-born -- I'm not so...
As long as they understand what I'm saying
it's okay. Fine with me.
so I don't need to act or work on my accent
because this is not me.
If I speak like a British or an American,
but I'm not an American or an English so.
So they would say, oh, so you're not an (American)...
So who are you?
So basically my pronunciation or my accent
It is my ....
identity.
Identity, that's it.
As long as I'm speaking right
and that you understand me
and I understand you
it's okay, fine with me.
Exactly.
Yes, because I've met so many foreigners actually their English is worse than me.
and what I always think is that
I was talking to Steven who is from Canada who speaks English but
you know, a lot of English-speaking people (native English speakers)
only speak one language, right?
Each person who speaks a second language has to be proud of him/herself.
Yeah, something really nice.
You don't have to be afraid.
You shouldn't. If you are afraid and you don't express yourself
you will not make any improvements.
So making mistakes is a way to improve yourself.
So...
Just go for it.
You just have to be bold and speak.
You should have a motivational channel.
You're very good at talking into the camera.
You want to give it a shot?
Having an accent, is that...
because that's a big deal for Japanese people, but
does that bother...
I just wonder if people have the same problems from other countries.
For us in Holland,
we're quite used to speaking English.
We see television in English.
We watch films for example, it's in English.
with subtitles.
Every person has his own sort of way of speaking
especially if you're from a different country.
If you go to for example, New York,
there are a gazillion different accents.
even people within America speak a gazillion different accents so...
I think an accent is showing where you come from.
English is the easiest language
on the earth.
The grammar is very easy.
There is only she/he.
It's easy.
So other language likes German, Spanish, French, Chinese
Japanese!
Arabic
are hard to learn.
So are you fluent in all those languages?
Well, French is a little bit rusty.
But German is very fluent.
Same as Dutch.
You learned all of those at the same time?
The first language you learn is English.
Like when you're this big, you start learning English.
And then German because the languages are quite alike.
For Dutch people, it's very important to speak any language because
our country is so small.
We need to speak other languages.
All of the universities use English for lessons?
Yeah, definitely, yeah.
I've had a lot of lessons in English.
Dutch and English at the same time?
Yeah, well, normally, the base language is Dutch.
The further you go in university,
the more likely you'll be together with international students
and all of those classes will always be given in English.
You know, walk around in Amsterdam
and you can speak English to everyone, basically.
It's no problem at all.
But not in Paris.
Paris ... it's different.
because Parisiennes are quite arrogant.
They can, but they won't kind of thing, right?
So maybe I make some mistakes
it's okay, fine!
It's not -- I'm not going to make exam or takes notes or something like that.
But the best way also, one thing is to
to sing with songs.
Yes, singing.
Learn the words of songs,
the English songs and sing it.
This is how I started when I was little.
Because I loved to learn English.
and at school, they didn't start with us
So I started learning from the songs.
I used to sing with Michael Jackson and Madonna
And it makes it fun, right?
Yeah, it's fun!
Wow, that's a big fish and chips.
Wow! Oh my gosh, that is huge!
It looks good. I'm hungry.
Okay food has come. We're distracted.
We're going to stop filming now.
Alright guys, now we got food!
So how was that?