I walked into a local restaurant yesterday evening for about the dozenth time. The lights were off in the open kitchen. One guy was at the register counting money. The other was sitting at a table, doing something on a laptop. Chairs were stacked on top of most of the tables around him, and the front door was propped open awkwardly. I needed to talk to them about something, so I paused in the threshold for a moment, nodded, and walked in. They both sort of recognized me and and smiled, but then the money-counting guy frowned and said in Japanese, "Sorry, we're closed." I smiled, "Yes, I see that. But I'd like to talk to you about something." The money counter walked toward me and, looking stressed, said, "Sorry, but we're clooooosed."
I was pretty sure I'd used the right, rather simple, words and sulked internally that my pronunciation was so bad that they hadn't been able to understand me. As I was trying to find another way to say it, the guy at the computer said, "She knows that. She said she wants to talk to you about something." He had a heavy trace of "What're you, thick?" in his voice that was most gratifying.
And then we all chatted for a few minutes. But I'm going to end the conversation there, because that's where my point is for you, language learner. Sometimes people can't understand you because your pronunciation is bad and your word choice is way off. But sometimes, people can't understand you because they just can't. For whatever reason. Maybe they're not paying much attention. Maybe they don't hear so well. Maybe they don't expect that someone who looks like you would be able to speak their language. Those particular people, they probably wouldn't understand you even if you were both native speakers of the same language. (People with a common native language have trouble understanding each other all the time. This bears repeating when you feel like you're hopeless at learning a new language. Notice one day how many times you say "What?") On the other hand, some people will probably get you, more or less, no matter how badly you mangle the words.
You won't always be lucky enough to have that second guy-who-gets-you sitting right there. But for every person who gives you a blank, slightly panicked look when you start talking, remember that there's someone else out there who not only would have understood you, but who wouldn't even have known why anyone else would have trouble understanding you. Don't be discouraged. Keep talking, and you'll find those people.
7 comments:
Reminds me of when I was at Higashi-Ginza station one day. I walked up to the station employee sitting at the exit gate, and asked in my best (perfect) Japanese : "Sumimasen, roku-ban deguchi ha dochira desu-ka?" hoping for a straight answer or a point of the hand in the general direction of exit 6. However the poor guy started panicking, looking to the ground, almost like he wanted to run away ... and answered back in almost perfect British pronunciation "Sorry, No English!".
Upon which I asked him, rather sarcastically: "a-re? Nihongo hanasemasuka??". Then the 'second guy' who was sitting with his back towards me, gave me directions in Japanese, which I could follow perfectly. Strange world.
On the other hand, when I call up my bank and start the conversation in Japanese, they are offended when half-way through the conversation my Japanese fails me, and I insist to speak in English. They don't seem to believe I am serious, since I was doing well at first ... haha.
Alas, never give up.
I'm not great at Japanese. In fact, the thing I'm very best at saying is that I know a little Japanese, but I'm not very good. I say that phrase well enough that they take it for false modesty and attempt to converse with me in Japanese.
But that's mostly beside the point.
One day I went into a McDonald's in Tokyo and attempted to order a Big Mac in Japanese. I can only assume that The cashier expected English to come out of my mouth and therefore couldn't understand what "English" words I was saying. At least, that's what I tell myself... After two or three attempts I just said "Big Mac" and the cashier said, in perfect English, "Oh OK, would you like that in the meal?"
had a similar experience in McDonalds too trying to order a coffee, with increasing frustration that im having to pronounce English words in katakana! Im ordering "M" (emu) but the cashier keeps repeating "L?" (eru. At last i freak as I usually do but shouldnt shouting "FFS stop messing around with English words if you cant even effing hear them. whats wrong with sho, chu, dai FFS?"
@Shinpuren You didn't do the Ronald McDonald "M" with two fingers to get your choice across?
I've run into this situation lots of times while living in Gifu. Hasn't happened in Tokyo, yet, but it's only a matter of time. The key is to never give up and keep a good spirit about it.
I've had a few of these kind of experiences in Japan, and for what it's worth my accent was good enough to fool people on the phone. (at least a few years ago; being back in Canada has wrecked that)
I worked with a teacher when I was in JET who refused to talk to me and would ask the Japanese teacher of English to translate questions to me. I'd answer him back in Japanese without waiting and he'd do the same thing again!
I've also had people wave me off and say 英語わからない or something to that effect when I was asking a question in normal Japanese.
That's such a great reminder. It should be obvious considering how many misunderstandings I've had with my parents over various word choices or prosody, and yet, when you throw the foreign language factor in, one tends to assume that's the problem.
Good perspective. This always drives me crazy and makes me feel small. It is a good way to think about it.
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