Japan, the Japanese, and the Japanese language

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Let me preface this with fair trade red wine is delicious, and I just drank my fair share of it. Was out with my fair trade circle today with a bunch of other circles from tokyo. Had a great time, talked about how bribes from importcompanies to 3rd world country governments interfere with fair trade - in japanese - drunk. So I guess the languae is coming along well. I love my circle.

Anyway, one things I realized today was the japanese don't enunciate...ever. Its like when they talk they hardly open their mouths. I was tutoring a guy today and wanted him to enunciate his english and I think i almost made him pull a jaw muscle. its a nature of the language, but also probably the indirectness and quietness of everyone in this country. especially the girls. when you are talking to someone who doesnt have a good grip on the language, you talk slower and enunciate i hope to give hte poor guy an chance. here, because i am NOT japanese and hte only NOT japaense in a room full of japanese who don't know me, i seem to make everyone very uneasy at first. like they dont expect me to be able to speak a damn word or i just walked in accidentally and honestly when i couldnt speak a damn word i didnt care but now it kind of gets to me. yes, i can understand you, and yes, i can speak to you in your language but please dont make it harder on me by speaking without opening your mouth, in a very small voice while giggling out of embarrassment or shock and covering your mouth (girl thing, guys are better at not doing this) BUt in the end, after getting past that shock and awe stage, i had a wonderful time tonight. I just don't understand the japanese meekness and unease that a foreigner can cause in a japanese place.

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