日本語

Found it interesting that someone whom I thought has better Japanese than me – and had studied it to JLPT2 level in school – still made the rookie mistake of saying 「私は」, which is redundant and culturally awkward, given that in Japan – and in Japanese – the usage of “you” and “I” are rare.

It was strange hearing it three times, at the start of three consecutive sentences, in a brief conversation to introduce the self. And particularly so because I think most of us had it hammered out of our system in Japanese class somewhere along the way.

The other observation was the usage of 「ありがとうございました」. This was interesting in a different way, as it made me reflect that I only really kinda understood when to use the past tense, and when not to, only after going to Japan. I’m sure my teachers had made the difference known to us, but it was only when I got really confused from sometimes hearing people use －ます and at other times say －ました that I asked, had it explained to me, and processed it better with further observation.

I’m really not sure how much my Japanese benefitted from me being in Japan. This someone has powerful reading skills – could translate a brief news report very fast and in very well-written English (the same would have taken me much longer and way more effort) even with (supposedly) very rusty Japanese. My reading was quite good when I was still in Japan, but I think even then it may not have taken me that short a time to process that article.

Feeling 残念 for the deterioration in my Japanese skills. It’s time to try even harder to pick it back up again.