"Next stop, Asakusa. Asakusa. Please exit on the right side."
When Ren Suo exited the Ginza Line Asakusa Station, he could already understand the subway announcements. This wasn't by matching the sounds to his native language, but by subconsciously knowing the meaning behind the words. His comprehension in Japanese wasn't much different from his English proficiency.
The most crucial step in learning a foreign language is to bypass the 'native language comparison' stage. Ren Suo had studied English for eleven years (three years in primary school, three in middle school, three in high school, and two in college) but still couldn't manage this. It wasn't until he was forced to spend a total of eight hours in the little black room that his Comprehension, enhanced by props and a Bond, allowed him to finally cross this threshold.
Now, to reach an elementary level in Japanese, he had only spent… 100 minutes.
