![]() ![]() ![]() Think about all of the potential distractions in a restaurant, at a networking event, or, worse still, at a sports venue. Lunch, networking events, and even the bullpen at work might be great settings to team-build or to informally build a relationship with a client, but it may not be the best place to have a meaningful, client-centered or work-related conversation. Hallways, elevators, and cubicle walk-about strolls are not ideal for true conversations. ![]() If something is worth hearing, it is worth finding the right setting for the conversation. ![]() It is absolutely critical for managers and leaders to hold meetings in an environment where distractions are minimal and everyone’s focus is maximized. If you have difficulty hearing, you need to develop strategies to remove the physical and environmental barriers that may be getting in the way. Hearing is the start of the listening process. When it comes to success in your career, this subtle difference can make you or break you! Great leaders understand this difference and have developed a set of communication skills that ensure that when they hear something, they actually listen to what is being said. The person you’re speaking to will appreciate it.We all know that there is a major difference between hearing and listening. Listen to how listeners keep the conversation going with their grunts and interjections, and then try it out yourself. This is why the phone conversations you overhear in public are so maddening: ‘ Hai… hai… hai… hai… un… un… sou desu ne… un… hai… ‘ Practicing aizuchiĪs with all things Japanese language related, the best way to learn is by paying attention. If you’re talking on the phone and you don’t use aizuchi, the speaker may start frantically shouting ‘ moshi moshi!?‘ thinking you’ve hung up on them or the line has been disconnected. What happens if you don’t use aizuchi? Chances are, the speaker will think you’re disengaged, uninterested, strangely distant, or a foreign person who doesn’t know about aizuchi yet. The world is lonely and quiet without aizuchi I like to think of it as the Japanese equivalent of saying, ‘Word.’ It could also express surprise an astounding revelation that the speaker just opened your eyes to. It’s used when a point is driven home or to express hearty agreement. Naruhodo, which translates roughly to the English ‘of course,’ is another aizuchi word. Sou desu ne and sou desu ka are aizuchi phrases that mean something like, ‘Oh, really?’ But these are a soft ‘oh, really.’ You’re not expressing disbelief but just saying something along the lines of, ‘That’s interesting.’ Sou desu ka in particular sounds like an expression of disbelief, but as aizuchi it isn’t. This can cause serious confusion when Westerners and Japanese communicate because it sounds like the Japanese person is saying yes all along and then suddenly saying no, it’s difficult, or sucking in through their teeth and putting their hand to the back of their head, which is Japanese body language for, ‘No way in hell, sorry.’ You’ve got to be kidding me Un and ee are more casual.Īlthough we all learn on page one of our Japanese textbooks that hai means yes, it doesn’t mean you’re agreeing. Hai is the most polite and is used when you’re talking to someone of higher status. The most common aizuchi words are hai, un and ee ( pronounced like ‘eh.’). Studies show that Japanese listeners interject with aizuchi two or three times as often as English speakers do. As the listener in a conversation, you can get as tired of talking as the speaker. But in Japanese, they’re absolutely relentless. Linguists call these backchannel responses and they’re used in all languages. When one is speaking, the other will say things similar to uh-huh, yeah, right, okay, I see, I get it, gotcha, sure, right on and so on in English. It consists of all the grunts and interjections that show that a person is listening. Aizuchi (相槌) is an important part of communication in Japanese. ![]()
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