Why L and R sound the same to Japanese (Captioned)

I love Bernard Werber's Encyclopedie de Savoir Relatif et Absolu. Today it helped me understand why sometimes Japanese people can't tell the difference between "directly" and "directory". There's some (badly pronounced) French coming up, so please turn on the captions!

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[uzerofutube]

All I see is invisible caption, you mind telling us in what language the caption is?

[mspetitegeek]

@uzerofutube The captions should be in English, a translation from French. Does it not appear when you press the CC button?

[Dragonfyre137]

I stopped watching when I realized it's french....

[mspetitegeek]

@Dragonfyre137 Is that a knock against French, or are your captions not on? ;)

[andydrewy]

The cat study reminds me of something I heard about in a Google Techtalk on language a while back. There's an Australian Aboriginal tribe called the Thaayorre whose language doesn't have words for "left" and "right"; just absolute directions like "north," "south," "east," and "west". Because of that, the people there have an amazing sense of direction (despite not knowing their left from their right). Anyway, cool video! The French sounded great to me :)

[mspetitegeek]

@andydrewy Interesting! To them, our sense of direction must be so impoverished. "What, you can't tell the difference between NNNNNW and NNNNW?"

[mspetitegeek]

@SE962582C Thanks, I'll take that under consideration. You should probably look into removing all that asshole from your face, too. ^_^

[Alexanderzxy]

I have to say that this Japanese girl is genius. English is already very difficult for them and this girl can speak both English and Français. However, who are the target audiences, people who live in ottawa?

[Fagottron]

@alaynaabnormal I agree. She's sexy, too.

[MultiImpact12]

your pretty

[SE962582C]

@mspetitegeek Upon reflection it was most ungentlemanly of me, as a man, to make such an unworthy comment to a lady apparently of refinement, especially to a person labouring under disabilities, incapacity and invalidity, and I do hereby tender my most humble, faithful and sincere apologies.

[Foilsdown]

raff out roud

[SmallGodFly]

Tres bonne francais! And a very thought provoking extract!

And you're very cute, ignore the mole haters. Haters gonna hate. ;)

[alaynaabnormal]

I think her mole is cute! Something you don't see everyday. :)

[TheZeup2000]

I am a Francophile and I stumbled upon your video randomly, just to find out exactly 'Why L and R sound the same to Japanese,' and got a pleasant surprise with your french. My goodness...

[secutorclaudius]

moley moley moley!! very sexy girl though. pants down to you.

[maromikun]

I couldn't watch this for the annoying beeping. Feels like I have fucking tinnitus. Ugh.