Though all high school students have taken years of mandatory English lessons, Japanese people are very shy about speaking English. If you ask "do you speak English" in English, more than likely you’ll get an embarrassed "no" and flustered arm waving. But once you learn how to ask if they speak English in Japanese (excuse me – sue-me-maa-senn, do you speak English – Eggo ga wa-car-rhee-maas-ka?) they’ll more likely reply with chotto – a little, and eke out some words for you.

You’re exposed to other basics in the TokyoTV segment but our best suggestion would be to take the time to really learn basic conversational Japanese – in the past we’ve found the introductory Pimsleur Japanese lessons useful, and if you want to learn to read and write also, Human Japanese is a great app – there’s even a free version if you want to try it out first.