You try and study a language and you find that maybe you're not making as much progress as you'd like. It seems like you still can't speak your mind and you can't order a pizza that's not covered in mayonnaise and seaweed. It's downright discouraging. But then something happens to make you feel like you've learned a little something.

Like seeing a couple saying goodnight. You're walking down the street, it's around 12:20 AM on a tuesday night and you're tired from ten hours of trying to coax conversations out of a bunch of dead-eyed office workers who complain they haven't made any progress despite spending a whole 40 minutes practicing once every three weeks, and your only concern is not spilling your beer. And then you realize that you can understand the scene...

The setting is a cool Tokyo night. The streetlights are reflected in the rain puddles on the street and a couple has just come out of a karaoke lounge in a bedroom community on the outskirts of town. The lady is dressed casually in jeans, a t-shirt and camisole and white keds. The guy is wearing a hawaiian print shirt buttoned up to the neck and tucked into his pleated, ironed chinos which have been cuffed and hemmed with precise 2 cm cuffs.

Guy: konban wa tottemo tanoshikatta yo.
Girl: mn. zembu de arigatou. sa, teokure na.
Guy: mo ichido, aitai yo ne.
Girl: ehh, ano, oyasumi nasai.
Guy: jikai, Aoyama de tabemashoo ka.
Girl: ja, e, oyasumi nasai.
Guy: e too, sou, aa...
Girl: sou, oyasumi nasai. bye-bye.
Guy: aa, so. oyasumi nasai.

Funny how some things don't change much from culture to culture.