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Hi everyone, I'm Rie Shingu from Nagazaka46.
Today we came to this cafe in Shimokitazawa
to have a conversation by English.
So, I'm gonna go here.
Greece.
Yes, thank you, Greece.
Me too.
No way.
It's not too sweet.
Ta-da!
Nice.
I'm kind of nervous.
Hi!
Hey!
I'm Ray.
Welcome, Ray.
Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you as well.
Is it okay to sit here?
Please have a seat.
Hi!
I'm Ray.
Nice to meet you, Ray.
Nice to meet you.
I'm Natsu.
Natsu.
Nice to meet you.
And you?
My name is Ari.
Hello.
Hi.
And I'm Maddy.
Maddy.
Hi.
Nice to meet you.
I'm kind of nervous.
No, you don't have to.
It's just for fun.
You don't have to.
Thank you.
Can I hear about Lanco?
Lanco.
Lanco?
Lanco.
Lanco, basically, it's an English conversation cafe.
And we have many cafes around Tokyo, actually.
And so, at Lanco, we have mates.
So, kind of like us, here.
Like the teacher, kind of.
But we don't call ourselves teacher.
We're more like a friend.
And then, for the students, they are our members.
Not student.
Members.
Kind of like friends, right?
And then, every day, we go to each of these cafes.
And then, we sit at a table and just enjoy talking to each other.
Oh, nice.
Yeah.
And do, like, culture exchange, or tell stories, or just have a good time.
And practice English in the process.
So, simply, that's what Lanco is.
Yeah.
Yeah, and also, Lanco is actually Lin.
Right.
Culture.
So, it's about language and culture. As you can see, we're from everywhere on the world, right?
From every corner.
Every corner.
Every single country, maybe.
So, you also get to know about culture, not only language here.
Where did you learn English?
I used to live in California for like five years when I was in elementary school.
So, I think I almost forgot.
I think you're doing a great job, actually.
That's amazing.
So, do you travel a lot abroad?
Oh, yes. I went to Taiwan.
Okay.
Yeah, and Korea.
And I also went to Portland in Oregon.
Okay.
Yeah, with my family.
Awesome.
My sister.
Is there any country that you want to visit next?
I never went to Europe, so Korea.
So sad.
I'm from Europe, actually.
Oh, really?
Which country do you think I'm from?
That's really tough to guess.
Europe is really tough.
Yes, it's really tough.
I guess Italy?
Italy. That's very close, actually.
It's close?
It's quite close.
It's another country with many, many islands.
UK?
Good guess.
It's like next to Italy.
It's famous for history.
Very, very long history.
Greece.
Greece?
Yes, thank you.
Greece!
Where are you from?
Thank you.
In between?
Because sometimes just water is too boring.
I want some flavor.
The thing is that, I don't know, you've never been to Europe, you said, right?
But when you go to Europe, every tea they're selling is actually sugar tea.
So it's like iced tea.
It's tea that tastes like peach with sugar, kind of thing.
That was like one of my culture shock when I went to America.
I think you know too because you were in California.
It's super sweet.
Super, super sweet.
It's like juice.
I saw green tea at the store. I was like, I miss green tea, right? I come from here.
So I tried it, green tea in America. It tasted like lemonade to me, like very sweet.
Alright, let me ask this. If you think about something sweet, do you prefer the Japanese type sweet?
Like anko and stuff like that? Or do you prefer the western type sweet, you know, like doughnuts
and like Mont Blanc or something? Isn't it? Where do you see yourself more drawn to when you want to eat something sweet?
Like for now, I'm 19 years old now and I used to like those western sweet cake, doughnut.
But for now, I think I like more Japanese wagashi. I get that.
I'm there too actually. When I came to Japan the first time and I ate, how do you call the fish?
What is that?
I heard people think it's actually fish.
Why is it a fish and why does it taste sweet, right? Like we don't really get the combination.
So when I took a bite, I was like, oh, it's sweet.
And it's like something that we never tried before but now actually I love taiyaki. I have a stamp card in my wallet.
Yeah, I love that. It's nice.
What's your favorite Japanese sweet?
Me too. No way. There's no way. I love that.
It's really common thing that Japanese people say, but it's not too sweet.
It's a compliment in Japan.
If someone takes something sweet and eats it, it's good. It's not too sweet.
We order dessert because we want something sweet and we eat the compliment.
It's good. It's not too sweet.
In Europe, if you say it's not too sweet, it's not a compliment.
We need more sugar.
Where did you learn English?
I went to Japanese school until I was 17.
And I actually didn't like English at all.
I couldn't speak English and I didn't enjoy it. I didn't like it.
But I used to do ballet.
So I went to America for studying ballet.
And that's when I met people from all over the world who have the same interest.
So I really wanted to talk in English to communicate with them.
So for me, because of the situation and environment, I really had to get it.
So I guess how I learned English was just by having conversations.
And making friends, I would say.
I didn't really study to be honest, I practiced.
How about you though?
Oh, I don't know, I think it's natural.
I was so young, like 5, so I think I mastered English in about like 2 months.
Oh wow.
The younger the faster.
I learned it so fast, but...
You forgot it as fast.
It makes sense, if you don't speak the language, you forget it.
It's like playing an instrument, you know.
When you came back to Japan, how was your Japanese?
Did you forget anything?
I couldn't speak.
I went to the Japanese school once in a week when I was living there.
So I could write kanji, but it's just a little bit.
Not like the students in Japan.
So I really worked hard.
Actually what I'm scared of the most is keigo.
I saw that and I was like, it's okay.
I'm scared too.
Yeah, I'm scared too.
How do you understand or remember keigo?
Because for me as a learner, I can't remember everything.
There's so many levels.
We learned it in high school, a little bit, but I think that's not enough.
I think I search it.
Is this okay?
I think everyone's searching here.
Everyone doesn't know the correct.
But still, keigo is when I give up.
That's why I give up.
If someone tells me you can only speak keigo, then I say, I don't speak any Japanese.
You just pretend like you don't know anything.
Just English, guys.
To sum up today's lesson,
we often use the word coffee person in conversation.
Today, we're going to talk about coffee person and tea person.
Coffee person.
Tea person.
Something like that.
Mountain person.
Sea person.
Something like that.
Coffee person.
The second one.
Do you prefer...
Which one do you prefer?
Something like that.
Do you prefer Japanese sweets or Western sweets?
Yeah, that was the conversation.
We use it a lot.
Do you prefer...
Please remember.
Thank you very much.