Алина,

Thank you so much! The both stories are interesting!

Ah, some French people might not want to speak English... I haven't heard of the reason, so it helps me to understand it.

About in Japan, the fact that even though you spoke to Japanese people in Japanese, they replied in English is funny^^I think they were confused, and automatically thought they sould have spoken to a foreigner in English.

Vy nguyen,

Thank you so much for talking about your experience in Japan

I personally think some Japanese people regard English speakers as kind of a superman or a superwoman. Also I think there is no necessity for most Japanese people to be able to speak English, so it makes them think like that.

It's possible that written English is easier for Japanese people to understand^^

Lidiya,

Which example are you talking about, the one in France or in Japan?

I also had trouble in France. I heard that some French people may be not willing to speak English just because of the history between the two countries. But this is of course generalisation and many people are just not used to use the language often.

In Japan people often had troubles if they had to reply in English. I think they are mostly too shy rather then having poor English skill. That was kind of funny also that every time that I addressed Japanese people in Japanese (when in Japan), they would start replying me in simple English or even using hand gestures instead of Japanese. I think my European face confuses them a lot. :) In Tokyo and Kyoto people are very used to foreigners, but just take half an hour train outside of these cities, and gaijin's are still a curiosity.