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1. Matt Gray (mattgrayyes@chaos.social)'s status on Sunday, 27-Jul-2025 06:07:32 CEST Matt Gray

   Here’s one thing I’m finding fun about Japan:
   I’m so used to speaking a local language where they get frustrated and switch to English.
   I’ve learned a tiny amount of Japanese via duolingo and it’s just started unlocking itself from my memory.
   It feels like magic, esp. as English isn’t as common here

   • Michael Vogel (heluecht@pirati.ca)'s status on Sunday, 27-Jul-2025 06:07:32 CEST Michael Vogel

     in reply to

     @mattgrayyes By the way, how many languages do you speak?

     Regarding Japan: I've never been there, but I've heard several stories from people who have visited or lived there about how confused people get when someone who looks foreign speaks their language. I've even heard stories about people going into Japanese stores and having their requests (spoken in fluent Japanese) answered with "no English", and the store owners refusing to understand them.

     Have you ever experienced anything like this?

   • Michael Vogel (heluecht@pirati.ca)'s status on Sunday, 27-Jul-2025 11:16:39 CEST Michael Vogel

     in reply to

     • Michael Vogel
     • Morgan Arnold

     @mattgrayyes @mra Good to know! As I said, I had never been to Japan before, so I had to rely on my social media contacts and documentations. Some time ago, I saw a documentary about people born in Japan who don't look Japanese because one of their parents was from another country. The documentary talked a lot about discrimination. I also read about a former US citizen who had been naturalized in Japan and had also faced discrimination.

     It's really good to know that there is another side of Japan as well that isn't like that.

   • Morgan Arnold (mra@mathstodon.xyz)'s status on Sunday, 27-Jul-2025 11:16:42 CEST Morgan Arnold

     in reply to

     • Michael Vogel

     @heluecht @mattgrayyes i've lived in japan and recently spent a fair amount of time travelling there. my japanese is definitely comfortably sub-fluent, but in the combined year or so that i've spent in japan, i've never experienced anything like that. granted, i've tried to avoid the major tourist hubs (tokyo, osaka, kyoto, say) where that sort of response may be more likely, but i've never experienced people being anything short of extraordinarily gracious about my attempts to speak japanese with them

   • Matt Gray (mattgrayyes@chaos.social)'s status on Sunday, 27-Jul-2025 11:33:36 CEST Matt Gray

     in reply to

     • Michael Vogel

     @heluecht
     I’m only fluent in English. But I’m quite good at picking up languages. Especially thanks to having translation on my phone.

     French (GCSE 20+ years ago but I can speak/understand a small amount)
     German (tiny basics, eg a simple shop transaction)
     Japanese (tiny basics, shop transaction, but can’t understand many answers. I can read hiragana slowly and katakana badly)
     Arabic (I can read the alphabet but the only words I really know are food)

   • Michael Vogel (heluecht@pirati.ca)'s status on Sunday, 27-Jul-2025 11:33:36 CEST Michael Vogel

     in reply to

     • Michael Vogel

     @mattgrayyes It's great that you can read some non-Latin alphabets, too!

     I'm not very good at picking up languages, and I feel bad when I'm in a country where I can't speak the local language and have to rely on others to speak German or English, as these are the only languages I'm fluent in.

   • Morgan Arnold (mra@mathstodon.xyz)'s status on Sunday, 27-Jul-2025 11:36:29 CEST Morgan Arnold

     in reply to

     • Michael Vogel

     @heluecht @mattgrayyes ah, i will say that there are going to be vast differences between the experiences and treatment of travellers and immigrants

     Michael Vogel likes this.
   • Michael Vogel (heluecht@pirati.ca)'s status on Sunday, 27-Jul-2025 11:48:51 CEST Michael Vogel

     in reply to

     • Michael Vogel
     • Morgan Arnold
     @mattgrayyes @mra Okay, that explains a lot. As far as I remember the mentioned social media contacts also lived in Japan.
   • Michael Vogel (heluecht@pirati.ca)'s status on Sunday, 27-Jul-2025 11:50:32 CEST Michael Vogel

     in reply to

     • Mux2000 (globular cluster)
     @Mux I think that everything where @mattgrayyes is in is really enjoyable!
   • Matt Gray (mattgrayyes@chaos.social)'s status on Sunday, 27-Jul-2025 11:50:34 CEST Matt Gray

     in reply to

     This isn’t an advert for duo btw. It really went down the pan recently.

     But the combo of having learned some things and being able to look up words via Google translate, and guessing some grammar means I can speak in a shop/restaurant!
     I don’t necessarily understand any response but still. lol.

   • Mux2000 (globular cluster) (mux@swingset.social)'s status on Sunday, 27-Jul-2025 11:50:34 CEST Mux2000 (globular cluster)

     in reply to

     @mattgrayyes
     I've been watching a ton of anime lately so I've gotten a bit better at it since ditching duo.

     BTW, I've been binging Lateral and I'm really enjoying your appearances 💙