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The Night I Discovered a New Level in Japanese
A bar, a friend and the cops triggered an eye-opening experience
In 2012, I was doing an exchange program in Japan. I met a ton of nice people and hung out with them daily. Each time, I had fun and learned a lot about the world.
One night, we were at a bar we often visited. An all-you-can-drink party was the plan and we were rocking that plan. A whole bunch of foreigners in the corner, having fun.
One of them was a French guy who couldn’t handle his alcohol much. He did like to drink but often let himself go a bit too far. That night? It went way too far. He started vomiting and passed out in the middle of the bar.
As we dragged him outside for some fresh air, he kept on waking up to vomit before passing out again. Not a beautiful sight to see.
We got outside and started trying to wake him up. As I was the only other French around, I talked to him and saw his response timing get better. At first, it took him 5–6 minutes to reply just a single word.
By the time the police arrived to check on him, his replies took him 2 minutes. Not great. But definitely an improvement.
Of course, I was far from being sober, too. And yet, as the only person who could speak both French and…
