I met this guy two years ago. While I was in a cherry picker basket (I was not picking cherries) way up. He started talking to me in Japanese from the ground. I was taking a team photo of a football team in a shaky basket. I was very confused then. I did not see him at last year's shoot. But today I saw him walking towards a cherry picker truck. So I said, "Ohayou=good morning". He came to me and said, “Bikkurishita=I was surprised." We had conversation in English and Japanese. One thing we did not do was putting a Japanese word in English sentences vice versa. People who do not know foreign languages put foreign words in sentences. To me it sounds just awful.His parents (Lutheran church) were in Japan for years and he spent most of his childhood in Japan. He speaks perfect Japanese. It is just so cool to hear perfect Japanese from an American person. I never met anyone who speaks Japanese like a native. I always hear wrong words for Keigo (you have to choose right words depending on whom you are talking to) That bothers me though I do respect people who try to speak a foreign language.
Later I found out he knows people whom I know in Japan. Yea, I met this American person who speaks perfect Japanese two years ago and today I saw him again and found out he is a friend with people whom I have known about twenty five years. What a small world! I used to listen to Lutheran church radio show every night in Japan over thirty years ago. I wanted to ask him if his parents knew the Lutheran minister on the radio show. Weill, I hope I will see him again next year.
