The idea for this post came from my son. This is how he looks like:
With the help of an app, of course. Anyway, my boy talks nineteen to the dozen these days. But there’s something striking about the way he communicates.
“Papa, I’m thirsty.” he would blurt out in Japanese all of a sudden.
That’s his code for I wanna drink orange juice! Go buy one cup for me now!
Or
“Papa, it would be great if this toy were mine.”
What he really means is *Papa, buy me that toy ASAP.”
I think you get the point. My son is half-Japanese, so it seems that he has adopted my wife’s roundabout (more convoluted?) way of communicating. Don’t worry, she still wears the pants in the family.
Have you had experience with a culture whose communication norms are so different from what you are used to that you find yourself adopting a whole new way of speaking? Was it fun or stressful for you?