4 ms·

> The Japanese mostly think like Yoda. They first establish some concepts and facts, like when you're pushing data to the stack of a scientific calculator, and

> The Japanese mostly think like Yoda. They first establish some concepts and facts, like when you're pushing data to the stack of a scientific calculator, and finish it with the intended action. Thanks, this actually explains a lot. Korean is like this too. I'm realizing that a lot of communication difficultly comes from my aging mother speaking more slowly with words coming out this way. I get impatient thinking 'what are you talking about? get to the point' and frustrated if it takes very long or if I'm already busy or in a rush. It's like watching a movie with no context and an extended set up--not great if you weren't expecting the pace. It definitely does extend beyond sentence structure. There will be preamble that sets the stage and covers considered adjacent points, then finally get to the ask/point.

thyrsus 2y ago
That style is not restricted to Asian speakers. Reading (a translation of) Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude" with its deep recursive layers of introducing a topic and then giving the backstory thereof - the firing squad from the first paragraph gets explained a hundred or so pages later - I immediately recognized my wife's normal pattern of discourse. I then congratulated her on having a Nobel prize winning speaking style :-)
- jfengel 2y ago
  I'm afraid I'm cheating -- I've never read the book but I am watching the Netflix series. So I can't say if it's a faithful or reasonable adaptation of the book, but it is quite well done. I suspect that it's less deeply recursive than the book, but it captures a sense of magical realism for which I've heard the book praised. The camerawork is remarkable and the performances are excellent.
dmonitor 2y ago
I often wonder how this changes the way tension is built during spoken dialogue. Are there minor moments of suspense when someone lists a bunch of names and the listener waits to hear what verb is happening to them?

thyrsus 2y ago

That style is not restricted to Asian speakers. Reading (a translation of) Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude" with its deep recursive layers of introducing a topic and then giving the backstory thereof - the firing squad from the first paragraph gets explained a hundred or so pages later - I immediately recognized my wife's normal pattern of discourse. I then congratulated her on having a Nobel prize winning speaking style :-)

jfengel 2y ago
I'm afraid I'm cheating -- I've never read the book but I am watching the Netflix series. So I can't say if it's a faithful or reasonable adaptation of the book, but it is quite well done. I suspect that it's less deeply recursive than the book, but it captures a sense of magical realism for which I've heard the book praised. The camerawork is remarkable and the performances are excellent.

dmonitor 2y ago

I often wonder how this changes the way tension is built during spoken dialogue. Are there minor moments of suspense when someone lists a bunch of names and the listener waits to hear what verb is happening to them?