Last week I went along to an English/Japanese social event with a couple of Japanese friends. Although the atmosphere can be more than a little seedy, it’s still a good chance to meet friends and speak a little Japanese.

When one of my friends had gone off to buy a drink I was speaking Japanese (trying to!) with my other friend when an English guy came over. He stopped in front of us and just said to continue our conversation… that he just wanted to listen! As you can imagine, that pretty much put an end to our conversation.

So, I got talking to this guy and he was trying his best to speak Japanese to me! He knew a few sentences and some basic grammar and was obviously interested in the language. The next thing I know, he’s asking me how to say different things and I’m teaching him Japanese – in front of my Japanese friend who just sat there laughing!