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Speaking Japanese for more than two hours makes me tired. If I have to speak to an older person, then you can bring that down to an hour. So, it gets very difficult if I have to keep on my toes and try to say what I really want to say later in the conversation. Sometimes I think its just to hard to say some things or simply I just don’t care to explain myself. When this happens I may tend to look as if I don’t care. But if I pull the silent treatment, that gets translated into many different things since in Japan, silence means more than words. A few weeks ago I had a meeting with a real minister about getting work to be a wedding celebrant. The minister is about 70 years old. If you have ever spoken to older Japanese, you’ll understand when I say I couldn’t understand a word he was saying. For two hours I had to sit there and nod to this and that while he explained the origins of weddings and probably what life was like 40 years ago. While his hands were shaking, I took paper after paper from him and tried to act as if I understood what the bazillion kanji meant. He pointed here and there and looked up at me every 5 minutes or so. He seemed content and never gave up while as I had given up after the first 60 minutes. Luckily for me, I live with a Japanese. That means I am able to listen to Japanese everyday. I could understand enough to reply with a question that was at least in the ballpark. When it was time for me to ask questions, I would try to ask the three or four most important ones, including “When?”, “Where?”, and “Who do I meet?” After a few rounds of asking those, I had a pretty good idea of what was to happen next. I could understand what I needed to “bring” and “sign” and “when” he was going to “contact” me. …. It’s been a couple weeks since that interview and I have had quite a few phone calls with him. Things are better know because I can understand his vocabulary. He’s getting easier to understand. He understands that when there is nothing happening on a particular day that he should not explain why, and to just say “Kyou wa nashi,” today is nothing. It works, and we both understand each other. The job is going well.
Comments:
2 Comments posted on "Being misunderstood at work"
Zen on March 31st, 2008 at 12:12 pm
The Warrior on April 4th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
He is probably trying to explain “the way of weddings.” There is always a “way” in Japan. You must be logged in to post a comment. |
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Hmmm I'm not sure about this new babe...yet 
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