Comments on: But that foreigner doesn’t even speak English! (Video)

By: Fujay

Fujay — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 03:34:31 +0000

Many people think that Japanese cannot accept the fact that foreigners can speak Japanese, but the majority of these people just don’t realize that their Japanese isn’t good enough to be easily understood by most Japanese. Japanese people downplay their ability, whereas Western Foreigners, at a certain point, play theirs up.
I used to be frustrated in the same way – “why do people assume I can’t speak Japanese??”

But then once I got better, that problem stopped happening. I haven’t had a situation like the one in the commercial for a couple years now, because when I speak Japanese, it is recognizable as such to Japanese people now.

In my mind the commercial is just speaking the truth. A lot of the time it doesn’t matter if a foreigner can ‘speak Japanese’, because the tone, pace, and word choice that they use does not sound natural.

So many foreigners like to play the race card here, but usually its young, white people who are for the first time feeling what its like to be a minority, and they overreact.

By: the overthinker

the overthinker — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 08:41:03 +0000

At the very end her friend is chasing after her and says “but that wasn’t English!” (あれ、英吾じゃなかったよ) so yes, it definitely is making fun of the idea that foreigners cannot speak Japanese.

By: noahT

noahT — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 07:45:02 +0000

more important than the possible racial stereotype implications in this ad, is that this lucky 16 year-old lady will be going home with a 30 year-old hakujin English sensei tonight!

By: revil

revil — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 16:31:14 +0000

Doesn’t NOVA also teach French?

By: Turner

Turner — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 14:44:45 +0000

Did he just combine French and Japanese? Either way, that commercial makes no sense. I love the window washing one – that’s hysterical.

By: Brent

Brent — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 14:18:34 +0000

I bet that is the reason, though I can’t imagine the average Japanese person would understand what the commercial means. Unless the average Japanese person actually didn’t understand what the guy was saying and mistook it to be a foreign language.

By: Darin

Darin — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 13:27:04 +0000

That doesn’t make any sense at all!! My head hurts! It bothers me so much I almost want to call them and figure out what it’s trying to say….

By: James

James — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 13:26:34 +0000

Thanks for the awesome video, Lost in Ube! I’ll post it right now.

By: lost in ube

lost in ube — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 11:38:02 +0000

Either way, I think it’s better than the first commercial. Speaking of foreign languages in commercials have you guys seen the Pilot Boardmaster commercial?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NI0-xB-oysg