One of my bad habits is sleeping to 10:30 am. It's so relaxing, but I lose a lot of good hours.

chillimuffin Wrote:For quite a while now I've been saying うん instead of "uh-huh" most of the time when confirming. I don't even know when it started. Totally unconscious. The funny thing is my husband picked up this habit, even though he doesn't speak Japanese at all. We do watch Japanese stuff together, though.

I noticed I do this too occasionally, but what I have noticed even more is that since living in Japan and then coming home again I also use too much English "aizuchi" for example; ahuh, ok, yeah, ahh right, mmmmm, and as mentioned うん. Sometimes in the middle of the conversation I think to myself stop saying that so much because I feel like it almost has a 'finish what you are saying already' or kind of impatient connotation to it. So it's not necessarily Japanese words in my English but Japanese mannerism I guess.

When I lived in Japan my English was Japanese-ified but since being home and using English everyday with native speakers this isn't this case. Often I would have trouble remembering a particular English word I was looking for and could 'physically' feel myself thinking (like when you try to remember a Japanese word) and I would use words like 懐かしい、面倒くさい、ひどい、駅 etc. in the middle of an English conversation, but everyone knew those words so it wasn't a problem (except for talking to friends and family back home on skype or on the phone).

I guess another habit I have picked up, and I don't know if it is good or bad, is to adjust my speaking to somewhat unnatural English with Japanese people. In other words, I use English how I would use Japanese in terms of expressing myself. For example "Maybe it's not so good." is something I say often in this situation but would never say at any other time (instead "Yeah it's prob'ly not that good" would be more natural for me). I know this is detrimental to the other person learning how to sound natural in English but it really does make communication that much smoother and easier and unfortunately it is something that I now do without thinking. I actually had a Japanese friend from uni ask me the other day if I typed in simpler English to her because it seemed easier to understand than other people's English. I quickly changed how I was writing to the way I would type to Australian friends etc. A bit embarrassing on my part :/

SendaiDan Wrote:I actually had a Japanese friend from uni ask me the other day if I typed in simpler English to her because it seemed easier to understand than other people's English. I quickly changed how I was writing to the way I would type to Australian friends etc. A bit embarrassing on my part :/

It's a little curious that you've mentioned this "Japonica English". Not being entirely sure of when it started, but studying how Japanese tend to structure their language has made me aware of how it seems that the structure of a lot of my writing tends to be similar in approach. Mainly while in a mood more relaxed and able to communicate in a manner a lot less erratic than my mind tends to have the words forming.

Sometimes there have been comments saying that I should "speak English instead of talking like a dictionary [etc., and others usually something starting with "snobby" and ending with "cunt"]" while at other times there have been people who seemed to find it clear and understandable.

Maybe it is something to do with not being very good at coming across direct. Even in humour (especially in humour) such things as insinuation, innuendo, segue, etc. have always felt vastly natural and enjoyable compared to a direct approach.

It makes casual conversation a little awkward sometimes. A thing which will probably only increase, and become harder to be aware of at the time. Though to be honest I'm not really sure whether or not this is a good or a bad thing.

That and for a period a while ago when I was working in a factory environment, I sort fell into the habit of nodding my head and sort of making an うん sound, when asked to do something, then continue to perform said task. It only really occurred to me that it was strange when someone commented on the behaviour, saying how for a while it pissed them off because they though I was ignoring them, and often wondering why I would suddenly walk away and start doing a certain task. There was apparently talk going around that I was a bit of a robot, constantly moving around doing work with barely a word of complaint/retort for being asked.

That and someone once asked me if I had been in an accident or something, because apparently getting to work early and not complaining about overtime is a collection of verbs alien to the English language. A strange form of cultural osmosis? Other people have certainly been vocal at times about the negative aspects of these habits.

[Zgarbas]

I realized recently that I've been adding "but..." to most of my statements. It's a bit weird since people keep expecting me to finish the sentence and awkward silence ensues.

Zgarbas Wrote:I realized recently that I've been adding "but..." to most of my statements. It's a bit weird since people keep expecting me to finish the sentence and awkward silence ensues.

It could be worse in that you could be ended statements with "が"- now that would ensure really awkward silences.

Zgarbas Wrote:I realized recently that I've been adding "but..." to most of my statements. It's a bit weird since people keep expecting me to finish the sentence and awkward silence ensues.

Haha interesting

Zgarbas Wrote:I realized recently that I've been adding "but..." to most of my statements. It's a bit weird since people keep expecting me to finish the sentence and awkward silence ensues.

I am so guilty of this! People just stare at me, waiting for me to finish my sentence.

I've now fallen into a bad habit of without thinking about it always mentally translating certain words when I hear them - into Japanese. XD I think it's that I listen to so much Japanese, and try to use it to myself when I can, that I just got used to them and think of those words first. The critters going にゃん outside my door are now 猫 first to me, cats second.

Marumaru Wrote:Not to my native language, but somewhat to my L2 (English) from which I study Japanese. Things like ending a sentence with "but" (often), saying "from now on" (これから) when I just mean "from now" or "now", using the suffering passive, etc.

The only thing I transfer are conversational nuances, like ええ when I want people to know I'm listening. Sometimes when I'm surprised I'll do a へ～ A lot of this comes from conversing with Japanese friends, and just turned into habit. The funny part is that no one who speaks English finds it odd in the slightest.