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When you’re learning another language, nothing is more satisfying than being able to use that language to communicate with someone you wouldn’t otherwise be able to talk to in real-life.
It’s far more exciting than repeating boring drills from a textbook, and one English teacher in Japan who realized this decided to make an activity out of it, asking students to write to an overseas celebrity as a class assignment.
Twitter user @shiratuyu1114, who was a junior high school student at the time, decided to write to Austrian-American actor, producer, businessman, former bodybuilder, and ex-governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Not all celebrities reply to their fans, but Schwarzenegger ended up surprising this young Japanese student by having his team send a letter, along with a signed photograph. Needless to say, @shiratuyu1114 was over the moon to receive a reply from the 73-year-old star.
As the above image shows, Schwarzenegger may not have the time to personally respond to his own fan mail, but the fact that his production staff wrote back to the student shows the star has made replying to letters a top priority for his team.
Replying to mountains of letters is no easy task, though, and the length of time it took for the reply to make its way to the sender suggests Schwarzenegger receives a tonne of fan mail, as the now 17-year-old student received the reply on April 22.
People in Japan had nothing but praise for Arnie and the reply sent to the young student, giving the tweet over 229,000 likes and more than 34,000 retweets, along with comments like:
“Wow, I’m so jealous! You got a reply from the Terminator!”
“What a heartwarming story!”
“When I sent a letter to Coldplay for a similar assignment, a signed reply arrived a few months later and I cried in front of all my classmates.”
“I had the same assignment at my alma mater — I wrote to Harry Potter’s Daniel Radcliffe and I was so happy when I received a reply. I keep it in a special file and cherish it.”
“It’s nice to see well-known Hollywood stars run offices that are so fan-friendly.”
“English education in Japan can be boring so it’s good to raise students’ motivation with activities like this!”
This English lesson activity certainly left a lasting impression on @shiratuyu1114, who went on to say:
“To the teacher who was in charge of the English Department — thank you very much for your class at that time. I was able to receive a treasured item and have a really wonderful experience.”
What a heartwarming series of events! It just goes to show that treasuring your fans will result in them treasuring you in return, and Schwarzenegger has now made a few thousand lifelong fans in Japan. He’s also shown people that taking a step out of your comfort zone to communicate in a second language can be incredibly rewarding, which is something the Austrian-born American would have personal experience with as a non-native English speaker himself.
And kudos to the teacher for encouraging their students to communicate with an overseas star. Teaching isn’t just all about grades and textbooks — it’s about nurturing your student’s skills in a way that appeals to them, like this teacher did when reminding a young pupil to never give up on their dreams.
Source: Twitter/@shiratuyu1114 via Jin
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© SoraNews24
33 Comments
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Gaijinjland
Generic reply or not, it’s the thought that counts.
gogogo
It's a generic reply I'm sure everyone ngets the same thing.
factchecker
Arnie would be a better German teacher
Patrick Kimura-Macke
Many years ago I sent a sixtieth birthday card to Yoko Ono-Lennon. She wrote back with a hand written signed thank you note.
NOMINATION
This is actually one of hobbies. I send letters to celebrities abroad and domestic and request an autograph. Within Japan, I include a self-addressed stamped envelope so it will be free for them to send. Hard to do that from abroad celebs. So autographs from celebs abroad tend to be harder to get. Congrats to the student for at least getting something whether the autograph is legit or not.
1glenn
Good story.
snowymountainhell
“Chill out,...” EuroDude.
Don’t you agree? Some daily, light “Entertainment” stories like this one are very much needed on JT.
1glenn
I would point out that the reply was not actually from Arnold, but from his staff. Even so, I have heard from people that he is a pretty decent guy, when he isn't fooling around.
snowymountainhell
An additional bit of thought went into ‘personalizing’ the enclosed photo to a student. DustinSnipes.com is an extraordinary sports & celebrity photographer. So, not just the signed, typical celebrity ‘head-shot’ but a Polaroid-style, ‘candid’ print of a matured yet, “chill” Arnie against a brick wall with ‘guns ablazin’.
Plus, IF the signature’s is Arnold’s “authentic” and not a “secretarial”, it will be worth something, later. Frame it with the letter and the envelope, but DON’T laminate it.
bakakuma
Love Arnold. The world has definitely been influenced by him. Rags to Riches success story!
Gaijinjland
Arnie is one of the few Republican Celeb/ politicians I actually like. Sure, his personal life... well no comments haha! But he genuinely seems to care about his fans and would probably be a fun guy to have a beer with.
John Smith
"He comes to me for advices. So it's not that hard for me to give him the wrong advices."
Arnold Schwarzenegger - Pumping Iron
snowymountainhell
Sure thing, Killjoys.
And, @Mickelicious 6:43am Do you also want to ‘break the news’ to children about “Santa Claus”, too?
Moderator
Back on topic please.
starpunk
I met him at an autobiography signing. As a Republican he's pretty moderate, he mentions repeatedly that he has friends in both major parties because you have to work together. His friends have ranged from George H W Bush to Barack Obama. However, the GOP shunned him later on for being too 'progressive/liberal/whatever' and used the ugly fact that he fathered an illegitimate kid (but payed child support) as an excuse to leave him in the dust.
And you should see the 'Conan' inspired video message concerning what America is truly about that he made after the traitor Trump tried to overthrow the Capitol on Jan. 6. As an immigrant, he knows.
At the signing I actually had a brief conversation with Arnie in German. However, it was a little bit spotty because I was speaking in Hamburg dialect and he was in Vienna dialect. All languages have their regional differences. It was rather nice.
Luddite
Most celebrities send some kind of reply. If you write to The Queen her office responds.
snowymountainhell
Preferably, we would like “the Conan sword”. - https://twitter.com/Schwarzenegger/status/1348249481284874240
Richard Gallagher
Euro Dude. Hold your own! Indeed, it was from his 'team' not Arnie. Another weird syllogism. As if there is a T E A M sitting around, ready to jump into action. Personal assistant or secretary is more an apt descript of 'His Team'. Doubtful the Austrian Oak (good descript of a 'wooden actor) receives actual letters. He does receive untold numbers of twits on Twitter or other electronic means. Letters, very, very rare. Just ask the postman who delivers Arnold's mail. Odd he didn't actually reply, which means he never saw the letter. It was a team effort.
Boku Dayo
He said "I'll write back".
Paul
LOL A reply from Arnie???? You got to be joking!!! He is too busy being a superstar!!! Automatic reply system is in full swing, no human interaction necessary!
Mickelicious
Zero thought went into ‘personalizing*’ the enclosed photo to a student. Fantasy over.
Seesaw7
He certainly is not someone I'd like to speak in English to. As it is I am already tired of speaking English to non-native English speakers here in Japan.
Cognac
it's already on Yahoo Auction ahahahah
EvilBuddha
He should have personally replied to the kid - "Get to the choppa now. I'll be back, hasta la vista."
All right, I admit its an attempted poor joke but on an article about Arnie I could not resist commenting.
Kyakusenbi_Arimasu
Generic reply stated that what was included would be mailed back. Imagine if this kid mailed a car?
bass4funk
I think she might have been surprised that she even got one.
bass4funk
As a German speaker, sadly, he wouldn't.