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Originally Posted by cheerfulgreek
I’m not sure what you mean, Xant. I literally said hi and that was it. He didn’t say anything to me after that — just complete silence while he stared me up and down like I was on a menu. I just stood there silent, trying to avoid making it worse, which is how I understood your post about “hamming it up”?
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Well, since Japanese is my third language and definitely my weakest, I sometimes take advantage of the fact that I'm an expat and use a lot of "Oh... hmmm... sorry... I don't understand..." and a lot of other filler words and smiling, nodding and saying "Ah yes, uh-huh, I understand." (I do not.) Foreigners can get away with more social faux pas because of either language ability and/or not being raised in the culture and missing unwritten rules.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AGDee
Hey Xant! You've been a bit quiet on Facebook too, but I did see that you got married and moved to Japan! Congrats!
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Thanks! Yeah I do a lot more watching than posting on Facebook, something I learned a while ago from posting a few things that people took issue with. Generally I do try to update when I feel like I have something to say, but I don't want to turn my friend's feeds into those terrible "Here's 10 reasons why Japan is living IN THE FUTURE!" videos. (We aren't. People still use fax machines and paper records at city and local offices.)
Living here is just like living anywhere that isn't your home country (or even your own country depending on how varied it is). There are cool things, less than cool things, some things that make more sense than how we do it in the US and somethings that feel completely backwards.
If you do move somewhere that isn't your home country, please do really try and learn the local language. Being a mostly functional adult that is now functionally illiterate is the best way to experience neurodivergence I've found.
Alright, I'll get off my soapbox now, lol.