Interesting hearing a bunch of Japanese high school kids talking In English

Was at Daiso today and there were like 3 girls who were, judging from their uniforms, in high school and they were talking to each other in English. Obviously, their English wasn’t consistent throughout that time but it went something like this:

Girl 1: this is cute! (I think it was a notebook)

Girl 2: Kawaii!! You like….it?

Girl 1: hmmm.. I think so…

Then at this point, I walked away to get something else and found the three of them again in the bagging area while putting stuff in their bags.
I heard them say (but couldn’t tell who was who at this point)

“oh thank you ne!”,

“iyoo, no problem!”

“let’s go! Tabetai”

They were walking away at this point but could still hear them.

They sounded like they were seriously just conversing in English and not doing it to tease each other. Never experienced that before it and it was kinda cute hearing them talk while switching between two languages even in small phrases. That’s all.

17 comments
  1. Nothing more Japanese than tailing and eavesdropping on high school girls. Good job OP.

  2. The Azabu area in Tokyo has a lot of people walking around talking like this. Anywhere with a very internationalized community will be similar.

  3. It’s called “chanpongo”, mixing of languages and comes natural to many half-Japanese/returnee/international school kids.

  4. ive heard something similar too, not high school kids but younger, maybe middle school or elementary. It sounded more like they we’re having fun and messing around tho, most likely after watching an English movie or something.

  5. International school kids. My cousin’s kids went to international school and would speak like that, despite both of their parents being only Japanese speakers.
    Personally I find it sort of bothersome, as a native speaker of both languages myself, especially when they do it just to show off

  6. I once sat next to a young couple on a train practicing English with each other by discussing the video game Identity V in broken English. It was very cute lol. They were giving each other notes in Japanese after every sentence too.

  7. Me and my friends were having ice cream by the road, and a Japanese girl with a confused look on her face noticed us and said to herself “Where is sebun erebun” (loud enough for us to hear) then proceeded towards the 7-11 😅 Guess she wanted to show off a little 😁

  8. Except for people very proficient in both languages it’s usually only for short commentary that you’d ever hear mixing of this type.

    For long-form conversation it’s easier to think in one language or the other and not mix.

  9. We do that all the time in Spain with English, especially younger millennials and younger lol

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