[tommasi]

Sorry for the double post but another thing I want to emphasize is people's ability to speak the local tongue.

I run into to people who lived in Japan time to time and many of them act as if they are specialists and know everything about Japan.

I'm a nice guy so I won't challenge them and let them have it but I always ask them one question, "Do you speak Japanese?"

In many cases, people don't.

They think they do but in reality, they don't.

I can see why Japanese people want to ask foreigners every time whether they speak Japanese or not because not many people are fluent and the ones who are fluent are rare.

My advise is that before you claim yourselves as Japan experts, make sure to get JLPT1 or 2 and then people will take your words seriously.