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We recently came across this article on English pick up lines for Japanese guys wanting to get ‘close’ to women while they’re on holiday abroad. Some of the tips are a little out there, though. What do you make of the advice offered?

The author of the R25 article speaks with best-selling author David Thayne, who writes books on English language for Japanese people, or at least puts his smiling face on them. He has created a whole brand out of telling Japanese people how the English they’ve been taught in school is wrong, with books including the Native Teacher series, Japanese People’s Weird English, and English Japanese People Overuse. David offers his own suggestions for English pick-up lines that Japanese men can employ when trying to hit on foreign women, but we’re not sure if some of it would go down especially well.

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  • So the first thing the author wants to know know of David is how to start a conversation with a girl?

According to David, the best way is to first ask ‘Hi! How’s it going?’. If she replies in a cheerful voice with ‘Really good!’ then you might be in with a chance (unless you’re one of those types who has to point out that Superman does “good”; the rest of us do “well”…). But if all you get is an ‘Okay’, then that could be seen as a bit of a put down. Remember to check out her expression as she responds!

  • If you get a good response, what’s the next step?

Be aware that ‘Are you free tonight?’ has that kind of nuance, David tells him. But if you stick an ‘Oh!’ in front of it as though you’ve just though of something, then it sounds less lascivious. Hmm, I can just imagine the terribly over rehearsed ‘oh’s this will result in…

  • The author of the article then wonders if it’s okay to ask ‘Do you have a boyfriend?’

Thankfully, David says that it’s a bit too direct and could be taken in numerous ways. If you really want to ask, he says, then you can use the phrase ‘Is there someone special?’, and they’ll get the idea. I have to say that, personally, I would be way more turned off by the latter of these phrases. There’s just something slimy about the way it tries to be indirect, while still basically asking the exact same question.

  • Making a massive leap, the author now wants to know how to profess their love.

“Can I say ‘I love you?'” the author then asks David. The English expert simply laughs and advises that if you suddenly come out with ‘I love you’ then the person you’re talking to probably won’t believe you. He thinks it’s better to show how much you like them with praising phrases such as ‘You’re such a cool person’ or ‘You’re so cool!’ And if you get the right mood going, there’s ‘Let’s go together’, a phrase which I personally have never heard in my life outside of old American teen movies, but there you go!

The article ends with some final tips from David, who advises his English-learning Casanova that even if you get tongue tied, remember to keep smiling. Japanese people often look super serious when they’re nervously trying to speak English, but that makes you look like a creep. “Smile even if you don’t know what’s going on!” David tells him.

Having experienced being the foreigner in a strange land who has no idea what people are saying, I can definitely agree with this last piece of advice. The rest of it? Well, if they have a bit more English in their repertoire for an actual conversation then I’m sure some guys will get lucky, but if this is all they’re armed with then they’d better at least be seriously good-looking…

Source: Web R25
Images: YouTube, Cheer Up! English