# Japanese instructional video for what to do if you're robbed! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 11, 2006, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japanese-instructional-video-for-what-to-do-if-youre-robbed/364094 "2006-07-11T22:51:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japanese-instructional-video-for-what-to-do-if-youre-robbed/364094/21 "2006-07-12T02:58:01Z")
Can someone please explain to me what in the _fuck_ this is all about? Does the robo-aerobics squad and their 70s-synth soundtrack make for an especially effective mnemonic device when teaching young Japanese women what to do when being robbed by two men in the US? Is this for real? Do people watch these things before visiting California or something? Because, ladies, your mugging will _not_ in any way resemble this video. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japanese-instructional-video-for-what-to-do-if-youre-robbed/364094/22 "2006-07-12T02:59:14Z")
:eek: I’ve never had the feeling that my HD display panel was three-dimensional before… ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japanese-instructional-video-for-what-to-do-if-youre-robbed/364094/23 "2006-07-12T03:01:27Z")
There was a thread about a month ago about the same aerobics video, so I’ll just repeat what I said then. > [@me](#): > > a) The clothing and makeup styles look old. Like late-80’s / early 90’s. > > b) Around the time that Yoshihiro Hattori was murdered while going to a Halloween party in 1992, there was a brief “survival English” fad in Japan, teaching people what to say when they get attacked on their next trip to America. > > If I had to take a guess, someone tried to cash in on two fads at once and made a “learn English while you exercise” video that included a bunch of phrases about getting mugged. > > Weird. Not the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen, but weird. And no, Japan’s not different, it’s weird. And that’s exactly why I stay here. ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japanese-instructional-video-for-what-to-do-if-youre-robbed/364094/24 "2006-07-12T03:04:15Z")
Oh come on now. Everyone can see they’re fake. . . :dubious: Tripler The onion(s), that is. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japanese-instructional-video-for-what-to-do-if-youre-robbed/364094/25 "2006-07-12T04:01:21Z")
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? ---
**Author:** ![Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bambi_Hassenpfeffer)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japanese-instructional-video-for-what-to-do-if-youre-robbed/364094/26 "2006-07-12T15:52:07Z")
I love this series of videos, because they all crack me RIGHT UP. You can see many more [here on YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/results?search=zuiikin&search_type=search_videos&search=Search). The show’s Japanese homepage is [here](http://www.fujitv.co.jp/cs/program/7395_014.html); using Google’s translation service and some other pages, I can sort of figure out what’s going on. This series is based on the idea of using “muscle memory” and repetition to learn such useful phrases as “How dare you say such a thing to me” and “You must be tired from your long flight”. Also, Google translate gave me this gem: “You quarrel with long palm muscle”. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japanese-instructional-video-for-what-to-do-if-youre-robbed/364094/27 "2006-07-12T16:07:16Z")
> [@Case Sensitive](#): > > It’s cool. My wife’s Japanese, and I get touchy about this stuff. Heh, my boyfriend’s Chinese, I’m the same way. I get more touchy abut chinese stereotypes than I ever would about American. Corporate Hippie, thanks for the apology. BrainWreck, this is MPSIMS. Keep your insults for the Pit. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2006, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japanese-instructional-video-for-what-to-do-if-youre-robbed/364094/28 "2006-07-13T00:42:03Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > BrainWreck, this is MPSIMS. Keep your insults for the Pit. Did you even notice what I was responding to? > [@Case Sensitive](#): > > Let’s point and laugh at the funny foreigners! Dickhead. How’s your Japanese? He says dickhead, I say dickhead, I’m like playing off him, you see? If you’re going to play junior mod, you need to pay closer attention. ---
**Author:** ![blinkingblinking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea5d25/32.png) [@blinkingblinking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blinkingblinking)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2006, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japanese-instructional-video-for-what-to-do-if-youre-robbed/364094/29 "2006-07-13T01:01:58Z")
[QUOTE=Loopydude] Can someone please explain to me what in the _fuck_ this is all about? Does the robo-aerobics squad and their 70s-synth soundtrack make for an especially effective mnemonic device when teaching young Japanese women what to do when being robbed by two men in the US? Is this for real? Do people watch these things before visiting California or something? Because, ladies, your mugging will _not_ in any way resemble this video.[/QUOT In 1992 a Japanese student was shot in America going into the wrong house looking for a Halloween party because he didn’t understand the word “freeze” when he went to the wrong house aguy pulled a gun on him and told him to freeze. Many schools in Japan started teaching ‘survival English’. This is a real example. Not a joke. I taught in Japan and they wanted me to teach ‘survival English’ I refused ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2006, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japanese-instructional-video-for-what-to-do-if-youre-robbed/364094/30 "2006-07-13T01:13:05Z")
> [@blinkingblinking](#): > > In 1992 a Japanese student was shot in America going into the wrong house looking for a Halloween party because he didn’t understand the word “freeze” when he went to the wrong house aguy pulled a gun on him and told him to freeze. Many schools in Japan started teaching ‘survival English’. > This is a real example. Not a joke. That’s what’s so funny. They are taking a deadly serious English lesson and teaching it with Aerobics, using outdated expressions and poor pronounciation. > [@](#): > > I taught in Japan and they wanted me to teach ‘survival English’ I refused. Why would you refuse an opportunity to teach something useful and important? Let me guess, were you a JET? ---
**Author:** ![tremorviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2006, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japanese-instructional-video-for-what-to-do-if-youre-robbed/364094/31 "2006-07-13T01:14:52Z")
Wath the one titled [Last Episdoe](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7kpnQ7yoPQ&mode=related&search=). The bald guy explains that the series is so popular he’s doing on for foreigners who wish to learn Japanese phrases. He also explains that the Japanese use different muscles because of the bowing and not sitting in chairs and, I think, the exercises are part of a nutty theory that to speak a language, you must use the same muscles as the natives. :dubious: BTW, the dancers on this one are male. Check out the middle guy, I think he’s smuggling ume (Japanese plums)… ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2006, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japanese-instructional-video-for-what-to-do-if-youre-robbed/364094/32 "2006-07-13T01:37:49Z")
> [@tremorviolet](#): > > Wath the one titled [Last Episdoe](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7kpnQ7yoPQ&mode=related&search=). The bald guy explains that the series is so popular he’s doing on for foreigners who wish to learn Japanese phrases. He also explains that the Japanese use different muscles because of the bowing and not sitting in chairs and, I think, the exercises are part of a nutty theory that to speak a language, you must use the same muscles as the natives. :dubious: OK, so I was at a loss as to whether the title was “deltoid trouble” or “bandanna trouble” because _sankakukin_ could be either one. I decided it was “bandanna trouble” because the lobbers were wearing bandannas. But now with this weird muscle theory, maybe it was deltoids after all? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2006, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japanese-instructional-video-for-what-to-do-if-youre-robbed/364094/33 "2006-07-13T02:26:50Z")
Now I’ve got “I was robbed by twoooooo men” stuck in my head. And I feel bad for Harold Ramis - couldn’t they at least have let him play the boss mugger? And this wasn’t the strangest thing I saw on the internet today. ---
**Author:** ![blinkingblinking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea5d25/32.png) [@blinkingblinking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blinkingblinking)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2006, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japanese-instructional-video-for-what-to-do-if-youre-robbed/364094/34 "2006-07-13T03:56:48Z")
> [@Brain Wreck](#): > > Why would you refuse an opportunity to teach something useful and important? Let me guess, were you a JET? It is not useful and important. It is reinforcing the stereotype in Japan that everwhere else is so incredibly dangerous that they have to learn ‘survival English’. Sure Japan is very safe. But because of the shite of ‘survival English’ and other shite taught in Japan, many if not most Japanese think iverseas trips are too dangerous to take. I was not a Jet. ---
**Author:** ![blinkingblinking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea5d25/32.png) [@blinkingblinking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blinkingblinking)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2006, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japanese-instructional-video-for-what-to-do-if-youre-robbed/364094/35 "2006-07-13T03:57:58Z")
> [@blinkingblinking](#): > > It is not useful and important. It is reinforcing the stereotype in Japan that everwhere else is so incredibly dangerous that they have to learn ‘survival English’. Sure Japan is very safe. But because of the shite of ‘survival English’ and other shite taught in Japan, many if not most Japanese think iverseas trips are too dangerous to take. > > I was not a Jet. Overseas trips ---
**Author:** ![Corporate\_Hippie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/65b543/32.png) [@Corporate\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corporate_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2006, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japanese-instructional-video-for-what-to-do-if-youre-robbed/364094/36 "2006-07-13T04:20:00Z")
Here is another gem of a Japanese instructional video. This one is animated! [How to poop - Japanese potty training video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-UJXCw6vyk) ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2006, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japanese-instructional-video-for-what-to-do-if-youre-robbed/364094/37 "2006-07-13T04:42:22Z")
> [@blinkingblinking](#): > > It is not useful and important. It is reinforcing the stereotype in Japan that everwhere else is so incredibly dangerous that they have to learn ‘survival English’. Compared to Japan, the rest of the world _is_ that dangerous. Anyway, most travel courses have at least a passing section on crime and emergencies, this is nothing unusual. Except for the aerobic chanting. > [@](#): > > Sure Japan is very safe. But because of the shite of ‘survival English’ and other shite taught in Japan, many if not most Japanese think iverseas trips are too dangerous to take. Most Japanese are averse to overseas trips not especially because of crime but because their xenophobic insular mentality has taught them that the world is divided into two parts, Japan and _gaikoku_, and _gaikoku_ is a bizarre alien world devoid of the comforts of the Japanese mothership. I was trying to talk a Japanese buddy into coming to visit me in the US. He muttered and sucked air through his teeth and said “I don’t know, where would I get Japanese food? I bet you can’t get good rice over here.” I shit you not. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2006, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japanese-instructional-video-for-what-to-do-if-youre-robbed/364094/38 "2006-07-13T04:50:32Z")
> [@Brain Wreck](#): > > You like that? You’ll love this. > > URL=http://www.lez.hu/hentaitsop2.swf CGI anime girl in see-thru shirt swinging an onion and singing a Finnish scat folk song./URL] (NSFW, heavy flash animation) > > It’s the new mushroom mushroom badgers. Help me! Help me! I’ve been hypnotized! ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2006, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japanese-instructional-video-for-what-to-do-if-youre-robbed/364094/39 "2006-07-13T04:58:00Z")
> [@Brain Wreck](#): > > And how about that onion! It’s a [leek!](http://leekspin.com) ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2006, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japanese-instructional-video-for-what-to-do-if-youre-robbed/364094/40 "2006-07-13T12:15:21Z")
> [@Corporate Hippie](#): > > Here is another gem of a Japanese instructional video. This one is animated! > > [How to poop - Japanese potty training video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-UJXCw6vyk) :smack: I can’t believe I just watched this one. :rolleyes: It was complete with the Japanimation ‘parents’ singing ‘ooom pah pah’ with their kid, and at the tail end, a real live little boy taking a #2 on the toilet. Dear Lord, help us all. Tripler I mean, it could have been worse. It could have been “BANZAI!” ::plop:: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japanese-instructional-video-for-what-to-do-if-youre-robbed/364094.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japanese-instructional-video-for-what-to-do-if-youre-robbed/364094.md?page=3)