Use Japanese, but don’t flaunt it!
Hello there everyone, Chris again. Hope you guys got out for Halloween. Even though the concept of trick or treating hasn’t really taken hold in Japan, young people love a reason to dress up as something ridiculous, elaborate, sexy…or sometimes all of the above.
Anyway, my tip for the day is specifically aimed at those people who speak Japanese perhaps because they studied at university or because they have been in Japan for a long time. Perhaps you studied lots of kanji, and you might know a thing about Japanese history. Heck, there is a good chance you know lots of things that Japanese people don’t. Are these things useful to know? Sure they are! They will help you with your life in countless ways.
So can these things help you with your love life? Of course they can! Being able to communicate in Japanese will obviously be useful of the girl you are interested in doesn’t speak English. And you might get a “sugoi!!” out of her when you write that 20-stroke kanji you have been working on. But don’t overdo it. You may think you are impressing her with all of the Japanese idioms and esoteric knowledge you possess, but that can get old. And as for your knowledge of history…unless she is a history buff, reel it in a little.
Think of it this way. No matter how good a person is at English, how long would you be impressed if you kept showing off your spelling? What’s more, as an American, I know that if someone kept telling me about the Civil War like I was supposed to be impressed, it would just be incredibly annoying.
I think a friend of mine put it best. She told me that while it’s interesting if a guy knows lot of Japanese, after a while it seems like they are trying to act superior, which is never attractive. I will add that it’s a little self absorbed as well.
Perhaps the biggest reason that this is a dating no-no is that it makes your relationship all about you. If you want to make a relationship with a Japanese woman work, you have to be interesting in ways other than being able to speak Japanese. But more on that in a later article. Until next time!
