His German is a bit rusty, Cobus van Staden replies to the question whether he speaks Japanese. „When I try to speak German, I always end up speaking Japanese.“ So he hopes that the people he talks to will somehow magically understand Japanese. And his Chinese? He has learned the language, but doesn’t speak it particularly well. Van Staden’s last visit to China was several years ago; he has not returned since the COVID-19 pandemic. Before that, the South African had traveled to China several times.