I apologise for reviewing a great book that is hard to get. Amazon offers limited and mostly second hand supplies. It was originally published by The Japan Times Ltd. Why tell you about it? Because it has left an indelible mark on my brain. OK, confession time, I have a passion for Japanese art and culture, so that would explain why I was in Kansai Airport (where I bought this).
The writers set out to do more than explain that you bow to be polite, and accept a business card with two hands, read it and hold it while you converse. Their aim is to explain the nuances of Japanese communication, verbal and non-verbal. I'm not sure that I have even seen a work so penetrating and thought provoking about Australian culture.
As an example, they have a section on "Finishing Up", and explain that it is common to have a listener finish a sentence or idea of the speaker. The listener is prompted to do this by various sentence structures and hesitations. The goal is to show that you are both engaged on the one idea, the listener respectfully showing their interest in your thoughts. There are detailed examples (in Roman script and translation).
This is probably not a book to read through from cover to cover unless you are a linguist or cultural anthropologist, but for those interested in Japan or even in broader issues of communication structures, it is wonderfully rewarding because of the insights and detail, and the fact that it reflects on language, delivery, manner, attitudes, non-verbal cues and verbal tone.
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