Learn English LingQ Podcast #:40 The Most Popular Commercial Actor in Japan! (1) Englisch lernen LingQ Podcast #:40 Der beliebteste Werbedarsteller in Japan! (1) Learn English LingQ Podcast #:40 The Most Popular Commercial Actor in Japan! (1) Aprende inglés LingQ Podcast #:40 ¡El actor comercial más popular de Japón! (1) Learn English LingQ Podcast #:40 日本で一番人気のCM俳優！(1) Leer Engels LingQ Podcast #:40 De Populairste Commerciële Acteur in Japan! (1) Learn English LingQ Podcast #:40 Najpopularniejszy aktor reklamowy w Japonii! (1) Aprenda Inglês LingQ Podcast #:40 O actor comercial mais popular do Japão! (1) Учим английский LingQ Podcast #:40 Самый популярный коммерческий актер в Японии! (1) Learn English LingQ Podcast #:40 Japonya'nın En Popüler Reklam Oyuncusu! (1) 学英语 LingQ 播客 #:40 日本最受欢迎的商业演员！ (1) 學英語 LingQ 播客 #:40 日本最受歡迎的商業演員！ (1)

Hello everyone and welcome to the LingQ podcast with me Elle.

Remember all you English learners listening I have created a lesson for you

out of this episode and all past episodes. 出局|||||||

You can always find the link to the English lesson in the description,

you can read as you listen, translating words and phrases.

You may notice that things look a little different, that is because we've done a

huge redesign it's basically a new app. |重新设计||||| |großes Redesign||||| |redesign|||||

With LingQ 5.0, you get a cleaner, more accessible library, more 使用|||||||||

comprehensive daily goal and streak system, expanded access to more ||||روند پیوسته||||| всеохоплю|||||||||

content, streamlined reader experience, a very cool listening experience |ساده‌سازی شده||||||| |optimierte||||||| |simplificada||||||| |simplificada||||||| |简化|||||||

listening mode is my favorite new feature I have to say, as well as other

customization options like dark mode. گزینه‌های سفارشی‌سازی||||

So go check it out if you haven't already.

This week's guest joins us from Japan and it is extremely early in the morning

so I very much appreciate him taking the time I'm joined this week by actor and

producer dante Carver, Dante how are you? |但丁|卡佛|||| |Dante|Carver(1)|||| ||Карвер|Данте||| ||Carver|||| ||کارور دانته|دانته|||

I'm good.

Thank you for having me.

Um, I know it may not be as early over there for you guys, but that you

may be busy so I appreciate you all taking the time to listen in as well.

Well, like I said, I appreciate you.

I'm not a morning person.

I don't know if you are, but, uh, hopefully you are.

With, with coffee I am.

Perfect.

Of course essential.

So Dante, I am going to talk about your extremely successful career

in Japan and get into all that but I want to first roll it back to |||||||||||首先|||| en Japón y entrar en todo eso, pero primero quiero rodar de nuevo a

before you even left to go to Japan. incluso antes de que te fueras a Japón.

So you're from Brooklyn, New York. |||بروکلین نیویورک|| |||布鲁克林||

Is that right?

Uh, yes.

Originally from Brooklyn, New York.

Um, my childhood was spent in Europe, Italy in Germany, uh, respectively, um, |||||||||||به ترتیب| ||infância|||||||||| |||||||||||分别|

but visited, uh, 80% give or take of Europe because at the time my parents ||||||||||的||我的|

were of the mind, we don't know when we can come back or have the opportunity.

So let's see as much as we can. Así que veamos todo lo que podamos.

Also traveling when I was a kid was much cheaper and easier.

Um, then teenage years I moved back to the U S and um, then eventually,

you know, bounced around from one state to another because of work ||جابجا شدن|||||||||

and eventually went to Vancouver for three months, um, which was quite fun.

Uh, and then here in a nutshell, yeah. ||||||简而言之| ||||||kurz gesagt| ||||||resumo|

Yeah, my, my parents, um, mother's side have a family in Italy as well. |||||مادرم||||||||

So the idea of being abroad outside of the United States is always a blessing. Así que la idea de estar en el extranjero, fuera de Estados Unidos, siempre es una bendición.

Um, because you get to learn about, uh, your history or the

history of family members, other cultures, things of that nature.

So moving around is something I'm quite used to, um, if I'm in one

place for too long, I actually feel strange because I'm used to moving

every two to four years give or take.

So this is the longest time I've been in one place without moving to another.

And how long have you been in Japan now?

Um, so off and on total this would be 17, but, um, it hasn't all been together. En total serían 17, pero no han estado todos juntos.

Oh, I see.

I was here for the first five, then all of my productions for almost like

a two year stretch, even if they were Japanese productions were outside. |两|年|||||||||

Oh, I see.

Bouncing around quite a bit.

I had an apartment, um, fun fact had an apartment for a year, but only

spent exactly 13 days in the apartment.

What a waste of money.

I guess you have to have a base, you know? 我想|||||||||

Yeah.

Um, cause at that time that was when I had officially moved to Tokyo because Um, porque en ese momento que era cuando me había mudado oficialmente a Tokio porque

when I started out, I was in Kyoto and Osaka and at that time the agency I |||||||Kyoto||Osaka|||||||

was with suggested that I come to Tokyo because uh, I could book more work more

regularly because being in Kansai there just wasn't a lot of work going on. ||||Kansai||||||||| regularmente porque al estar en Kansai no había mucho trabajo.

Right.

It's like, okay.

So I moved to Tokyo and then it was like, Hey, we've got this movie

coming up so we're going to be going to, uh, Nepal and the Philippines ||||||||||尼泊尔||| ||||||||||Nepal||| ||||||||||Nepal|||

and this place and that place.

And I mean, I had a fantastic time.

I, I miss traveling to other countries, but yeah.

In time I guess.

Yeah.

Wow.

So when, before you left the states, right?

You came from the states to, to Japan.

Did you know any Japanese at all?

Ha ha no.

So kind of like a reverse host family. Что-то вроде обратной принимающей семьи.

So I had a Japanese host family, um, there in the states that I was actually

teaching, uh, the kids English to.

And as a present, they gave me a Doraemon dictionary. ||||||||哆啦A梦| ||||||||Doraemon Wörterbuch| ||||||||diccionario de Doraemon| ||||||||словарь Дораэмон|

They were trying to help me learn a few words and phrases.

So for the most part, I could say like, um, uh, where's your passport?

Where's the station? Wo ist||

Uh, where's the restroom? |||洗手间 |||die Toilette |||туалет

Kind of thing.

Thank you.

And you're welcome.

Very important.

It's amazing how those little simple things mean a lot when you need it.

Yeah.

Then when I came here, study-wise a lot of that came from uh, memorizing

my scripts and we Utada Hikaru because that's my absolute favorite singer. 我的||||宇多田|宇多田光|||||| ||||Utada Hikaru|Utada Hikaru|||||| |||||Utada Hikaru|||||| ||||Утада Хикару|Утада Хикару||||||

Utada Hikaru was, um, she was also born in New York and, uh,

two days after me, uh, July 19th.

And she basically she's like one of the most famous Japanese singers of all time.

There's like records that she hits no other performer had hit. Hay discos que ha batido y que ningún otro artista había batido.

Um, but the reason I liked her was because of her tones and the style of music.

I was introduced to her by some friends in university who are actually from Japan

and my friend's like, Hey, listen to this.

And it was basically a, it was a mix of different artists, but |||||||||||艺术家|

there is a song called First Love.

And again, I didn't speak Japanese, but the tone of it, that

piano chords keys in the back. |和弦|||| |аккорды||||

I don't know, it just resonated.

I was like, this is really cool.

Who is this?

Wanting to learn more.

And then that was kind of like the secondary open door to that.

And I say secondary because as a child, I studied Shotokan karate with my ||||||||||松涛流|空手道|| ||||||||||Shotokan Karate||| ||||||||||Shotokan karate||| ||||||||||Шотокан|||

father, but then we moved to Europe. |but|||||

So you know that halted, but I've always had a, um, an interest in Asia. ||||停止的|||||||||| ||||stopped|||||||||| ||||detenido||||||||||

Um, so my mother and I used to watch martial arts movies, kind

of like my, the doorway for me. ||||门口|| ||||Türöffnung||

Um, they used to be this thing called the Kung Fu Theater that would come on TV. |||||||||Kung Fu|Kung Fu||||||

Um, and when I was watching it, they were reruns, which I didn't know until |||||||||重播||||| |||||||||Wiederholungen||||| |||||||||reprises||||| |||||||||повторы|||||

I got older because, you know, they were really old movies, but had always been

into martial arts, things of that nature.

Then that kind of got me into wanting to learn more about Asia and its

respective countries, because as a child, you don't realize they're all respective|||||||||| respectivas||||||||||

different until you're in school.

And then from there that just, you know, that was it. Y a partir de ahí, eso fue todo.

Yeah.

And did you, did you go to Japan with the idea in mind of, you know, I'm

going to act and produce, and this is the career trajectory that I want? ||||||||||职业轨迹|||

Well, the funny thing is my original plan was actually to go

to China first to study for a year and a half at the Shaolin temple. |||||||||||||少林| |||||||||||||Shaolin-Tempel| |||||||||||||Шаолиньский храм|

And then from what I learned over there with the flight to Japan, because

I wanted to basically try my hat in Power Rangers and become a writer. |||||||||战队|||| |||||||||Rangers|||| |||||||||Power Rangers|||| Básicamente quería probar suerte en Power Rangers y convertirme en guionista.

And I'm deadly serious. ||非常认真| ||muito sério|

I loved, I love power Rangers.

Uh, you know, I, I grew up watching them and it's like the, the idea of a

non-Japanese actor or a foreign actor um, sometimes saying foreign feels weird.

So if I react weirdly to it, apologies, um, but being a |||||||道歉|||| |||||||disculpas|||| Así que si reacciono de forma extraña a ella, disculpas, um, pero ser un

non-Japanese actor in a Japanese production, hadn't really been done.

And as a African-American it hadn't been done.

So it's like, well, why not?

The idea is I just want to try it, but what really got me into coming is my

plan going to China, it got canceled because there was, um, very much

similar to now there was an outbreak. ||||||outbreak

So the entire program was canceled and scrapped, but I had already quit my job |||||||取消了||||||| |||||||abgebrochen||||||| |||||||scrapped||||||| |||||||abandonado||||||| |||||||abandonado||||||| Así que todo el programa fue cancelado y desechado, pero yo ya había dejado mi trabajo

so my apartment, all that kind of stuff.

So my Japanese friend's like, why don't you just come visit us?

There's a tourist visa for 90 days.

Come see the country, come see us and kind of rethink of what you ||||||||||重新思考||| ||||||||||überdenken|||

wanna do and then go from there.

So basically it was kind of a way to keep me from going into depression mode

of, you know, the dream being busted. ||||||破灭了 ||||||frustrado ||||||разрушенной

When I came over the first week, I was scouted by four agencies. |||||||||отобран||| ||||||||||||agencies |||||||||avaliado||| |||||||||gesichtet||| |||||||||被挖掘||| |||||||||reclutada||| Cuando vine la primera semana, me exploraron cuatro agencias.

And from there that was kind of my...

well, maybe I should try it out here and, you know, rethink it.

Went back to the states, um, had some family stuff to take care of.

And then about a year later, uh, 2005, I came back to Japan and that's

when I, uh, basically kind of started doing modeling and um, bit acting. ||||||||Modeln||||

Cause I didn't speak any Japanese.

So the stars aligned for you to end up in Japan, basically.

Uh, yes, yes, yes and no.

The only reason I say no, because there were 121 auditions that I didn't get.

Um, and I used to, I used to have a notebook that I would write down what ||||||||||笔记本||||||

it was and why I didn't get it, if they'd let me know why I didn't get it. era y por qué no lo conseguí, si me hicieran saber por qué no lo conseguí.

And, uh, it literally came to the point where my parents were like, Hey, Y, uh, literalmente llegó al punto en que mis padres eran como, Hey,

we're going to send you an e-ticket. ||||||电子|

So, you know, if you want to come back, you can.

And I was asked to come on a set as an extra for Vodafone. |||被要求||来||||||||沃达丰 |||||||||||||Vodafone |||||||||||||Водафон

And I talked to my parents like, should I take it or just fly back? Y hablé con mis padres en plan, ¿lo cojo o vuelo de vuelta?

And my dad's like, you've been there...

you've been there this long trying just go ahead and do it.

I had gotten jobs, but no contracts. |||||没有合同|

And I wasn't, like I mentioned before I was in Kansai so going from Kansai

to tokyo I'm paying out of pocket. ||我|||| a Tokio lo pago de mi bolsillo.

So that's where I'm losing a lot of that money.

So it was a, it was a very hard, hard, tough road, but worth it in the end,

because I'm also a very persistent person. |||||persistent|

And, you know, I had some people Stateside that were very |||||||美国的||| |||||||en Estados Unidos||| |||||||nos Estados Unidos|||

supportive of me not making it. apoyándome para que no lo consiga.

So it was, uh, it was like, okay, no problem.

I'll do my best to make it.

Wow.

So they told you that?

They said we don't think this... Dijeron que no pensamos que esto...

how so?

Like, Ooh, it's not a good idea, you should try something else?

So for the most part, it was uh, family-wise always supportive ||||||||家庭|||

as long as I'm doing something positive, they're always on board. ||||||||总是||

Um, but for those people, those motivators, as I like to say, um, ||||||激励因素|||||| ||||||Motivatoren|||||| ||||||мотиваторы||||||

we're pretty much like, well, you don't speak the language, you don't

look Japanese, those kinds of things.

And it's like, but that shouldn't be a deterrent. ||||||||威慑因素 ||||||||elemento disuasorio ||||||||um impedimento ||||||||сдерживающий фактор

Um, you know, it shouldn't be a deterrent for anybody, uh, going anywhere. Um, ya sabes, no debería ser un elemento de disuasión para nadie, eh, ir a ninguna parte.

You know, if anything, it should motivate you to, to try harder or

to try and make the connections with that culture and that, and those

people because you are different.

So I just use that.

So every audition I didn't get was fuel for, I'm going to make it,

going to make it, going to make... va a||||||

to the point where there was 564 yen left in my bank account. ||||||Yen||||| hasta el punto de que quedaban 564 yenes en mi cuenta bancaria.

When I came back to Tokyo from Vodafone. Cuando volví a Tokio de Vodafone.

It was...