Japanese guys don’t want your Valentine’s Day chocolate anyway
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ハッピーバレンタインデー！ Happy Valentine's Day!
Valentine's Day in Japan is pretty different from the U.K. There's honmei choko (chocolate for someone you're into), giri choko (obligation chocolate), and even tomo choko (chocolate for friends)...
And a month later there's White Day to contend with…
One survey revealed that 90% of Japanese men said they didn't care about getting Valentine's Day chocolate, and wished women wouldn't bother.
Click here to read an article I wrote for SoraNews24 on the subject.
(It's from a couple of years ago, but I think it's still super relevant... especially on Valentine's Day).
Like many people in the UK, I studied French in school. I liked French. I thought it was really fun to speak another language, to talk with people, and to try and listen to what was going on in a new country. (Still do!)
When I was 14 we went on a school exchange to the city of Reims, in northeastern France. I was paired with a boy, which I’m sure some 14-year-olds would find very exciting but which I found unbearably awkward. He was very sweet and we completely ignored each other.
That was nearly 20 years ago, and I didn’t learn or use any more French until, at some point in lockdown, I decided on a whim to take some one-to-one lessons with online teachers. Here are some things I learned about French, about language learning, and about myself.