Comments on: The Little Things Matter in Japanese

By: Conpanbear

Conpanbear — Wed, 02 May 2012 12:21:00 +0000

I just came across this the other day; it’s called 相槌（あいづち or aizuchi). I read that not using it can make it very uncomfortable for the Japanese person you are talking to. Also, it acknowledges that the other person is listening, but not necessarily that they are understanding or agreeing with you. I don’t know if this one’s been mentioned, but I like なるほど (naruhodo) “I see.”; it just sounds nifty :D

By: Gillie

Gillie — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 07:18:00 +0000

I like your use of my picture…I thought the same thing when I took it!

By: Jael Athena B. S

Jael Athena B. S — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:29:00 +0000

I’ve been learning Japanese for a couple of years now, and I recently found that watching talk shows/interviews is a great way to pick up on these verbal and non verbal cues! Indeed, there’s much more politeness to inject! LOVE THIS BLOG by the way!

By: JackiJinx

JackiJinx — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 16:08:00 +0000

I’ve been going through my old Japanese textbooks in an effort to refine my studying practices and saw this topic covered briefly in Dr. Yoshiko Higurashi’s Elementary Functional Japanese: Intercultural Communication Volume 1. They’re called あいづち ^^

By: Hinoema

Hinoema — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 16:03:00 +0000

I agree. The whole “OMG the wacky Japaneses!” thing just smacks a bit too much of condescension after awhile. I love this site for the amazing serious language and culture posts.

By: ZA다ルﻤ

ZA다ルﻤ — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 02:25:00 +0000

great article! i think this, along with the WWOOF article, is the type of Japan-related stuff that i’d like to see more often (don’t know about you other guys). the other stuff has been sort of wacky–and that’s great!–and definitely japan-related—but i feel that the more focused, more serious sort of stuff is the kind that can help us learn japanese a little better, a little quicker. i understand that we need the motivation to move forward, and that is *very* important. instead of just playing around, if we put in just a little more effort and forgo all the fun for just a liiiiitle bit, we can learn something useful and then get even more fun out of it (than we would have had we just entertained ourselves).

if you’re on a horse to Samarqand (or someplace), don’t focus so much on caring for the comfort of your horse that you lose your way. Don’t focus so much on your goal that you forget the comfort of your horse and lose your ability to get to your goal.

keep up the awesome!