How Japanese High Schoolers Treat British Students 

Hi, as a British person who has taught English in Japan for one school year I can say that most Japanese people think all western-looking foreigners are "American". To Japanese people "Americajin"(American) and "Gaijin"(foreigner) are equivalent words. They really can't tell the difference between an American and British accent. But when I would tell them I’m British they would get very very friendly and often will start telling me about which parts of the UK they have visited or would like to visit. Make of it what you will, but it seems to me the stereotypical self-effacing Brit has a better image than the stereotypical brash (and often, in Japan, military and so a bit scary) American.

"We were both idiots, so I gave up on everything." That's a mood.

Once my Japanese coworkers started asking me about a hurricane that was happening in America and asking me if my family was ok. I had no idea what they were talking about because I’m not from America, which I had told them multiple times, but I still appreciate that they were trying to be nice.

british person in japan: "wow, you're so cool!" american person in japan: "wow, you're so cool!" japanese person who doesn't watch one piece in japan: "wow, you must be american!"

I'm British, living in Japan, and can confirm the first thing anyone asks me about is Harry Potter This sketch plays out in my life at least once a week

As a German I don't have such problems. But I had the cliché experience, too. Some old man on a bike was driving arround our group. He made 3 circels arround us and listened to us speaking. Then he sudendly stopped in fron of us and shouted with some accent "Ich liebe dich" what means as much as "I love you" made a 180° turn and drove happy away.

イギリス人 here… this happened to me when I was working in an international school in Japan. I was one of the only Brits around as most of the staff were Japanese, American or Australian… so one of the students ended up saying to me “every time you speak I hear Harry Potter” 🙃🙃🙃

Imagine Sora as a professor at Hogwarts teaching spells like “memeicus dankorum” and “crigeium maximus”. Maybe “viginium foreverator”

Sora can't fail to make us laugh so hard, the dynamic between taku and peter is so typical, and Sora's monolog is anime-like deep.

"You drink tequila!" "Wingardium Laviosa!" "Americans are interesting" Sora : 😦 He already forgot that he's British. Had me rolling.

It's very true Sora. In Canada at least, someone saying something along the lines of "you look like you ________." will be taken as an insult, even if it's something positive. In English, when phasing something like this, you're either indirectly insulting someone ("You look like you like tequila = I think you're a raging alcoholic") or giving a backhanded compliment ("You look like you spent a lot of time getting ready this morning= can either mean: you have poor hygiene in general but decided to take care of yourself today, or you're a shallow person who only cares about physical appearances, or you're completely self-obsessed to have spent this long getting ready, etc.") A better way to say the same thing would be to ask if the person enjoys DOING the thing, and suggest that maybe you do it together sometime. "Hey, do you enjoy drinking tequila? If so, let's go out and have some together sometime." This implies that you also enjoy the thing you're asking about and are not indirectly shaming the other person for liking something that maybe you don't.

Can confirm. When I was in Saga an old lady approached me and my partner and asked him if I was American and she was immediately impressed when he said: "no she's British". It honestly confused me but apparently it's because of how we're portrayed in the media. Well, my friend got a shock when he came here (to Manchester) to study. He said one night he decided to go out and he needed to use a phonebox. When he opened the door an English woman looked up at him and cheerily said "you alright love?" while she was taking a piss. So yeah lower your expectations, for the majority of us it's a shit show here

I like how Sora told us before hand that he's not an accent guy LOL

"he's from UK! The land of gentlemen!" 🤣🤣🤣 Either way it's nice that Japanese people have a positive view of our country 😊

As an American, I've made jokes about my interactions with Japanese people. "Do you like Harry Potter? Have you been to Disneyland? Do you know BTS?" Sometimes, I get irritated by these common questions and then I remember the group calls (japanese and american mixed) I had with my friend who teaches me japanese and thought about all the americans asking about anime. I'm sure Japanese people feel the same way I feel when those topics are brought up.

"We were both idiots, so I gave up on everything" sounds like a mood

Sora is not a japanese because he doesnt watch anime lol

That leviosa correction came from the movie where Hermione corrects Ron's prononciation to cast Leviosa spell. I don't know why I'm explaining this.

You should do Canadian students next! Although we probably get mistaken for Americans even more, or get the “MAPLE SYRUP” “HOCKEY” bits instead of Harry Potter (can verify that a typical Canadian breakfast is licking maple syrup off our hockey sticks before riding the moose to Tim Hortons before our lumberjack job in -100 degree weather)

"Based on my experience, British people are good at making jokes like this and are quite funny" I have never been so goddamn proud to be British

At this point, Sora’s gonna need a DNA test to prove he’s Japanese

1:58 "he's from UK! The land of gentlemen!" Couldn't agree more, Taku!

More of Taku, Sora and other nationalities please.

As a brit, I see this as an absolute win

" ah I'm an idiot too , so I shouldn't call others idiots " the words of the year

Let me see. So basically, if you say "Hello, I'm American/British" you'll be automatically promoted to a "god" in Japan LMAO

Sora's content is getting more and more educational every day... No, I'm not being sarcastic

You have to finish this amazing trilogy with: "How Japanese High Schoolers Treat Australian Students". Your fans are crying out for the ending that they deserve.

I love how its 'Taku the Idiot' with lower case t, but 'Sora The Idiot' with capital letter T 😂

I’ve really been enjoying your videos! They are very funny and educational, it’s been helping me understand how to think Japanese which I’ve heard will help in learning to speak Japanese!😺

I dont know why. but this was one of the best videos of Sora till now about "my experience as a student". I loved everything, but mostyl the soundtrack from 2:00 and how at one Point he(as a third person) tried to imagine what was going on in Taku's head and IT was much better for us to understand that Taku's intention was a nice one, not a random joke for making fun of stereotypes

He’s pumping out educational contents right now.

I hope that someone from the world of cinema or series production get to see this content. Sora deserves to be on the big screens ❤

The part about Hanasu was very informative. I've had experiences like that with my japanese friends and I could never figure it out. Looking back this clears things up a bunch. Thanks!

I love "lost in translation" based comedy so much XD

Sora country speedrun content! Let's go! We need India and the Phillipines versions too since some of Sora's audiences are from South and Southeast Asia ❤️

Maybe its an Aussie thing, but if I was meeting someone for the first time and they said to me 'you look like you drink tequila!', I would just interpret that as a invitation to try some tequila or go drinking later.

It's not EMOTIONAL DAMAGE if you're W.E.E.B It''s Erectational DAMAGE

sora the consistent uploader

Okay Sora, at this point I am curious, could you do a video on how Australians are treated in Japan because I got a new job which will allow me to go to Japan this year and I want to be prepared! お願いします！

Okay this was funny. I’m curious about what they think of Australians now since you said America, UK, and Australians. Thank you for making me laugh.

Dude your videos makes me laugh a lot and keeps me in a good mood the whole day.

I feel like Peter and Taku became best friends after this 😂 also you've been on a roll with uploading lately.

"Ah, I'm an idiot too" LMAO, another hilarious video Sora :) You should do one about Australian students next :))))

This is the most chaotic video i've seen sora made and pretty funny

I think Igrisu probably is localisation of English which was ( and still ) used to refer to people of Britain. We have Something similar in Hindi called Angrej

I'd love to see more skits about British people in Japan, this was very amusing 😂

God-tier content my dude

This could be a great series not gonna lie

Today I learned that Sora was so bad at faking being Japanese when he was in school that even his friends called him out as actually being American.

would be interesting to hear about the australian exchange students

Unrelated to the video but Sora your music is great. I love the reality, faith was in me, goodbye and bunch more. I like your sketches but I hope you're still gonna make more songs in the future :) your voice is great and it fits to a lot of different types of songs

Well when I was in Japan 2 weeks ago I spoke with japanese and when I brought up that I am from Czech republic they immidietely recognized me and my country and they got really excited. It was also due to the fact that in that time world baseball championship was taken in Japan and we happened to get into this huge event. For CZ it was for the first time and japanese thought of us like a miracule. But everyone was so nice and talkative and wanted to know more about us.

3:27 He even spitted, great acting

This is how my brain functions as well: Nothing makes sense! 😀 This is epic! Best guy Taku! ❤

omg I didn't even realize what's wrong when Taku said "speak Harry Potter" until Sora explained it🤣

In Taku's thought process, we can see a genuine attempt to connect with Peter.

"Igirisu" is from Japanese pronouncing England. Since UK is known as England ever since historical times, and nowadays many countries still consider it as England and not calling UK. Serbia also UK calls England (Engleska) etc. x)

these vids always crack me up, youre awesome

Peter is definitely downing 5 Tequilas every Tuesday night

I lose it when taku forgot he was british hahahahahhhahaha 🤣😂

This is incredible. I love the concept of this video. I like the retelling of a story while also explaining all the cultural references and lost-in-translation moments. It makes for a very funny and very educational video.

Bro watching your videos makes me feel like I am watching a slice of life, comedy anime 😂😂❤❤

“It’s leviosa not leviosaa “ is movie dialogue from the first movie so Peter was trying to talk about the topic.

I can predict the title for next video:” How Australian Students are being treated at Japanese high school”

It's amazing how Sora can educate us for 5 minutes or less where a more serious J vlogger would take 10 to 20 minutes to explain.

This was an adorable story.

that LeviOsa at the end tho

I have to say your English is Amazing sora!!!! never seen a Japanese person with such firm and defined English also great video 👍

Couldn't stop bursting out in laughter. Thank you Sora, I needed that.

I’ve been specifically watching this type of videos. It’s hilarious and surprisingly, not cringe😂

Nah bro my man Taku needs a raise... fking promote him to a Detective already... Bro single-handedly exposes Sora's true identity everyday 💀💀💀💀💀

I’d find it hilarious and adorable if I was in Japan and someone said to me “WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA!!”

4:53 "It's LeviOOOsa, not LeviosAA!!" is my fav line from the 1st book/movie!!+ when I heard "Harry Potter" I became even more interested in this video!!!

"I think we're going to need another feather over here, Professor!"

hahahah awesome video!!

After picking on Americans, Kiyomi picks on British people.

Wow... Peter is super chill. Lucky that the idiots didn't have to face any harsh consequences for being idiots, haha 😅

I love your videos and share them with my friends!! I am american (Taiwanese on dad side, french german on mom side) and have a British friend and struggle with things, I thought I might write a note here based on things. it seems like when inflecting hard T's you have to leave them out, and that is ditto for most of the long expressions. they tend to be very short and abrupt, if you want to give it that "BRI' Ish" feel.

I think it will be interesting if you upload a video talking about the way japanese people see brazilians

The UK guy was definitely playing into the bit with the leviosa comment.

"Harry Potter is... Harry Potter" His brain was firing on all cylinders for that one

This is an amazing way to study hearing

Every video is entertaining to watch 😆 love it!

I was military stationed in Japan and had a few American friends visit. We were at a festival when a young Japanese man approached us and asked "where you from?" in rather good English. So my friends, who do not look Asian, said "America" and he nodded in acceptance. Then he turned to me (I am half Asian and have been mistaken for Japanese before) and asked me the same thing. I also said "America" and I could see the conflict on his face, and then he said "No" and walked away. I was not allowed to be from America.

hahahah that line realizing everything and just leave it alone and just forget it cuz I'm idiot as well. your pov story telling makes me to watch more.

Wow he almost nailed the English accent in saying Harry Potter! So was Peter-san named after Peter Rabbit? 😯

You sure have experienced a lot of things

So tense the conversation Sora

Oh, girl, what a trainwreck 😆 I wish my uni time was this funny

This is a work of art. I love this guy, I really do.

I keep forgetting sora is acting as everyone

I'm from Brazil and I'm curious about what people in Japan think about us, or what kind of subjects they think we'd like to talk about. Brazil has like the second biggest japanese population in the world, (only losing to Japan itself) and specially teens and young brazilian adults are basically fanboys of Japan because anime had such an HUGE impact on us. Hahah

These stories of personal experiences are so great.

genuinely curious as to how a japanese person would react to a scottish person. scots english is a colourfully chaotic variant of the language

Taku, he drinks warm beer, WARM BEER 🙄

Loving this series, lol

I can't tell if you know the "it's leviosa not leviosaaa" reference and that makes it even better

This one got a good chuckle out of me 😆. We need more stories of taku and sora

Peter 100% enjoyed meeting taku. English people really like the way Japanese people act and behave. There's just something very wholesome about it.