By telling us your country of residence we are able to provide you with the most relevant travel insurance information.
Please note that not all content is translated or available to residents of all countries. Contact us for full details.
Shares
Upon arriving in Japan and attempting to speak English to any native Japanese speaker, you'll quickly learn that there are a few letters from the English alphabet which cause problems for native Japanese speakers. Fluency and intelligence have nothing to do with it, there's just something about these sounds that cause trouble for many Japanese speaking English. Differentiating between B and V is quite the challenge, resulting in interesting new words, such as... bocabulary balintine’s day trabel convenience stores nationwide are called combinis. Differentiating between L and R is even more difficult. Resulting in many words that, for all intents and purposes, become interchangeable. For example... glass/grass bling/bring led/red play/pray fly/fry light/right lice/rice clap/crap As an English teacher over here, I can tell you, the student’s are frequently eating lice for breakfast, praying soccer, studying engrish and crapping their hands. I hardly even notice these minor errors anymore. Most of the time, from context, I can figure out what the person is trying to convey and move on. Except for one time. I was at a rather posh dinner, which only adds to the humor. I was talking to a lovely Japanese man, fluent in English - his pronunciation was amazing and his English so good, I realized I could multitask while we chatted. I continued to add sushi to my plate as he told me about this group he was in. I listened politely, nodding along. Then he started to tell me about the erection the group was having. I spun around and had to consciously de-furrow my brow so as not to insult him as he was still chatting away. “Yes, next year we’re planning to hold an erection. As the erection comes up (I almost dropped my plate) we are planning on holding a dinner to try to talk to people about voting. I can't wait until the erection of a new president of our group! ” Sounds like a fun group. I wonder if that erection will be public or private...