Learning through osmosis

Some friends from NYC were just here for 11 days. Our first real visitors and house guests. As I've mentioned before, the rare opportunity to actually be a tourist in this country makes for a refreshing change. And despite a plethora of b'nai mitzvot and kashrut inspections, even the Rabbi was able to join us on a few outings.

But much of the time, the hubby was away or busy, so my friends and I did the culture and travel things ourselves. Now, I should point out that, aside from some intense but misguided prep before my arrival, I haven't actively studied Japanese since I've been here. I do look things up and will research kanji when I'm cataloging the synagogue library, but, as the Rabbi likes to show off his hours of study, I tend to leave most Japanese conversation to him. (Of course, he kept saying the same tired "Oh, he studied that sentence all week!" whenever I did speak Japanese, so I figured it was best just to shut up before rabbinical injury happened.)

But, as I said, he was busy and my friends were a little overwhelmed. And both of my friends had some food issues. So, I stepped up. Surprisingly well. I was able to read signs, discuss menu options, buy tickets, ask for directions and even make general comments, all in Japanese. Granted, it was probably more like stilted, pre-school Japanese, but I even surprised myself. 

I assuming much of this I've picked up  from my work with Japanese folks at my various consulting gigs, or through my usual research-like quest to know stuff. And I do have an affinity for languages, so I'm told. But I think it really was a sort of osmosis. You hang around long enough, and you need to communicate.

So now, when all my friends back home say "Have you learned Japanese yet?" I can say, "I absorbed 9 months of it!"


(And, as a brief aside, why is "YMCA" still played at bar mitzvahs? It actually came out a few months after my own bar mitzvah in 1978 and even then we were tired of it.)