00:00
Welcome to Kevin's English Room podcast!
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Yes!
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Oh my god! Oh my god!
Yaman-chan, stop that!
That's a wrong sound effect!
That is the worst sound effect you can have in an ad!
Sorry, I didn't mean it.
Yes, yes. You need to like, officially apologize for that.
I'm sorry, the Anchor person.
The Anchor company, I'm sorry.
I apologize for my mistake.
We apologize for the weird sound effect.
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Okay! I don't know if that was a good sound effect or not.
That was bad.
That was bad. Yes, that was bad.
The reason why is I can't tell the sound from those titles.
Yeah, just by the titles, right?
That's Anchor's fault.
Okay, so that's Anchor's fault.
You're blaming it back on Anchor!
Yeah, so what Yaman-chan's using is the sound effect features on Anchor.
This is fun.
It's fun to play around with.
I like it.
So, anyways, we've got a message from Dongri-san today.
Dongri-san?
Yes, thank you Dongri-san.
Hello.
Hello.
I'm Dongri, studying at the Danish University of Vorkehoiskore.
Oh, okay.
Do you know that?
No.
Oh, okay.
It's been half a year since I came here.
I'm surprised at the difference in cultures.
For example, there are many women who don't shave their arms or armpits.
There are many women who don't take baths every day.
There are many women who eat potatoes as their main meal.
It's different from my usual life, and I enjoy it every day.
I was surprised to hear that Japanese people sometimes say "You're overreacting."
I thought it was a shy impression, but it seems that the reaction is exaggerated.
When I was talking to my friend in Japanese, he nodded, "Yeah, yeah, yeah."
I thought, "What?"
My Danish friend who was watching me open my eyes, imitated that situation,
and I realized that I was the first person to react a lot.
Okay.
I think it's a cultural difference because in Japan, it's taught that if you don't react a lot during a conversation, it's rude.
03:01
I think the reaction of the Americans who lived in Kevin-san is bigger.
I think that the French in Yamachan-san is cool without exaggerating too much.
If you have any episodes that you are interested in about the cultural difference of the reaction, please let me know.
By the way, when the Danes are worried that the reaction is small and are listening,
they often reply to me with a lot of opinions.
I'm enjoying listening to it from now on.
I'm always enjoying listening to it. I will continue to support it.
Wow.
Thank you from Denmark.
Thank you.
Wow.
I hope you're having a great time there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I wonder what time is it?
True.
In Denmark.
Right now, it's what, 12.30?
Yeah, in Japan.
In Denmark?
Okay.
It's 4...
4.30?
13 a.m.
In the morning?
Yeah, in the morning.
Oh.
Wow.
Okay.
Okay.
That's a...
Yeah, that's a surprising comment.
Oh, surprising comment?
Yeah.
I would probably feel the same thing.
You think we're overreacting?
Like, you think the Japanese people overreact?
Yeah, I would feel the same thing.
Yeah.
But I kind of understand that.
Do you understand that?
Yeah, like after the explanation.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I was like, "True."
We do, like, you know, nod a lot.
We do like...
Yeah.
Nod?
Nod.
Nod a lot.
We nod a lot and like, we say, "Oh, tashikani" a lot, you know?
Yeah.
Yeah.
We do.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
That was...
Yeah.
Especially when we're really like, "teinei."
Especially when we're trying to actually show the other person that we're listening, right?
Yeah.
Like, in a "ki o tsukatteru ba."
Yeah.
Or like, all those things, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
How about France?
Is she right?
Like, "cool de."
Just like that?
They speak a lot.
Okay.
But when they don't speak, they are cool.
Like, they don't do some "hmm" or like, "heee."
"Sou zan da hee."
Those things.
They don't do like, "heee."
They don't do like, "heee."
They don't do like, "heee."
They don't do like, "heee."
They don't do like, "heee."
They don't do like, "heee."
They don't do like, "heee."
They don't do like, "heee."
They don't do like, "heee."
They don't do like, "heee."
They don't do some "hmm" or like, "heee."
They don't, you know, react.
But they speak instead.
Okay.
Do they have the mentality of like...
Yeah, they talk about the mentality.
It's like, "this is the style."
Oh, okay.
So they just cut you off.
Yeah.
They speak a lot.
Like, a lot.
Okay.
But they don't like react that much.
Like, "uhhh."
Do they care about the other person?
I don't know.
It looks like from someone who's not in that culture, it looks like they don't care about
the other person.
But is that true?
In some part, that's true.
06:00
Okay.
They just want to speak.
But the other half is, you know, trying to join the conversation is important.
Joining the conversation shows that you are having fun, that you are having a good time,
that you are interested in that topic.
You know.
So if you stay like this and always nodding like this, people will say that, "are you
not interested in..."
Like, you need to speak, you need to join the conversation.
So does it have to be critical?
Or does it just have to be like...
Yeah, you can just say something.
Like, "oh, I agree!"
Is that not enough?
Not enough, but you can say it.
Better than nothing.
Better.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
But talk about the reaction things.
They are maybe quite calm.
I mean, cool.
And seems like not having that much interest.
Wow.
Okay.
True.
Yeah.
Not like, "yeah, yeah, yeah."
Yeah, I guess so.
Right.
On that note, I think the Japanese people are more like, has a bigger...
Reacts more to the other person, I guess.
What about in the United States?
Yeah, they're bigger.
Bigger?
Yeah.
I think they're...
Yeah, cute.
They're bigger.
Yeah.
They like to add on.
They do also like to talk about themselves as well.
They do love talking.
Yeah.
Yeah, but they listen.
They listen to, you know, they, yeah.
They listen, they talk and yeah.
They don't like the dead air.
I mean, Japanese people don't like it too, but I guess more sensitive to it.
Like when you're having a friendly conversation, they feel more awkwardness towards the blank
space in between the conversation.
So they would soon fill it up with something, you know, because nobody speaking is just
really awkward.
So that's one of the struggles I had when I first came to Japan, just I didn't feel
comfortable with all the, the, the, the mughons, right?
After somebody said something, nobody would speak and I would just feel uncomfortable.
So yeah.
Okay.
So that's a cultural differences.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
It was a little surprising.
First I hear this like, "Nihonjima oba reakushon dayone."
But yeah, we can understand that.
09:02
Yeah, it's true.
It's true.
It is true.
Right.
Denmark.
Denmark, huh?
Yeah.
What's there?
What's the, what's one of the, what's one really popular famous food place?
Ericsson.
I guess he's from Denmark.
Football player.
Okay.
All right.
Oh, like Bentner.
A little like five years ago, but Bentner, he was a good player in Arsenal.
Is Denmark strong?
Uh, yeah.
Not that like the strongest, but they are good.
But okay.
Thanks for listening guys.
(laughing)
Bye!
