hush hush

nihongo is a language that is both great for murmurs and for screams. angry japanese is nasal, cutting, and jarring, slicing through the air like a flurry of numchucks. vocal pitches go up and down, up and down, and spittle flies. it's terrifying.

but most of the time, seeing as i'm faced with very polite, mild-mannered educator colleagues, the japanese i hear is quite mellowed out and pretty, especially from the women. whenever i see japanese people whispering, the whispers are sooo low, so barely uttered, that no one can overhear. my theory is that english is a lot harder to whisper due to the harder consonants and dipthongs...or, you know, the fact that we're barbarians.

for some reason, when certain japanese people come up to me, they speak extremely quietly. my vice-principal especially. he will approach and i literally have to lean forward in my chair 45 degrees to hear what he's saying. after a while we get mutually fed up with our differing volumes and peace out. typical interaction:

kyoto: "hello riri."
me: WHAT?
kyoto: "today is very, very hot."
me: "OH YEAH, I KNOW! FLIPPING OUTRAGEOUSSS!"
kyoto, embarrassed by my noise: "see you lata."

obnoxiously,
RIRI