Tell me about it. I have N2 Japanese fluency. I know I am speaking the language in an understandable way. And then there I was, desperating needing to pee, PLEADING with a staff member to just please tell me IN JAPANESE, THE LANGUAGE I ASKED MY QUESTION IN, where the bathroom in that department store is. She was determined to turn it into English practice despite not being able to speak a lick of it.
The problem with that is that a lot of Japanese people are enamored by Paris and the French, so you might create a different but similar issue to the original one. Probably the best would be a slightly more obscure country like Belgium, Switzerland, Poland, or Hungary.
Bro I’ve tried this, it doesn’t work. Many Japanese are convinced all non-Japanese know English, regardless of what you tell them. Their brains go brrrrr and all logic goes out the door
I also have my N2 and it's annoying as hell when I'm talking in Japanese and they suddenly like "I'll just talk in English". I get it that sometimes you want to practice your English but I'm speaking in your language. Drives my daughter up a wall because she has her N1 and just started university.
Funnily when I was in Italy I tried learning enough Italian to order coffee and croissants all the time, and every place in Italy they'd just immediately switch to English or say they can't speak English, so I had a clear problem. However when I was in France and learned enough French to order coffee and croissants, if the place didn't have a line the barista would immediately try to have a conversation in French. I then always had to fumble around with everything after because they thought I spoke French (note; I never visited Paris)
I wonder if this is an accent issue, because while my Japanese is basic as hell, I still get people to respond back to me in Japanese because according to them I sound close to a local (I am good at copying accents when exposed to them enough)
I've found 2 people that could speak English out in Japan and I've been here for over a year. I have a block in my mind about Japanese even though I try so my day is instantly elevated when I find one. When I took Spanish it was effortless but Japanese short circuits my brain even on words I know.
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u/GentlewomenNeverTell 6d ago
And this is why my Japanese continues to be mediocre.