Sure, I've been in Japan for a while now (almost *gulp* three years) but my Japanese still isn't completely fluent. I can get by, and have fairly standard conversations with most people about weather and weekends, and after a couple years of watching English being taught in Japanese, I can tell you what passive affirmative sentences are and what past participles are in Japanese as well.
For all the stuff that I don't know though, I've developed a few Japanese conversational survival techniques that probably don't help my Japanese improve in the long run. As I've mentioned before, I'm pretty much able to deal with a conversation with a 4-year-old using only a few words and phrases. Unfortunately, it is much harder to fake a conversation with anyone older than a preschooler. My original tactic was to say "yes" to anything in agreement to what people said, until eventually, someone would ask me a question that I was supposed to say "no" to. Saying yes to this response was usually met by the other person giving me a strange look and asking "really?", which was then my cue to just laugh nervously and say "no", shrugging it off as a joke.
While my original tactic has evolved a bit, with the aid of a few new phrases under my belt, I'm still finding situations where I don't understand what's being said to me. I could ask for the other person to repeat what they said, or say "I don't understand", but saying it too much leads to strains on the conversation and sometimes other people just giving up on making conversations. Which is why, as I realised today, I revert to using my conversational survival techniques. Well, that's what I call them anyway. I think some people prefer to use the term "lying".
One teacher came up to me today and struck up a conversation about books and Australia.
Teacher: "So, I noticed the students are somethingsomethingilly reading their books today.
Me: (nervous laughter) Yeah, they do that, don't they?
(Technique #5: Nervous laughter makes any wrong answers sound like they were meant to be a joke)
T: So what are students in Australia like? Do they somethingsomethingilly read their books too?
Me: Well, yeah, I wonder.
(#12: Ambiguous statements about own opinion)
I think so, but they're a bit different to Japanese students.
(#2: Always mention the differences in culture when asked to talk about something)
T: Oh really, so how do they study and read books?
Me: Um, good question. Well...
T: Oh, do they blahblahblah?
Me: (laughing) Yeah, they do.
T: What!? Seriously? Do they somethingsomething or blahblahblah?
Me: Yes. blahblahblah.
(#8: Repeat the last thing that's mentioned when given a choice between two or more things)
T: So you're telling me you can see classes of students just blahblahblahing?
Me: (more nervous laughter) um... yes. Yes they do.
Fortunately for me, the conversation ended soon after that, and I was relieved that made it through a conversation talking about something I don't even know, quietly proud that my advanced survival techniques got me through another conversation.
That was, until the same teacher gave me a lift to a bar the next day.
Teacher: Okay, let's be honest. You sometimes have no idea what you're talking about do you?
Me: ...No. No I don't.
2 comments:
What? You're nihongo-pro-star man! Hopefully this is embellished to make a point? If not schedule practice sessions with Taeko when you have the next watermelon bashing in Neo haha.
No, it's sadly true, though I did speak to other teachers who have told me that teacher mumbles a lot and talks really fast so they can't understand him either, so it's not ENTIRELY me. I hope.
Post a Comment