During my recent Japan trip, I became aware of what I call the "Language Tradeoff", or "Language Compromise". One of my goals in Japan was to improve my own spoken Japanese, which I've been studying for a couple years now. "Awesome," I thought, "I'll go to some bars and clubs and everyone will talk to me in Japanese!" What I wasn't counting on was the Language Tradeoff: a lot of Japanese people wanted to do it the exact other way around, and talk to me in English!
At first, we'd get into the famous "two language" dance: me, the Westerner, speaking in broken Japanese, while the Japanese native speaks in broken English. After enough of this, I had an epiphany, and started responding in English when they spoke in English.
The epiphany was this: while I was in that foreign country, my English was a precious, rare treasure. One which the natives envied and admired. In the same way I admired their skillful use of the moon language Japanese.
When I first went, I thought I'd be doing them a big favor by attempting Japanese. And, for the most part, I was. But when a Japanese person started throwing their Engrish around, at that point, speaking in my broken Japanese ("eihongo") was selfish. When the Japanese person started speaking English, the selfless thing was to go along with it, even though I really wanted to speak Japanese.
Let's look at a couple illustrative example situations which illustrate the Language Tradeoff. I'll write the Japanese in both normal Japanese and Romaji (romanized Japanese), if your computer can't support Japanese characters then you'll see the former as boxes or question marks or gibberish.
EXAMPLE 1
American Tourist
すみません、この電車は東京に行きますか？
Sumimasen, kono densha wa Toukyou ni ikimasu ka?
(Excuse me, does this train go to Tokyo?)
Japanese Man
Yes... This train goes to Tokyo!
American Tourist
Thanks! Tokyo is the best!
In this example, the tourist starts speaking in Japanese, but the Japanese man switches to English. Each party wants to practice the other's tongue, and/or feel good about being able to speak it. To the untrained eye, it might look like the tourist is making a selfish choice by switching to English. Actually, the tourist is acknowledging the Japanese man's unspoken request to make that switch. Switching to English is actually the selfless option here. The tourist has made the Japanese man's day: today he talked to a westerner... in English! If the tourist had kept to Japanese, neither party would be happy, since the conversation would be a mish-mash of languages. Each would feel that the other had condescended.
EXAMPLE 2
Japanese Tourist
Excuse me... where is the hotel?
American
ホテル？ そちらですよ。いいホテルですよ、とても楽しいのだ。
Hoteru? Sochira desu yo. Ii hoteru desu yo, totemo tanoshii no da.
(Hotel? That way. It's a good hotel, you know.. very fun.)
Japanese Tourist
えっ！ すげよ、日本語は上手だね！
E! Suge yo, nihongo wa jouzu da ne!
(Eh? Wow, you're good at Japanese!)
In this example, the roles are reversed. By switching to Japanese, the tourist does the American a big favor, especially if the American happens to live in Ohio, where Japanese speakers are freakin rare! (Note how the Japanese tourist says "you're good at Japanese"? If you're going to Japan to speak Japanese, you'll hear that a lot. They say it regardless of how broken your Japanese is. I usually respond with something like "Uso!" ("Yeah right!"), but I don't really know if that's the correct response, all I know is you shouldn't thank them for the compliment.)
IT'S BETTER TO TEACH THAN TO BE TAUGHT
In Japan, I did a lot of speaking in English with people for whom English was a 2nd language: not just Japan people (for the most part, they were happy to speak in Japanese), but also foreigners from all over the world staying in youth hostels.
I was constantly having to dumb my English down. I should emphasize, I wasn't baby-talking them, I was using real English, but I was being rather careful with what idioms and vocabulary I used. Avoiding tricking idioms where I could, and using the shorter word in cases where there was a choice of words. Well, in short, I was pacing myself with them. Some of the youth hostel roommates had really amazing English, especially the European ones, and so I wouldn't hold back for them. But some of them, like the Koreans and Chinese, spoke very slowly and simply, so I matched myself to them.
The result was really unexpected. Near the end of my trip, out of nowhere, and all of a sudden, my voice changed dramatically. Without thinking about it, I was speaking slower and deeper and more powerfully in English. And the change has stuck, and it's really quite something, because it's like I can speak to people now at a closer level. Like I can meet someone on the street and in ten minutes we'll be talking like we've known each other all our lives. But I'm still trying to understand and get better control of this amazing skill.
Before, I was speaking for myself, speaking so that I would understand what I was saying. I've had certain experiences, and they shape how I understand language, and other people have had other experiences, and that shapes how they understand language differently. The constant Language Tradeoff in Japan, where I was "teaching" English by speaking it to Japanese people and youth hostel roommates, taught me a lot about my own English.
HOW TO SPEAK TO NON-ENGLISH SPEAKERS IN ENGLISH
When a non-English speaker wants to speak with me in English, the hardest part is figuring out the right level to speak at. The fact they know English at all, tells me they're extremely smart (did you realize English is one of the hardest languages on Earth?) I don't want to insult them with baby talk. At the same time, I shouldn't be throwing around slang and fancy obscure idioms. Again like I said above, what I try to do is mirror their own level.
One cheat is to be very generous with gestures. Make "big" motions with your hands when you want to emphasize something. Point at things. Wipe imaginary sweat from your brow as you say "It's so hot". Do a big thumbs up as you announce how good a meal was. And so on.
If you say something and it's not understood, don't just repeat it louder and slower. It's not like if you make it loud enough and slow enough it'll magically transcend language barriers. Instead, when you're not understood, it's better to try rephrasing it. If it's still not understood after a couple rephrasing techniques, and it's a Language Tradeoff situation where you actually know a little of their language, you can try throwing in a few words from their language to nudge them toward understanding.
SPEAK ABOUT YOUR OWN COUNTRY
Here's the biggest mistake tourists make in conversations: they start talking to natives about the landmarks in the country they're visiting. Like, if I go to Paris, and start talking to everyone about the Eiffel Tower. To people in Paris, that's a big yawn.
In Shibuya, walking around looking for good clubs, I started talking with a bunch of Japanese guys in their late teens. When they learned I was from America, you know the first thing they said? "Harley-Davidson!!" (in extremely broken katakana-ized version). Right, that's something that's barely even in my reality, but of course it makes perfect sense that's what these Japanese guys would be interested in. I eventually stopped telling people I was from Ohio and started saying I was from California instead (technically true since I was raised there almost all my childhood). California is freakin' popular in Japan, and probably in other countries too, thanks to Hollywood!
It's okay to talk about things you did in the foreign country when they're big and exciting. Japanese people were very interested to hear about my Fuji climb. Just like I'd be interested if a Japanese tourist told me about her hike down the Grand Canyon. But if I started talking about Fuji in general, without mentioning that I'd climbed it, that would be piss boring. Like if some foreigner came and started talking to me about the general facts of the Grand Canyon, I'd change the subject as soon as I could. Likewise, Japanese people weren't very interested to hear about my Yokohama trip, as I wouldn't be that interested in hearing about some Japanese person's trip to Cleveland.
LANGUAGE TRADEOFF IN THE CLUB
In the club, it's usually too loud to do much traditional Language Tradeoff. The best bet in that situation is to grab a hot native and do some more direct "exchange of tongues". Remember, it's for education!
I wrote these other articles as well. Read them on the plane ride to your next destination.
Using Words Effectively
Prescriptive Linguistics Versus Descriptive Linguistics
What I Gained By Travelling
At first, we'd get into the famous "two language" dance: me, the Westerner, speaking in broken Japanese, while the Japanese native speaks in broken English. After enough of this, I had an epiphany, and started responding in English when they spoke in English.
The epiphany was this: while I was in that foreign country, my English was a precious, rare treasure. One which the natives envied and admired. In the same way I admired their skillful use of the moon language Japanese.
When I first went, I thought I'd be doing them a big favor by attempting Japanese. And, for the most part, I was. But when a Japanese person started throwing their Engrish around, at that point, speaking in my broken Japanese ("eihongo") was selfish. When the Japanese person started speaking English, the selfless thing was to go along with it, even though I really wanted to speak Japanese.
Let's look at a couple illustrative example situations which illustrate the Language Tradeoff. I'll write the Japanese in both normal Japanese and Romaji (romanized Japanese), if your computer can't support Japanese characters then you'll see the former as boxes or question marks or gibberish.
EXAMPLE 1
American Tourist
すみません、この電車は東京に行きますか？
Sumimasen, kono densha wa Toukyou ni ikimasu ka?
(Excuse me, does this train go to Tokyo?)
Japanese Man
Yes... This train goes to Tokyo!
American Tourist
Thanks! Tokyo is the best!
In this example, the tourist starts speaking in Japanese, but the Japanese man switches to English. Each party wants to practice the other's tongue, and/or feel good about being able to speak it. To the untrained eye, it might look like the tourist is making a selfish choice by switching to English. Actually, the tourist is acknowledging the Japanese man's unspoken request to make that switch. Switching to English is actually the selfless option here. The tourist has made the Japanese man's day: today he talked to a westerner... in English! If the tourist had kept to Japanese, neither party would be happy, since the conversation would be a mish-mash of languages. Each would feel that the other had condescended.
EXAMPLE 2
Japanese Tourist
Excuse me... where is the hotel?
American
ホテル？ そちらですよ。いいホテルですよ、とても楽しいのだ。
Hoteru? Sochira desu yo. Ii hoteru desu yo, totemo tanoshii no da.
(Hotel? That way. It's a good hotel, you know.. very fun.)
Japanese Tourist
えっ！ すげよ、日本語は上手だね！
E! Suge yo, nihongo wa jouzu da ne!
(Eh? Wow, you're good at Japanese!)
In this example, the roles are reversed. By switching to Japanese, the tourist does the American a big favor, especially if the American happens to live in Ohio, where Japanese speakers are freakin rare! (Note how the Japanese tourist says "you're good at Japanese"? If you're going to Japan to speak Japanese, you'll hear that a lot. They say it regardless of how broken your Japanese is. I usually respond with something like "Uso!" ("Yeah right!"), but I don't really know if that's the correct response, all I know is you shouldn't thank them for the compliment.)
IT'S BETTER TO TEACH THAN TO BE TAUGHT
In Japan, I did a lot of speaking in English with people for whom English was a 2nd language: not just Japan people (for the most part, they were happy to speak in Japanese), but also foreigners from all over the world staying in youth hostels.
I was constantly having to dumb my English down. I should emphasize, I wasn't baby-talking them, I was using real English, but I was being rather careful with what idioms and vocabulary I used. Avoiding tricking idioms where I could, and using the shorter word in cases where there was a choice of words. Well, in short, I was pacing myself with them. Some of the youth hostel roommates had really amazing English, especially the European ones, and so I wouldn't hold back for them. But some of them, like the Koreans and Chinese, spoke very slowly and simply, so I matched myself to them.
The result was really unexpected. Near the end of my trip, out of nowhere, and all of a sudden, my voice changed dramatically. Without thinking about it, I was speaking slower and deeper and more powerfully in English. And the change has stuck, and it's really quite something, because it's like I can speak to people now at a closer level. Like I can meet someone on the street and in ten minutes we'll be talking like we've known each other all our lives. But I'm still trying to understand and get better control of this amazing skill.
Before, I was speaking for myself, speaking so that I would understand what I was saying. I've had certain experiences, and they shape how I understand language, and other people have had other experiences, and that shapes how they understand language differently. The constant Language Tradeoff in Japan, where I was "teaching" English by speaking it to Japanese people and youth hostel roommates, taught me a lot about my own English.
HOW TO SPEAK TO NON-ENGLISH SPEAKERS IN ENGLISH
When a non-English speaker wants to speak with me in English, the hardest part is figuring out the right level to speak at. The fact they know English at all, tells me they're extremely smart (did you realize English is one of the hardest languages on Earth?) I don't want to insult them with baby talk. At the same time, I shouldn't be throwing around slang and fancy obscure idioms. Again like I said above, what I try to do is mirror their own level.
One cheat is to be very generous with gestures. Make "big" motions with your hands when you want to emphasize something. Point at things. Wipe imaginary sweat from your brow as you say "It's so hot". Do a big thumbs up as you announce how good a meal was. And so on.
If you say something and it's not understood, don't just repeat it louder and slower. It's not like if you make it loud enough and slow enough it'll magically transcend language barriers. Instead, when you're not understood, it's better to try rephrasing it. If it's still not understood after a couple rephrasing techniques, and it's a Language Tradeoff situation where you actually know a little of their language, you can try throwing in a few words from their language to nudge them toward understanding.
SPEAK ABOUT YOUR OWN COUNTRY
Here's the biggest mistake tourists make in conversations: they start talking to natives about the landmarks in the country they're visiting. Like, if I go to Paris, and start talking to everyone about the Eiffel Tower. To people in Paris, that's a big yawn.
In Shibuya, walking around looking for good clubs, I started talking with a bunch of Japanese guys in their late teens. When they learned I was from America, you know the first thing they said? "Harley-Davidson!!" (in extremely broken katakana-ized version). Right, that's something that's barely even in my reality, but of course it makes perfect sense that's what these Japanese guys would be interested in. I eventually stopped telling people I was from Ohio and started saying I was from California instead (technically true since I was raised there almost all my childhood). California is freakin' popular in Japan, and probably in other countries too, thanks to Hollywood!
It's okay to talk about things you did in the foreign country when they're big and exciting. Japanese people were very interested to hear about my Fuji climb. Just like I'd be interested if a Japanese tourist told me about her hike down the Grand Canyon. But if I started talking about Fuji in general, without mentioning that I'd climbed it, that would be piss boring. Like if some foreigner came and started talking to me about the general facts of the Grand Canyon, I'd change the subject as soon as I could. Likewise, Japanese people weren't very interested to hear about my Yokohama trip, as I wouldn't be that interested in hearing about some Japanese person's trip to Cleveland.
LANGUAGE TRADEOFF IN THE CLUB
In the club, it's usually too loud to do much traditional Language Tradeoff. The best bet in that situation is to grab a hot native and do some more direct "exchange of tongues". Remember, it's for education!
I wrote these other articles as well. Read them on the plane ride to your next destination.
Using Words Effectively
Prescriptive Linguistics Versus Descriptive Linguistics
What I Gained By Travelling
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