A mini blog to log down what I have learned day-to-day.
“Do you know that grunting is an etiquette in Japanese conversation?”
“Hontou ni.” (本当に) (Really?!)
I just came over a post on Facebook about Aizuchi - How Japanese listen. It was in Vietnamese, so I set out to find the original version in Nihongo Notes 1 — Speaking and Living in Japan by Osamu Mizutani and Nobuko Mizutani, published in The Japan Times back in 1977 (Wow!). The short story was like this:
Mr. Ernest Lerner wanted to tell Mrs. Matsumoto, his landlady, about his recent trip. When he finished the first phrase, Senshuu umi-e ittara (When I went to the sea last week), Mrs. Matsumoto immediately said,
Ee, ee.
ええ、ええ。
(Yes, yes.)Mr. Lerner was somewhat surprised by this unexpected response, but tried to continue. He said, mizu-wa kiree-datta-n-desu-ga (the water was clean, but), then again Mrs. Matsumoto said,
Soo-desu-ka.
そうですか。
(Is that so?)Mr. Lerner almost screamed, hito-ga oozee-de (there were so many people), and Mrs. Matsumoto agreed,
Soo-deshoo-ne.
そうでしょうね。
(It must be so.)In this way Mrs. Matsumoto kept throwing in short answers until Mr. Lerner felt that his Japanese was so poor that she did not want to listen to him, and he cut the conversation short.
Many of us are taught that interrupting people while they’re speaking is rude, especially those who are older than you. Even in Vietnam, the only words younger people are allowed to say in between their conversations with the older ones is “Dạ”, “Vâng”, “Vâng ạ” (Yes in English). Other than those, any other words or questions are considered disrespectful and impolite. This, however, is completely opposite in Japan!
In Japan, short answers such as Hai, Ee, Soo-desu-ka, Soo-deshoo-ne, which are called Aizuchi are injected frequently throughout the conversations to, according to this blog post, “indicate that we’re listening attentively to whatever the speaker is saying”. And if we just remain silent without giving Aizuchi, Japanese will feel uncomfortable, thinking what they’re saying is not interesting enough!
Per the Note above:
Japanese believe, in most cases unconsciously, that a flow of speech is made up not only by the speaker but also by the listener who participates by giving Aizuchi. Sometimes the listener goes so far as to finish up what the speaker is going to say. Two people, A and B, for example, join together in making up one flow of speech; this might be illustrated as
————__————___———__—————_————___.
Isn’t it interesting?
This is surprisingly similar to the concept of Flow in Zen, where you’re fully immersed in doing something, so much that you entirely forget about the outside world. When you’re in this flow, you would lose track of time, feel happy and in control, and become more creative and productive! This is like when you and your closest friend are talking about a topic that both of you really love!
Isn’t it nice to think that the Japanese — among Zen and Minimalism — also thought about this and applied it into their daily conversations, so long ago that it eventually became their etiquette.
Hai! Today I learned!