Can the Smartest Japanese Students Speak English | Social Experiment 

What's great is not about their language proficiency, but their willingness and effort to understand and make sure another person is helped.

5:08 A bilingual med school student in the best university of Japan, she is every Asian parents dream.

I'm not a Japanese student but I used to be taught by Japanese professors. It's actually so hard to understand the whole lecture but the guts of these classes. In another hand, they are so kind, nice, and enthusiastic. Every time we wanna ask them, they always try to explain every detail. My friend told me that she sent the professor the email at night because she thinks he will answer tomorrow. But no, god. He answered immediately at 1a.m that night. I really really appreciate that.

AYE that one girl who spoke English really well was willing to WALK WITH YOU to the station and PAY and she SMART AND SHE FINE. Lordddd she is wifey material

They trying their best to help you.That is really kind of them

I would have loved to see everyone’s reaction after you showed them you could speak Japanese.

Bro dead went on a date with the one going to the station!! 😂😂😂

I always get secondhand embarrassment when it comes to social experiments like these. But that embarrassment soon went away as soon as you laid down your Japanese on a phone call in front of those girls! It was fun to watch! Japanese people are so kind too! 😆

Damn this is so wholesome! I love how polite and willing they are to help.

Lived in Japan for 5 years and experienced this myself, its in their nature to be helpful and kind! .... more of this videos, really love this Jesse!

The way all of them took the time to really try to help him out the best they could was really heartening. Had fun watching this video.

As a Japanese citizen, I can say with one hundred confidence that honesty and kindness helped students in the video prove that they are the smartest in a way. They should be proud of themselves as they worked hard to help a stranger and I do hope they will play a vital role in this world where one should catch up with radical changes. From the bottom of my heart I think that I am proud to be a citizen of this greatest country by encountering their brilliant gentleness.

Graduated from this university as an international student a year ago. Japanese students are so shy especially for undergraduate students, but for graduate students, I’m actually surprised they don’t mind to speak in English and they are actually good. You’ll realize Japanese people with decent English, usually have visited or experienced living abroad.

It’s so cute that even though they know they lack the skills to speak English but they still try their hardest to help

I was an English teacher for more than 6 years. We can always communicate even the basic way. As long as I can speak a little Japanese, I can guide them. The hesitation comes from the expectation in Japanese culture to be correct in any way possible. I always tell some students that accent does not matter as long as you enounciate it but... this will take too long to explain. and I love my Japanese students specially the elderly, the professionals and some housewives. I am mostly chosen by the older people because of my age. I just gave up teaching because of the internet connection. I visited Japan twice and if I visit every prefecture, I have a Japanese student/friend I can visit.

That medical science girl who walked together with you to the station is really nice, she almost give you some money and she speaks English really well too! Her English skill is easily the second best in this video after that big guy in white uniform. Anyway did you tell her in the end that this was just a prank? I really want to see her reaction

i love the captions underneath its helping me put together the japanese vocab ive been learning. thank u!

Been to japan many times Even if many don't know English..they are the sweetest people ever. If i ever had to ask directions to random people litrally all of them of all ages had helped me with some English words, some with hand action, many showed me gps on their phone and sometimes typed location my phone too. To tell me what time the shop will open or close they would show numbers by finger or on their phone keypad . They way they try their best to help was alwas so wonderful to see and experience

I just came back from Japan, young generations speak English pretty well, and everyone is so friendly, never being rejected by a single soul when I asked for help. Full of good memories there.

I travelled to Japan a few years back and I was so impressed by the people and culture. Everyone that I spoke to (in English) tried to help and apologized for not being able to help more. Also, moving around in various cities at night (and I mean really late) was so relaxing. I always felt safe. I started having thoughts about relocating there someday. It's still on my list, but I must first learn the language to some degree.

Japanese people are perhaps the nicest people on earth. Btw, knowing English doesn’t make a person smart or cool. It's just another language. Yes, knowing another language is handy but it's not a must.

That was wholesome and lovely. More like this please.

Tbh the moment I hear someone studying some cool majors like "forest biology" im getting so excited! Like man, she must really love what she is doing!

My main takeaway is that everybody was super friendly and went out of their way to help him. I find it striking that in a few instances, complete strangers laughed with him about their inability to communicate.

Laughter is the bridge that goes over every language barrier! 😂

Currently studying Japanese, I love that you put a translation in both language, it really helps.

I'm an ESL teacher teaching Japanese students, so I feel happy and proud that the people in the video still tried to help even though it's difficult for them to communicate. Most of my students can understand daily English conversations, they are just shy and afraid of making mistakes, so they don't know how to express themselves in English.

I just discovered your channel and what a good surprise, im French and I try to learn Japanese . Yours videos will be a great help in my adventure as you still put the subtitles English/Japanese 😭

4:05 "he should have asked me" the officer probably

That is so cool. And the Japanese students are so helpful. My deepest respect to the wonderful people of Japan.

It is as difficult for a Japanese person to speak English as it is for a native English speaker to speak Japanese.

It is not that their english education is bad, but rather the nature of their language is very apart from english which makes it hard for them to learn. Not only japanese and english are from two different language families (which means the way sentences structure are different), the alphabet and different pronounciations add to its complexity. You can see their effort and passion in learning english, it is just so hard for them. Edit: According to all the replies I have gotten over these five months, it appears that their education is actually bad. I blindly compared their education with my country only, and not with the entire world (and my country is very underwhelming in english education). Excuse my partial incorrect information.

This kind of videos make me work hard in studies so I can have a good earning and go to Japan someday with my friends. Such kind and helping people ❤. Truly majestic place.

this was brilliant!!! keep up the great work brudda

you need to do more of this and keep the after reveals later, thats usually the best part, way more fun to see their reaction after they realise it was a prank.

This video made my day ❤️ Japanese people are beautiful kind and amazing in Every sense❤️

That was awesome! The Japanese are so eager to help, even if they are not confident or don't know much English! Please, more of their reactions!

4:11 The fact that this made me realise that anyone could be filming you at any time and you wouldn't know..

5:12 - Medical science masters student from Tokyo University. Wow. No wonder her English is good.

8:52 he's the sweetest aawww

It's not the first time anyone's done this but always a good watch! Loved seeing their kind reactions ☮️🕊️

3:04 That "koko" thing cracks me up hehehhe!

2:11 She takes her time to calculate. 1 Minute. Cute tho ❤️

your videos are just amazing! I am self-studying japanese for a year now and I can understand most of your conversation.

This was fun. It was nice that everyone was so helpful. Clearly the medical student young lady now has a fanbase here. Ha. I can see why. I'm planning to go to Japan, and this video reinforces for me why I should keep studying Japanese. I learned some Spanish for my trip to Chile and Perú, and it was so useful to be able to ask for a ticket to a place in Spanish. I didn't speak well, and I couldn't understand most people, but it was better than nothing.

These guys and girls are well educated, polite and really helpful

japanese dont speak english not because they cant but they dont need to, thats what my japanese friend told me lol

英語を話せる人は沢山いますが、彼らのように賢い人は極わずかという事実は面白いです😂

They are so nice they try hard to explain thats impressive

東大生みんな優しいし落ち着いてるなぁ。

Man...i just love japan, the people the vibe the scenery...everything is just *cheff kiss* 👌

I am Japanese. In Japan, there are few opportunities to speak English. Although English is learned in the education system for university entrance exams, 99% of people are not required to speak English at Japanese companies. Most of the information in the world is translated into Japanese, and I have never felt inconvenient. For many of the students at the University of Tokyo, I think it was the first time they had the chance to practice real conversation in English. It shows that they can live in Japan with only Japanese.

Oh my God, some of them had such impressive accents and vocab! You wouldn't be able to tell them apart from an American just by listening. I wish I was that good at Japanese! x.x

5:49 that awkward airy "aH" I'm deeead

I really appreciate the fact that Japanese respect their language and culture....

I remember I talked to random tourists that were lost at the station in Japan to improve my English before leaving Japan for foreign countries 5 years ago. Actually it was nice experience for me as well. Because we don't really get the chance to talk with people from foreign countries in our daily life. Now I went back to Japan with my German husband after living in foreign countries for 5 years. When I asked random Japanese people which way we should go in Japanese, some people were trying to explain in Japanese but with body language because they thought I was also a foreigner as well 😅 But they were always helpful and kind and I was impressed even as Japanese how much they were trying to be helpful. Because here in Berlin, some people are super rude and I get offended super often.(Others are super nice)

Most wholesome one so far

Once I went to Osaka and was lost looking for the apartment. Apparently there was a new address naming in the area hence I was not able to find it. There was a random woman (quite eccentric clothing if we go by Japanese standard) who was not able to speak English at all came to help us. We were not even asking her but she came by herself. Unable to explain in english we talked with the universal language of hand gestures. In the end she was not able to find the address so she sent us to nearby police station lol. It was fun. And damn I cant believe there would be a random person that deliberately came to help us without being asked.

would be nice if you could show all the reveals in the end, I think that's the most entertaining part!

English and japanese is very big difference...the structure and pronounce is extremely different...it was kinda hard to learn english since studying japanese alone is hard enough...

日本人にとって英語を話す事よりも、聞き取る事の方が難しいことがほとんどです。 動画の方は全員が聞き取り理解しています。 とてもすごい事です。 大学生は速いスピードで話される英語を聞き取れない方の方が多いと思います。

This was amazing, more of this please !😂

These Japanese folks were so kind and sweet. They're just lovely. 👍

Hi, just asking, im a high school student here in japan, and ive been here for 4 years, i would love to see a video of foreigner students opinion,or their most hardest struggle

Mann this channel is soo underrated I love your vids keep it up man

Japanese peoples are so helpful and very gentleman human being in today's world 🌎😘😘

the ending message with the dude is nice but it's also scary being completely alone and having one person to rely on emotionally, but you'll never know unless you try. Multiple ways to feel less alone are healthier than overwhelming someone you care for.

Love your videos! Hope the next time I visit Japan/Tokyo I can sneak in :P

Koko. I love the girl who laugh when he says koko. That laugh and reaction made my day.

That video made me smile :) thanks man had a rough day! Dropped a sub and a like, keep it up! Really appreciate your hard work!

自分は数年前外国人の女の子に片言の日本語で何か聞かれたけどよくわからなくて逃げ去ってしまった…とても困ってる様子なのは見てとれたから後味の悪い思いをしました😭なので今度は自分なり対応できるよう準備はしておこうと反省しています

i love how kind they were to help you. cool thing to take consent before you post it out here!

4:48 bro secured a date looking for directions 😭

Great video! English isn't so easy how many think sometimes is difficult.

We don't use English every day. And we know we understand some basic terms. Sometimes we come across new words that have never been heard before. Maybe we understand the question But we don't know how to answer.

In my limited experience, one of the worst mistakes in learning a foreign language is not learning the right phonology from the beginning. Granted, vocabulary and grammar are important, but if you use the wrong sounds you will end up not understanding and being understood anyway. What happens with Japanese people learning English is probably that they focus on mimicking English pronunciation using the sounds associated with katakana, which are wildly different from the English ones. Also, Japanese sounds like it's very "syllable-oriented", so that the basic unit of information conveyed in a speech is not a single sound but a whole syllable. Given this premise, when many Japanese people try to say a word like "strange" they end up saying something like "suturainge", which is obviously very hard to understand, and hearing the same word they cannot easily decode it, because it doesn't map in their syllable "tool bag". The fact that English in particular has a really f___ed up phonology doesn't help either. I think speaking languages like Italian or Turkish would be much easier for Japanese people: they have pretty consistent pronunciation and sounds are not that different from the Japanese, unlike English. Unfortunately they also don't have the same status and widespread diffusion, so they receive less attention from students.

people thought having a vacation in japan (without tour guide) is difficult when we can't speak japanese. It is not true, trust me 😂 well,,,it is not that easy with only english, but that's the fun part!! Even if you can't speak in japanese, local people will try their best to make you understand without making you feel bad, or even worse in some other countries, harrass you because you can't speak their language. Especially when you try to communicate with youngsters in japan (like in this video), most of them are actually happy to try to communicating with foreigners. so don't be afraid if you can't speak japanese and want to go there 😉

0:57 "what's " *pronounces it in the most native tone I've ever heard*

Awesome video. But it’s also a chance for a good PSA: for anyone from monolingual anglophone countries, please don’t travel and speak to the locals and expect them to speak your language. Even if they do know English, you should at least try and make an attempt to learn and speak their language

明確な言語の壁にもかかわらず、みんなとても親切でした。私自身、英語は非常に難しく、数日で学習に飽きてしまいました。私は複数の言語を話す人を尊敬します。

@0:46 this girl's reaction is so cute lol

I love how he immediately says 学食 back with perfect pronunciation and it's not noticed 🤣

you should show more of the reactions speaking Japanese.

he went to check for what store it was to make sure>? Damn these people are kind

It's never been more obvious to me that intelligence = nice than in this video.

the only thing I find funny is how much funding goes into it. Here in the states we don't put all that much if any funding. still, if you're not personally interested, its hard to learn another language. Not like us americans are picking up spanish and french lol, they did a lot better most anyone I know who took an elective language.

喋るの苦手な人も多いかもだけどみんな当たり前に一度で聞き取れてるのがすごい。やっぱ東大生なんだなぁと思いました！英語圏の人からしたら驚きないんだろうけど…(そういうコメント見当たらなかった)

Japanese people do have difficulty when talking in English. My family and I have been to Tokyo once, and every time we would ask for directions, we would have trouble understanding what they are trying to say to us. I do, however, appreciate that we’ve met some few Japanese people who are indeed fluent English speakers. They really did help us out a lot. This video really shines light on stereotypes that some may find interesting to know more about in detail.

This is soo wholesome :D

日本人の半分以上はこの動画の人より英語が喋れません。私がそうです。

i've wanted to see this kinda Vidoe in japan thanks for the work bo!!!

Good English is not a measure of intelligence.

Solid video, good experiment not too disruptive let people get on with their day honestly what you love to see on prank RU-vid.

5:57 "okok" Jesse 😊

3:50 akaza mitsuri 💀

Everyone is so nice They all willingly to help you

I honestly wanted to see the reaction of all the other students, especially that kind lady who was pulled out her wallet instantly as soon as she heard you lost yours

Wow! You grew up in Japan and still learnt english like a native, amazing

2:35 hahaha amazing, perfectly subtitled the American “pitch accent”

At least they can understand it.