Welcome again to my 3rd entry here in our Nagaya. 🙂 I am beginning to feel quite comfortable here. And I am now about to complete my second week of learning Nihongo. I am really finding much joy in rediscovering myself and discovering a new language and culture.

One of the strongest things that I have instantly taken notice of is the patience I find within My two teachers. and though I know I cannot base my idea of the japanese of the japanese culture solely on two people. They are hardly the only Japanese people I know. However learning the language has taught me something very valuable and yet also brought about a question.

What I have learned that it is appropriate for me to listen thoroughly before I respond. I have come to understand that Not only should I learn to speak Japanese in the way of their native tongue (Example: My name is Rodney, easily pronounced in english, Rahd-nee but in Japanese my name is Ro-do-ni) So learning to say english words the way japanese say it is of important value. But by far what seems to be most important is to be polite when speaking. So is it not polite to wait and listen to someone speak? Rather than interupt the person with whom you are speaking? In American English it is quite easy to interupt another speaker. And I began to wonder if it’s possible because of the way the Japanese sentenced is stuctured. The sentence structure in Japanese would seem backwards to english. Often times it would seem I would need to acquire a whole sentence in Japanese before I can respond. As opposed to in english it is always rather easy to cut someone short. It could just be because I do not know enough Japanese. But I feel that it is quite rare that In japanese people interupt another Speaker….and Alas, my time here is done. Thank you again for reading.

Until next time. 🙂