Vous parlez Français, lui aussi?
November 30, 2009 Japan, Living in Japan, Working in Japan
An odd thing happened on Friday: my “Get out of English Free” card didn’t work.
Friday evening, while I was making the trek from 本山駅 to 名古屋駅, I was stuck on the subway with a bunch of over-active high school girls. Like most high school girls, these kids were loud, laughing, and causing a scene. Being the only foreigner within reaching distance, they decided that it would be a good opportunity to tease one of their friends until she spoke to me. After just a few minutes, she finally caved in and the conversation went a little bit like this:
Girl: “Hello. My name is Rika.”
Me: “Je suis désolé, mais je ne parle pas l’anglais.” (and, as you can see, I don’t speak French very well, either)
Girl: “Oh, vous parlez français? Êtes-vous de France? J’adore la France. Je veux voir Paris l’année prochaine.”
JEEZ!
One of the tried and tested bastard techniques that I’ve used over the last two years to avoid speaking English to the random person on the train (especially anyone female, regardless of age) has been subverted by a multi-lingual teenager! Luckily she got off at the next stop and none of the other energetic girls tried to strike up a conversation.
I don’t mind talking to strangers on the train. Really, I don’t. Heck, I met Kenji by asking him the time two years ago. That said, there’s just something about talking to a bunch of random kids with more energy than the Large Hadron Collider that wears me out. Perhaps it’s the lack of energy a full-time employee has by 7 PM on a Friday … I don’t know.
Has anything like this happened to you? Do you have your own techniques for avoiding conversations without appearing like a “mean foreigner”?
Comments (1)
That is hilarious!
You know, thinking about it, I’ve never actually met a French person in Japan who can’t speak English. You should learn a few Chinese phrases and tell them you’re from China instead.