00:10
So, Kari, I know I've sort of roped you into talking with me on this podcast ever since
the last time, but よく考えるとさ、why do you speak such good English?
え?
I mean, it's really impressive, because you were, I mean, we met while you were studying
abroad, but you were only, that was the only study abroad experience you've had in your
life, right?
Yes, except for two weeks summer intensive.
Well, you were dancing, you were probably not speaking or studying that much, you were
just busy dancing, so that doesn't count.
But like, even then, that's like, you know, add them all together, that's still like couple
of months,でしょ?
で、その留学が10months?
Like a whole academic year, right?
うん、そうだね。
Yeah.
So like, maybe like a year, little less than a year.
Yeah, I think I spent 多分10months at the college, which I think that's quite the academic
kind of months I spent in English.
で、その後にI did some dance programs with just my visitor entry visa.
で、それが2ヶ月くらいあったから、just putting them all together 一年弱ぐらい。
Okay, okay.
So like 一年弱 of that 留学 when you were 大学生, and like bits and bobs like couple
weeks here and there, as like during your teenage years, as a ballet summer intensive.
Yes.
So that's like that, you know, that's もうなんかnowadays I feel like a lot of people are very 積極的
about going to 留学, so a lot of people do have an opportunity to do study abroad.
At least up to about a year, maybe.
I feel like it's pretty still rare for someone to like completely go and earn a degree abroad.
But, 新学みたいな留学じゃなくて。
でも結構留学の窓口は広がったなという印象があって。
でもさ、not everyone comes back from the 留学 with like your level of English, and also
you managed to retain that and actually kind of improve even since you were, I mean, since
03:06
you were there, because like it's been now about 10 years since you were in New York, right?
Wow, 10 years.
Actually like 12 years, no?
Oh shit.
We're old.
I guess.
でもさ、そうそう、だからなんかその間さ、別に仕事で使うのはもちろん。
Yeah, actually, yeah, like 60, no, depending on the project だけど半分くらい多分英語で半分くらい日本語だと思う。
あーじゃあ結構な割合で英語使ってるんだ。
Happened to.
だけどlike me, not everyone is a native speaker and sometimes their English is not complete
and mine neither.
だけどwe can somehow communicate.
So we, yeah, we happen to speak in English, although we might be able to communicate in
other ways or now we have like good translating website or we have like Google translators
and maybe there are a lot of other ways that we can communicate, um, moreなんだろう
というかless stressful.
だけどなんかin my case, I use English to be in touch with a lot of people outside of Japan.
Right.
So, so I guess that might be different than maybe most people who have been to study abroad
in their uni years.
でもなんか。
あ、でもあれだよ。
I mean, maybe?
あの、my college in Japan.
あれも一応英語だったから。
That helps, maybe.
Oh, so you wrote your thesis in English?
No, no, no, my entire four years, but I spent one year abroad.
だけど私のプログラムはthat's all happening in English.
So maybe that helps.
Oh, so like all of the reports and like exams were in English.
Yeah, yeah, exams, lectures.
We only have like a couple of classes offered in Japanese, but others were so, so, so in English.
So I don't know how much that helps.
I didn't quite study in my college years in Japan.
だけど一応、そうそう。
You know, it's a 日本の大学。
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I know, I know a lot of people who went through your program and unless they were already 帰国しじょう
when they entered the uni, I think, I mean, they probably have improved.
But like what I'm surprised about your English in particular is that you don't seem to be like, how do I say this?
06:00
You're not speaking the words or phrases that you borrowed from somewhere else.
I think, I mean, as far as I'm concerned, you sound like you're thinking in English.
If that makes sense.
Oh, okay.
I don't really feel the translated vibes.
I mean, occasionally, sure, you're looking for words that you know in Japanese that you don't know in English.
But for the most part, you seem to be just like speaking as naturally as you would in Japanese, in English.
I don't know how you feel doing that.
I don't know, but it's thanks to you though.
You helped me a lot in なんだろう?
like being comfortable with speaking in English.
Oh, really?
Yeah, thank you. You helped me a lot.
I do remember during your 留学 time, I was intentionally speaking more in English with you.
Because I felt like your whole purpose of being there was to improve on English.
And I didn't want to interfere in that process.
Thank you.
Yeah, that was a good part.
You might have had a wrong impression of me thinking that I suck at Japanese.
No, no, no, no.
But now I have a lot of friends around me who speak both at the same time, like us.
We speak both at the same time, right?
Some of my good friends, I'm going to talk about the friends category again, but my close friends...
Some of them have two trucks in their brains, I would say.
And they're driving a Japanese truck and an English truck, going here and there, mixing them up.
And speaking with people like that helps me maintain my English brain.
Yeah, maybe that's true.
Your English...
You're not trying to sound fluent.
09:00
Or you're not trying to sound smart.
You just are yourself.
You're the same in English or in Japanese.
Which is funny because sometimes I can detect that in people.
They're like, I'm going to speak English because I'm like that.
It's like a battle mode.
Maybe you used to be like that too, where you had your English personality.
Not that I notice, I can't remember anymore.
I don't think so.
The way you speak now is very much you.
Good to know.
I think that's amazing too.
It's not like you have the perfect vocabulary or perfect pronunciation.
No.
But you speak without hesitation.
Or you speak without...
You don't speak as if you're being shy about it.
I think that's very natural.
I don't know.
But...
You know, I grew up as a dancer.
Dancing doesn't involve any verbal communication.
In some part of me, I always believe that I can communicate with people even if we don't know the other's language at all.
I'm not that scared.
That might be true.
I saw a lot of people who lived without speaking perfect English.
I was like, well, that's fine.
That's true.
I was like, I can work with this level of English.
And I thought, my Japanese is not perfect.
My Japanese grammar test was terrible.
But I'm a native speaker, so I don't have to be perfect in my second language, English.
When I think like that, I'm like, well, I don't care.
And now I have two trucks running in my brain.
But maybe it's because you don't feel like you have to work hard or you're nervous because it's English.
12:05
Maybe.
Of course, it was the same for me too.
I used to, at the early stage of my English learning, I would rehearse what I'm going to say in my head so many times.
And it would be the most do-demo-ii line.
But I just wanted to make sure that I sound a certain way and whatnot.
So I did a lot of rehearsing and talking to myself before I actually spoke.
So I do remember that.
And I don't know when, at what point, I switched being in that phase to just blurting out whatever comes to my mind.
But I feel like you went through that phase too, Kaori.
Considering how little time you spent abroad, it's kind of impressive, I think.
Thank you.
I think it's amazing.
Yeah, totally. And you speak a lot of other languages too, like French and Russian.
Thank you!
