Good Morning!

________________________________________________

Welcome to The Coffee Shop, just for you early risers on Monday mornings.
This is an Open Thread forum, so if you have an off-topic opinion burning
a hole in your brainpan, feel free to add a comment.

________________________________________________

On a branch
floating downriver
a cricket, singing.

— Kobayashi Issa

________________________________________________

Learning another language is challenging, especially when the new language has a completely different alphabet from yours. But apparently the Japanese decided that they wanted to make learning English even more of a challenge by combining it with a morning workout routine. Some of what they are teaching is alarming —  what to say when you are mugged surely must be aimed at travelers to America — and some of it is just plain funny. Almost all of it is slightly off — the meaning is clear enough, but no native speaker would phrase it the way they do.

Americans trying to learn Japanese should take note — you may not be saying what you think you are.

________________________________________________

________________________________________________