Granularity of Communication

It goes without saying, but living in a foreign country means having many opportunities to speak English.

However, in my case, I communicate in English more often with foreigners who are not native English speakers than with native speakers. It is a situation where both the other person and I are making use of a foreign language to make communication work.

Naturally, my vocabulary is extremely limited compared to when I speak in Japanese. For instance, I cover positive opinions with words like "nice," "beautiful," and "awesome." The other person is much the same.

One might think that such coarse-grained communication would be stressful because it is impossible to convey fine nuances. That is true. Far from fine nuances, to put it simply, ordering yakisoba and having yakimeshi arrive is an everyday occurrence.

There is the guilt of wondering if it was my way of explaining or my pronunciation that was bad, and there is also the concern that perhaps the other person's listening was poor. It is a hassle to complain every single time, so I just eat the yakimeshi that arrived in silence. If you do not live with the premise of miscommunication, your mental state will not hold up.

Once you get used to this kind of coarse-grained communication, the fine-grained communication with Japanese people can sometimes feel annoying. Communication that involves nitpicking over word choices or arguing over who said what is just a huge hassle.

If you prepare yourself for the fact that both you and the other person will make mistakes in speaking and listening, you will end up disliking fewer people.

It turns out it was a Dodoitsu, not a Senryu...