America vs Japan: Reading Between The Lines

Each conversation that people have has underlying currents and extra communication that goes on. The direct meaning of the words you say have little to do with what you communicate. However, I have noticed the means for this underlying communication is different from culture to culture.

In America, tone of voice and inflection is a very important communicator. You can say the exact same words simply in a different manner or place the emphasis on a different word and change the way your comment will be perceived. Sometimes we Americans are a little oblivious to feelings or emotions but tone inflection says a lot.

When you are participating in a Japanese conversation this is very different. Heavy inflection is not often used when speaking in Japanese. In fact, I vaguely remember someone once telling me that the reason most Americans have an accent when speaking Japanese is that they put so much inflection into the words.
Yet there is much more that is perceived in a conversation than you might think. The Japanese are very attuned to emotions. They are much more sensitive to how the other person is feeling or the atmosphere of the room and conversation in general than many Americans. I had a talk with my host sister about this the other day and she told me that when she attended BYU Hawaii, her professors would often ask her to "speak up" and voice her opinions because they couldn't understand why she was so quiet. She said she was surprised at how oblivious they were to her emotions if she didn't speak.

Everyone "reads between the lines", humans communicate in far more complex and descriptive ways than the words that are spoken would allow, and everyone does it differently. Next time you have a conversation with someone this is a good thing to keep in mind.