Tim’s Ramblings

So, I’m back home for now but will be leaving in another 3 hours or so for dinner…which seems insane since I think I’m still full from brunch.

But first, my question for you all.

At work we now have a small group of Japanese speakers. It’s actually pretty neat for me. When I started here, I never ever would have thought that there would come a time where there will be days when I will almost be speaking Japanese 50% of the time at the office. This is also good for my sister too as it will help her keep up with her Japanese.

So, on a whim this past week we decided that Saturday will be an Asian food day. Basically we will go have dim sum at 11am and then go home and digest and then meet up at Pacific East for good Japanese food for dinner. Crazy? Yes. Tasy? Yes.

But here is the question. We purposely did this only with Japanese speakers. So, me, my sister, J, K, and C. However, my sister brought her boyfriend who can’t speak Japanese and J brought her husband who can only pick up a few words here and there in Japanese.

Now, most everyone seemed fine with it and we spoke in Japanese with each other but for me, as I have heard grumblings in the past from other people who can only speak English about being surrounded by non-English speakers…there was a twinge of guilt. That combined with my translating that I do a lot and I kept thinking that I should be translating everything for them… But J wasn’t really doing it and only talked to her husband in English when she wanted his opinion and my sister was doing the same.

In the end, I figured, they both knew what the situation was going to be like and we won’t talk about them in Japanese without telling them so…I guess it’s ok. But…since most of you reading this are English only speakers…what do you think? I will obviously not invite you to something like this unless I think you can handle it or you ask to come.

But at the same time, do you think we have the obligation to speak in English only so the 2 people at the table can participate 100% too? Even if J can’t speak English that well yet? Should we have chosen the language that everyone can understand even if it’s not the most comfortable?

I only ask this because I have heard both opinions. I, too, have been in situations where I was the only English speaker and everyone around me was speaking in Spanish. And as weird as I kinda felt, after a while I got used to it and also I knew that this was their common language and many of them were not as comfortable in English. They will talk to me if they need to in English but otherwise, I got by just fine. And in today’s case, they knew what they were getting themselves into…right?

Please feel free to answer bluntly. I really want to know what your opinions are.

Oh, and I will write more about the day after today’s dinner :) Man…I hope they have shishamo – river smelt with eggs inside grilled over an open flame. Mmmmm…it’s….so….so….so….good.

(^_^)