If you speak at length with anyone familiar with English language education in Japan, whether they are a student or a teacher, you will eventually become aware of the infamous English sentence that is omnipresent in textbooks throughout the country: "This is a pen."

For some Japanese people, it is the first full English sentence they can remember learning. The phrase is often pointed at by critics of English language education in Japan, both Japanese and foreign alike, as a sign of the system's inadequacy--a reliance on memorizing random phrases that are not convenient for daily conversation. While there is some truth in that, it's likely become a staple of English teaching as a sample sentence that exposes learners to English grammar structure.

Either way, many Japanese people joke around with the phrase, because even though it is often the number one thing they remember from English classes, it is also something they have never used practically.

Until now!

A Japanese Twitter user, @itowpaaan, sent shock-waves of amazement throughout the internet with this Tweet:

It reads: "Yesterday a foreigner pointed at the pen I got in Hawaii as a souvenir sticking out of my breast pocket and asked "What's this?", so for the first time in my life I used this phrase. THIS IS A PEN."

@itowpaaan was treated to a round of internet applause, with comments like:

So teachers and students of English in Japan can finally rejoice, because this is indeed, a pen!