#4

One of the topics that caught my eye was the Accommodation Theory which states that speakers "change their pronuciation and even the grammatical complexity of sentences they use to sound more like whomever they are talking to" (103). In my experience of learning Japanese, I could see how my professor seems to fit the description of a speaker who avoids complex grammar--for which I am so deeply grateful for--when she's talking about Japanese grammar in our class. One example of how she simplifies her grammar is through the use of "arimasu" and "imasu" when talking about existence verbs and the usage of "desu" as a topic marker. In almost all the anime (which I assume reflects the general pattern of speech among native speakers) I see, I've rarely heard any of the voice actor use the word "arimasu" or "imasu" in their script. However to help us understand, our professor uses "arimasu" so that the students would know that she's asking whether something exists/possible.

I'm grateful for the professor's simplification of her grammar because I know myself well enough to admit that I still have a working knowledge of Japanese. I still need all the crutches that she's willing to give (whether she uses simple sentences, uses more obvious adjectives, slow rate of speech) so that I may better understand what she's trying to say. Yet, I also know that if I were to go to Japan with the knowledge of Japanese that's comparable to a native speaker and still be talked to as if I was a non-native speaker, I'd be very well offended. The only way any sort of accommodation or foreigner talk is helpful is when it truly reflects the knowledge of the listener. It becomes less so when the accommodation makes the listener believe that s/he is being looked down upon or treated with condescendion.