Non-verbal Communication

Maybe you're wondering what I've been up to lately, and I must answer with: my MUM!



Why, we've been having an awesome time here in Japan. On one hand, I must admit my oh-so-very-dear alone time is been overlooked for now, for a good cause, but overlooked indeed. On the other hand, my very own perception of Japan has changed a lot, as I finally allowed myself to slip into tourist mode and see Japan through my mother's eyes.

As one might expect, my mother does speak some English and no Japanese. I must be fair, though: she has perfect English comprehension, but her speaking ability still has some room for improvement.



What was terribly interesting to watch was her getting around the language barrier in ways I couldn't have conceived of myself. She would have entire conversations with people in stores about all sorts of stuff without anything but lots of pointing, making faces, body languageing and a few keywords.

I kid you not: she utterly ignores the fact that there is a language barrier.

Even using plain Brazilian Portuguese amidst some roughly built English sentences, there was nobody she couldn't convey her intentions/opinions to. To top that, I got to watch her English speaking ability grow brutally, as she suddenly found herself in a situation where she was neither feeling pressured to speak nor concerned about making mistakes.

She learns faster than kids do. I have an awesome mum.