Becoming a Mascot made me fall in love with Japan! はじめまして！

Introduce Yourself Here
#1

Wow! Where to start!

My name is Andrew Gibler and I’m a big fan of this conference!

I’m from Kansas City in the United States and barely touched languages. I wanted to be a pro mascot a MLB team in the states and amazingly I got an offer to apply for a mascot for a baseball team in Hiroshima, Japan and got the job.

Next thing I know, I’m in a company where no one spoke English and it was sink or swim, but boy did I have fun swimming with James Heisig Remembering the Kanji, Stickystudy app, and next thing I knew I met the love of my life and was interpreting for the foreign players on the team! Now, I do interpretations for foreigners who need to move into an apartment and a youtube channel showing off the city of Hiroshima.

I had an AMAZING time at the Fukuoka Polyglot Conference in 2019.

I’m working with friends on a learn English grammar through COMEDY online video series for Japanese people we are calling Skill Hunter English. I’m loving life in Japan learning Japanese and taking courses in Spanish (B1 ish level).

Hope to meet many wonderful people this week here. Love to chat so don’t be shy. Especially, if you have any tips on how you learn languages through comedy, if you are Japanese, or learning Japanese!!!

-Andrew in Japan

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#2

Welcome. I was last in Hiroshima in 1993. I lived in Tohoku, Aomori for 3 years.

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#3

Hello Chris,

That is amazing. Aomori dialect can be quite difficult from what I’ve seen!!

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#4

Hi Andrew,
Your experience really sounds like pure fun! Humor and love together must sky rocket your Japanese :grinning:
I do enjoy watching Dogen and the likes but probably not there yet, when it comes to more complicated shows/programs.
Maybe you should do some comedy video in Japanese too :wink:

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#5

Sarah,

Thanks for the encouragement! I would love to do some of that in the near future. I know the power of fun can really make a difference and maybe I can help others with that one day.

Dogen’s stuff is pretty high level, but so funny. Make I can start with breakdowns and reactions to Dogen’s videos. Would you like to see something like that? :slight_smile:

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#6

津軽弁 is THE BOMB and stands out like 鹿児島弁 for being so different!!

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#7

You know it best. I have to go watch your presentation on YT again. :smiley:

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#8

Hi Andrew! Were you a mascot for Carps?? Interesting way to get to Hiroshima :slight_smile: Nice to meet you! I am your neighbor at Fukuyama!

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#9

That is right Aracely ! Wow, you are so close. Very nice to meet you and yes it was a very interesting way to get to Hiroshima. :slight_smile:

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#10

Breakdowns would be cool! Something like why it’s funny, or going deeper into the background of (stereotypic) jokes.

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#11

Thanks for the support. I guess I got the gist of Japanese dialects, but it’s different to live in a different region and having to adapt again. I guess I’ll stick with 大阪弁 only :smiley:

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#12

Great stories here! Welcome to the conference!

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#13

That is great to hear Sarah. This is definitely something I’d like to try and do in the somewhat near future. Glad to hear that you’d like to watch something like this as it is more encouragement to get started!

#14

Sticking with Osaka-ben will help you blend in with all those comedians on TV :stuck_out_tongue:

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#15

Thanks Zeina! It’s a great place to connect.

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#16

I guess that´s the best usage for Osaka-ben. It’s 「なんでやねん」all the time :smiley:

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