こんにちは。ゆうこせんせいです。いつもレッスンをみてくれてありがとうございます。In the previous lesson, I introduced some useful
Japanese phrases that you can use when you encounter communication difficulties with
Japanese people.
I'll leave the link to the lesson in the show-more section below so please watch that lesson
too.
Today I want to talk about what inspired me to create that particular lesson.
It was a Facebook post that I saw back in January.
A non-Japanese person posted a New Year’s greeting in Japanese inside a Facebook group
page for Japanese learners.
Basically, he said "あけましておめでとうございます！
I've been studying Japanese for a while and I wish to improve my Japanese more this year.
Lots of blessings to everyone and let's have a successful year in learning Japanese!" or
something like that.
He said everything in Japanese.
It was a very positive message.
And his Japanese sentences were very well written grammatically but it was not the most
natural way to say the message in Japanese.
It was more of a direct translation from English to Japanese.
And one of the Japanese members of the group responded to his greeting.
This Japanese person was a man.
I could tell from his Japanese first name.
In English, he wrote, "That's not the way we say it."
That's it.
He didn't explain how it was wrong or how to fix it.
So, the learner responded back asking, "What part was wrong?"
And then, the Japanese person responded in English again "Everything.
The only part that was correct is あけましておめでとうございます."
The conversation between these two became a long thread and I read the entire thread.
At the very end, this Japanese man finally explained how to fix the original message.
Then, I was thinking "He could have helped in the beginning before the thread became
this long if he was going to respond to this learner and point out that his message was
not entirely correct."
I am sure that the entire communication was very discouraging for this Japanese learner.
I didn't feel comfortable reading the entire thread either.
This Japanese learner tried his best to share the New Year's greeting in Japanese and just
got criticized by a native speaker without any help.
I felt his effort deserves more respect.
But at the same time, I know that not everyone has the patience or sensitivity toward non-native
speakers who are still learning the language.
Obviously, this Japanese person didn't have it.
And, of course, that made me feel sad because he was someone from my country, my culture.
But in reality, there are many people like him out there who don't have much patience
with non-native speakers.
So, that's why I decided to make the lesson about the phrases that you can use when you
encounter communication difficulties with Japanese native speakers.
Again, you can find the link to the lesson in the show-more section below.
I also want to suggest that you take a moment and ask yourself.
How do you treat non-native speakers of your language?
Would you be patient with them?
Would you be understanding and supportive towards someone who is still learning your
language?
Your native language is easy for you because you have been speaking it for 20, 30, 40,
50, or even longer years, right?
Don't you think it's kind of unfair to expect someone who has been learning your language
only for one year can communicate as perfectly as you do?
It's very unlikely, right?
Let's keep that in mind.
And let's be more compassionate and supportive towards non-native speakers of our languages.
Sometimes, it's way more important to be caring than being correct.
I also want to suggest being a little more mindful of the language that we use.
It seems that nowadays people think they can say whatever they want as long as they can
hide behind the keyboard.
But what you write online stays there forever.
Your not-so-kind comments stay on the internet forever with the same energy that you left
behind.
Let’s keep that in mind and let’s be a little more responsible with the language
that we use on the internet.
It's ok that we sometimes disagree with each other, and it's natural.
But let's not use our language to just ridicule the person or judge the person.
We are going through such a difficult time worldwide together.
So especially now, let's be kind and compassionate to each other with our language.
We have the notion of KOTODAMA "Spirit of Words" in Japanese culture.
We believe that spirit resides in each word that we use and influences our surroundings.
When we use positive words, our surroundings become positive.
When we use negative words, our surroundings become negative.
Basically, the language that we use greatly affects our lives.
So, we have to be careful with what we choose to say.
I explained our KOTODAMA culture in this video so you can watch it later.
I'll leave the link below.
Many people responded to that video and left comments saying that they have the same belief
in their culture.
So, clearly, this is universal.
You may want to read the comment area of the video.
It's really interesting to learn about other cultures.
Language is not only to convey information.
It conveys emotions too.
So, let’s try to be loving with our language.
We can use our language to unite us, not to divide us.
Thank you for watching to the end and I hope you got something useful from today's video.
If you enjoyed it, please like this video and share it with your friends.
I'll be delighted if this message helps to make our world a little bit better place.
I have been teaching Japanese for 20 years and now I teach through my online courses.
I have hundreds of students from all over the world studying with me.
My courses are self-paced and there is no time limit to complete each course.
You can study when you have time and ask me questions in each lesson.
If you are interested in my online courses, please check the description box below.
では、また次のレッスンで会いましょう。 (See you in the next lesson!)