Would you like to go to a movie with me?

Would you like to go to a movie with me?

Once upon a time, there was a 50-year-old man who lived alone in Japan. He was single and wanted to find a partner for the rest of his life. So, he joined Hello Talk for that purpose. 

Three weeks later, he began to exchange messages with a Venusian who was also from Japan because she was a staff of the Venusian Embassy in Tokyo. They were communicating in English as the common language. As they messaged more and more, he eventually began to feel like going on a date with her.

One day, he got two movie tickets. He decided to invite her for the movie. Then, he thought about what to say. He wrote a sentence in English on a sheet of paper, “I have two tickets, so would you like to go to the movie theater tonight with me?" Then he translated it into Japanese, “私は、チケットを２枚持っていますが、あなたは私と一緒に、今夜映画館に行きませんか？” 

However, he thought that the Japanese sentence was somehow unnatural. "私は" and "あなたは" were the subjects of the sentence. They could be omitted as the Venusian would know that he was talking to her. He also thought that the word "私と" could also be omitted. He also paid attention to the word "館" which was a building of a movie theater but she would know that she and the man were going to the movie theater, not a place of movie taking. So, he cut it, too. He revised his sentence, “チケットを2枚持っていますが、一緒に今夜映画に行きませんか？” 

Japanese often say "～が有る" which literally means "There is something” or “There are somethings" when someone had something. He also thought about the word "一緒に" which meant "together.” He thought that she should be able to assume that he wanted to go to the movie theater with her. He finally completed the phrase, “チケットが2枚有りますが、今夜映画に行きませんか？” 

The man logged on Hello Talk and activated the video chat mode. He first sent the phrase in both English and Japanese. The Venusian accepted his invitation and went to the movie with him. They enjoyed their first date and fell in love.


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