LANGUAGE TOO FAMILIAR
I was in the U.S. Coast Guard and I remember an incident that happened while I was serving a tour of duty in Japan. Most of us there were struggling to learn enough Japanese to make all the social amenities like “good morning” and such and also to be able to make purchases and order food in the restaurants. One day I was completely startled when I asked directions to a particular spot. I asked in my best pigeon Japanese and I was answered, but at first I didn’t understand the answer. The Japanese gentleman I had asked was dressed in the traditional Kimono and looked like your average Japanese citizen. But when he answered, it was in the most fluent English with the most pronounced English accent I had ever heard. As it turned out, he had spent 12 years in school in England and had graduated from Oxford. The reason I didn’t understand him at first, was that I…
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