The 141st Episode : Couldn’t Japanese speak English

Airway tickets and boarding passes to/from Guam

[June, 1998　Guam]

     Wasn’t it about 4:00 a.m. to have checked in the hotel.  The meeting started at 9:00 a.m. not being sure if I slept or not.  The whole schedule in a day time was over around 4:00 p.m.  The only thing not have done was to observe the fire dance that would be performed at the party.  It would start at 8:00 p.m.  As I still had time I made up my mind to wander around the town before the show.

     I expected the town was like Kalakaua Avenue in Hawaii, but quite different.  So rural place here.  There were still less shops around the hotel located to the south of Tumon bay, where I stayed.  I dropped in ABC store to buy beer and sandwiches.

     While I looked for T-shirts and souvenir in the store, a woman approached me speaking broken Japanese.  I didn’t understand well, so I spoke English to her.  Then she was very surprised saying “You’re a Japanese!?  Why do you speak English?”  I’d still spoken only a little though.

     I’d known that many Japanese visit Guam but few of them speak English and the English ability of Japanese people was very poor. So sad…