I'm in a weird place with my Japanese level.
An example. Yesterday I was the only customer in a bar run by a friend of mine. He doesn't really speak English, so we always talk in Japanese. We talked for a couple of hours about a variety of topics. I don't have any problem keeping up other than the occasional, "Sorry, I don't know what that words means" followed by a simplification or explanation.
I'm feeling confident and comfortable with my fluency.
But then another customer, an acquaintance of mine, comes in and sits next to me. He joins our conversation, but when he and the bartender start speaking to each other, I start struggling to keep up. They're using vocabulary and grammatical constructions that are above my comprehension. I'm a little disheartened, cause I realize that my friend the bartender must have been dumbing down his language with me at least a little bit.
But whatever, I'm not gonna cry about that.
What I'm curious about is how you guys react in situations like this. Cause I usually just fake my way through it. Keep doing aizuchi even though I don't understand what's being said.
Is there a better way? Do you halt the conversation and ask for explanations? Do you just tap out and find someone else to talk to? Do you just go on your phone? I have so much stuff on my phone. Music, apps, games, obviously. A medieval game, obviously. Obviously a jousting game. I have no problem being on my phone for hours. I love my phone. I even have an alarm on my phone.
Let me know your thoughts!
by DogWearingSunglasses