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Tomoko said that the first Japanese word she had learned was "Sukebe".
It means "Nasty" in English.
I hope she will be happy...
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It was the night of September 20, 1997.
I was drinking at Ikebukuro with Mr. Shimosaka and Mr. Takahashi. Mr. Takahashi said, "Let's go to strange bar". Mr. Shimosaka and me followed him. I also felt the bar strange. It was a Karaoke pub. But girls in there were so colorful! There are blond, blunette, Chinese, Filipina and Indonesian girls. They spoke in Japanese, English, Chinese, etc. It was just like "the melting pot of races". Well, two girls came to our table. One of them was Miss Woo, Chinese. The another was Miss Marine, Filipina. Woo was so good at Japanese. She said that she had been in Tokyo since 5 years ago. She could understand difficult Japanese and used it. Marine was also good at Japanese. She had been in Tokyo 3 years. ...About one hour later, Woo moved to other seat. So a new girl came to our table. She was a pretty girl like Nene Otsuka. She said that her name was Tomoko. "Tokomo" is a popular name of Japanese girl. But at soon, I could understand she was not a Japanese. Because she was not good at Japanese. It took me 15 minutes to know that she had come from Kang-Tong of China. All of us could not speak Chinese. Mr. S and Mr. T gave up talking to Tomoko and was talking only with Marine. So, I thought that I had to talk with Tomoko. She could speak Japanese little. I could speak no Chinese. So, I asked to her in English. "Can you speak English?" "English? Yes! Hello, I love you ,Thank you." She answered in broken English. I was at a loss. I talked to myself. "What can I do?" Looking at me, Tomoko said. "I can't speak Japanese. You can't speak Chinese. You and I are the same." "Yes. I know few words in Chinese." I told some words in Chinese to her. "You're great! Can you write those words in Chinese characters?" I thought that we might be able to make conversation by means of writing. Because most of Japanese learn Chinese writing in high school. I wrote "I love you" in Chinese characters. Tomoko smiled to me after seeing that. And she wrote in Chinese characters, too. "I love you too." It was the moment that communication came into existence. Tomoko and I had talked about two hours by writing. -------------------------------------------------- I introduce an episode to you. In a Korean hotel, a Japanese man asked to a bellboy in Japanese. "Which floor is the restaurant?" The bellboy answered in Japanese with a smile. "It is the sexth floor, sir." Japanse man said, "Sexth? I guess that you want to say "sixth". You must study Japanese more hard!" I dislike Japanese like above man. I can speak no Chinese and I am not so good at English. So, I can not laugh to Tomoko's bad Japanese. I think that most of Japanese also can not... |
