Foreigners in Tokyo couldn't believe a Japanese guy was speaking their language! I walked around Tokyo talking to tourists in 14 languages, Mooré, Kazakh, Croatian, Swiss German, Malayalam, Twi, Hindi, Russian, French, Italian, Cantonese, Mandarin and more, and the reactions were unforgettable.
One girl from Burkina Faso froze when I greeted her in Mooré ("How do you know Mooré?!"). A Croatian couple couldn't believe a Japanese person was learning their language. And the man from Kazakhstan I spoke Kazakh with turned out to be the MAYOR of Kokshetau, he handed me his business card and invited me to Astana.
I also met an Irish-Indian couple on their honeymoon (Hindi & Malayalam), a man from Geneva who has visited Japan 20 times, a guy from Ghana who grew up in Italy, and then, a Russian couple living in Tokyo who talked to me about why Japan feels so peaceful to them. It was one of the most memorable interactions ever!
Most people expect English in Tokyo. Almost nobody expects their own native language.
Which reaction was your favorite? Let me know in the comments, and tell me which language I should learn next!
Currently, I speak 15 languages, which I studied properly. These are English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Arabic, Indonesian, Russian, German, Turkish, Chinese, Thai, Korean, Polish, Dutch and Italian. And now I'm learning Vietnamese, Greek, Tagalog, Hindi and Cantonese! Apart from that, I speak Japanese for sure, which is my native language. Furthermore, I know a tiny bit of Swedish, Romanian, Farsi, Swahili, Burmese, Geogian, Finnish, Uzbek, Kazakh and Bengali! Of course, my skills of these languages are still far from sufficient. The thing I value the most, however, is the attitude to trying to know their culture. Interacting with people from different background is an eye-opening experience and that makes me really happy. I wanna inspire people to learn different languages.
00:00 (English) A Heartwarming Chat with Aussie Tourists 01:58 (Hindi & Malayalam) I Shocked Them TWICE in Their Native Languages! 03:58 (French) He Has Visited Japan More Than 20 Times! 10:55 (Mooré) "How Do You Know MY Language?!", From Burkina Faso 12:29 (Kazakh) He Turned Out to Be the Mayor of a City in Kazakhstan! 13:38 (Croatian) They Invited Me to Their Country on the Spot! 15:52 (Italian & Twi) From Ghana, Raised in Italy, We Spoke 6 Languages! 17:59 (Russian) A Deep Talk with a Russian Couple Living in Tokyo 29:19 Outro
