I met two Russian people who were running a booth at a festival. One greeted me and tried to converse with me in English, but it soon became apparent that that wouldn’t get us very far. So, we switched to Japanese, and made small talk for a few minutes before I made my purchase.
Not a huge deal overall, but I thought it was super cool to be able to make use of Japanese in a novel context. It was also interesting to meet someone where the best language for communication for both of us was an L2. As a native English speaker, that doesn’t happen very often.
That’s awesome! I once had a conversation with a Japanese woman in Mexico. She was speaking to me in Japanese and I was speaking to her in English while a couple of Spanish speakers looked on. It was a bit surreal but also pretty cool.
Oh, that’s neat!! I’m happy for you.
Thank you! It was a really fun experience.
In Japan ?
Yes, in Japan.
Oh kk.
I got another question if You don’t mind.
You said;
One greeted me and tried to converse with me in English, but it soon became apparent that that wouldn’t get us very far. So, we switched to Japanese,
Why? Your English seems brilliant. Was it the russians with their heavy accents that You couldn’t understand their English or was it something else?
Curious 🤔🤨
👍 Thanks🙏
The Russians were less comfortable with English, much less so than with Japanese. I am a native English speaker.
The original post says that they are a native English speaker, so it must have been an issue with the Russians’ English.