"How about some English?"

[u/Jeffrey_Friedl]

As I have at least 1,000 times before, on my bicycle I came up to a vehicle stopped at a light and let the driver know that their brake light was out. It's an easy, low-effort way to help people out.

This guy was on a beat-up old scooter, wearing a full-face helmet with big dark sunglasses. All I could see of his face was his nose and gray scruff, and he showed no response other than looking in my direction. We're in Japan and maybe my Japanese wasn't clear, so I said the same thing in a different way, saying that he should change the bulb on his brake light.

More stare, and then in a upper-class British English: "How about some English?"

Not "Sorry, I don't speak Japanese" or "Oh, do you speak English?".

"Fuck dude, we're in Japan and you have a full-face helmet on, what do you expect?" followed by "Your brake light is out."

More stare. No "Oh, thanks" or anything like that.

Sigh.

[Before anyone comments about it, I make sure to pull up in a nonthreatening way, keeping distance from the vehicle and pulling slightly forward before stopping so that they're not surprised by a big white dude addressing them from the corner of their eye. The vast majority of people are surprised and thankful to be told.]

[u/GinaMarie1958]

I was really grateful to the young man on a motorcycle who saw my bungi net entangled in my truck tire and let me know. Luckily it wasn’t too much of a mess to deal with.

Thank you for being you!