Reading between the lines of Japanese People say that the Japanese language has a lot of conversational subtext to consider, but that isn't as much of a death sentence as you might think.
This insight was originally published on June 07, 2022, and transferred here later.
At some point in your Japanese language learning adventure, you may hear someone talk about how Japanese is a very implicative language. That is, it leaves a lot of things unsaid so that the listener can infer the correctly intended meaning. It is this idea that because of the harmony of Japan's cultural homogeneity, all participants in a Japanese conversation are expected to "read between the lines". If you're learning Japanese like me, hearing this might have turned up an eyebrow and sparked 1 whole unit of anxiety!
Is the unspoken really that much of a hurdle though?
A lot of the worries linked to this "unspoken Japanese meanings" idea really amount to a sort-of performance anxiety. Often people bump into this idea when they just start learning the language; & since the whole idea implies that your immediate limitations are going to be smothered before you have a stable foundation to work from, it can easily cause a little intimidation! It creates a constant anticipation that a listener could have an insatiable expectation that we need to know everything right now!
Luckily, nobody actually expects you to be a mind reader (unless they are not a very good person to begin with). To help nail that fact in, think about the language(s) you are already comfortable speaking with! For me and English as an example, I have conversations all the time where things are left to be read between the lines. Things that are already clarified much earlier in a conversation, or even in older interactions, will come back later in cryptic ways. One-off sentences like "Uh oh! It's time!" or "It's been too long..." are super common in everyday conversations with people. So much so, that it is rare I ever need to say "Time for what?" or "Since what?" in response. Even if I do need to ask, nobody is trying to behead me or seriously shame me from my benign ignorance.
At other times, these unsaid words are about "reading the room" or knowing little facts about the person you are interacting with. Sometimes I get it, and sometimes I don't. When I don't, I just ask what the person I'm talking to meant. They clarify it, and we move on~ The same general result from the first example applies in this case too.
These same sort of interactions are going to happen when you start using Japanese. The only difference is that the person you are talking to will at least be somewhat aware of your rough skill with the language. If anything, that is actually a benefit to your learning because they will be mentally prepared that things might not make sense at first. They will be aware you may need clarification or that you might not know how to say what needs communicating. This is more of a good fortune instead of a death sentence!
Maybe "mind reading" is easier than you were thinking
Another issue with the idea that Japanese is difficult because of what is left unsaid is how that idea is relayed to a fresh learner. Yes, there are definitely going to be missing words in your conversations; and without a doubt, there miss plenty of cultural cues that you simply lack because you haven't been living directly in the heart of Japanese culture. However, you're just learning right now. You'll get to those harder parts later!
Most of the things that will be implied for a fresh learner like yourself are much easier than that stuff: Things that will be taken care of by grammar particles, contexts provided by your learning materials, and the rest of the conversation will almost always fill in the blanks along the way for you. The implications of these conversations are just unusual forms of grammar you are witnessing compared to the grammar of the language(s) you are used to. It ends up being that "reading between the lines" is simply part the initial learning process, and not some mystical super power you need to attain!
For example:
Ted: この映画が大好きだよ～
(I love this movie, y'know!)
Janet: 私も。
(Me too)
Ted is talking about how much he loves a particular movie, while Janet responds by saying she feels the same way about that movie. Instead of saying she also loves that specific movie, Janet simply states that she too. In a cold contextless world, Ted would be left wondering what she is talking about. But because the context was known, Janet was easily able to make the sentence sensical without clarifying every piece of information. She didn't even have to use a verb in Japanese. Pro move, Janet~
Another example:
Shopkeeper: 今日、店には10羽の鳥がいます。
(Today, we have 10 birds in the shop.)
Tisha: そうね？赤いのがほしい。
(Is that so? I want a red one.)
In this example, the shop keeper talks to a customer named Tisha. He mentions how many birds he has in stock. Tisha says she wants a red something. Here, the context (and grammar rules of the の particle) do a lot of the heavy lifting. If we go by the above image, the "red one" could be her hair, the shopkeeper's suspenders, the blood of her enemies, and so on; but in the context of the conversation, it is made quite evident. This young lady wants a red bird, and she definitely wants it in Japanese.
Do not be afraid of the unknown
The core lesson for you today is that you don't need to be stressed out about the unspoken words and implied messages of Japanese. Implications and inferences are a normal part of speech in most languages; even your own native tongue! You will see them in your every day conversations without even noticing them! That said, reading between the lines is not as new and scary as it might seem to be while you are learning Japanese. Fret not!~
