Hey guys!\u00a0 How’s it going?<\/p>\n
Beth is back to talk about “mingling with” \u5916\u56fd\u4ebas!!\u00a0 I know!!\u00a0 I know!!\u00a0 I am one of the aforementioned \u5916\u56fd\u4ebas!!<\/p>\n
When I was younger(I have been in Japan for MANY years), there weren’t so many of us!\u00a0 Now we seem to be in all areas of Japan!<\/p>\n
I understand that it might be hard to jump into the middle of a group of foreigners.\u00a0 OK!\u00a0 So, why not try taking baby steps!<\/p>\n
Japanese people in general are considered to be shy!\u00a0 All we need here is\u00a0one word…one single word!!\u00a0 Try it in Japanese if it helps…most of us(foreigners)DO speak some Japanese!\u00a0 I am American!\u00a0 In my small city, there are foreigners from multiple countries!\u00a0 NOT all speak fluent English, but many speak a little!!\u00a0 “\u3053\u3093\u306b\u3061\u306f\uff01 or HELLO!” plus your best smile…..in no time, you’ll have a lot of \u3042\u3044\u3055\u3064s going back and forth!!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
If step 1 is a breeze to you, or you can make\u00a0it with a little work, let’s try something a little more advanced!\u00a0 Next time you are at a hospital, city office, or even on a train, check for \u5916\u56fd\u4ebas!\u00a0\u00a0Quite often(really), the seat next to us is open.\u00a0 If it is, it’s your LUCKY day!!\u00a0\u00a0Be courageous!!\u00a0 Walk over, say HELLO, then take a seat!!<\/p>\n
When someone sits next to me with a friendly smile, they make my day!!<\/p>\n
To most foreigners, making Japanese friends is so much fun!!\u00a0 We want to get to know you!!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The last, and of course, \u00a0best step you can take is to actually befriend any foreigners in your community!\u00a0 Most of us look forward to the “hello”s, then maybe a nod or a wave!!\u00a0 Many of us have questions or concerns about living in Japan!<\/p>\n
Don’t worry about having perfect English!!\u00a0 Like I already mentioned, not all of us actually speak Eanglish as our native tongue!\u00a0 Mix English, Japanese, and maybe even hand gestures!\u00a0 If you are smiling, any of the above should work!\u00a0 You’ll soon find many foreigners are eager to learn “how to” do things the Japanese way!\u00a0 As a bonus, you can learn about non-Japanese ways!<\/p>\n
To wrap things up, I can’t promise that ALL \u5916\u56fd\u4ebas will respond positively to you; but even if there is one who doesn’t, don’t give up!!<\/p>\n
Easy words and phrases to start a conversation<\/strong> :<\/strong><\/p>\n *Hi, how are you?<\/p>\n *Welcome to …..(if they are new to your community)!<\/p>\n *Can I help you?<\/p>\n *Do you speak English?\u00a0 Japanese?<\/p>\n *Hello!\u00a0 May I sit here?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hey guys!\u00a0 How’s it going? Beth is back to talk about “mingling with” \u5916\u56fd\u4ebas!!\u00a0 I know!!\u00a0 I know!!\u00a0 I am one of the aforementioned \u5916\u56fd\u4ebas!! When I was younger(I have been in Japan for MA…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":3466,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[276,5],"tags":[122,303,27,304,108],"class_list":{"0":"post-3443","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-native","8":"category-learning","9":"tag-english","10":"tag-foreigners","11":"tag-japan","12":"tag-304","13":"tag-108","14":"article cf"},"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fruitfulenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fruitfulenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fruitfulenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fruitfulenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fruitfulenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3443"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.fruitfulenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3715,"href":"https:\/\/www.fruitfulenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3443\/revisions\/3715"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fruitfulenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fruitfulenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fruitfulenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fruitfulenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}