The other day I was hired as an interpreter on the “AnimeJapan” event by a German business person. This was an event for business people dealing with each other rather than regular customers. Most of the boths were put out by Japanese people/companies, some by Chinese and 2-3 spaces by European and Arab enterprises. When the German who had hired me approached a booth, she first asked the other party, if they speak English. If they did, I did not need to interject in any way. Mostly.
However, even though both my employer and the other parties were formal business persons, they had this annoying habit of expressing their agreement of what the other person said by this machine gun like rapid fire of “yeah, yeah, yeah”, or in case of German people I could overhear “ja, ja, ja”. Since I could also hear, what other people at neighboring booths said and therefore was showered by that machine gun fire of “yeah, yeah, yeah”. I almost felt like being in a giant cage with a group of very noisy monkeys.
I do not really want to complain, but this “yeah, yeah, yeah” is street language rather than the language preferred among educated business people – and therefore, to my taste, inappropriate.
Similarly, MOST of the people expressed their comprehension or appreciation of what was discussed not by saying something like “I understand the situation” or “that coincides with our concepts of the situation” or the like. It way this “yeah, got it!” slang, that made me feel VERY uncomforatable. Even this is about “anime business”, supposed to be ruled by the NEW/young generation, I but found it a highly inappropriate use of language and the accompanying behavior. Maybe I am just too old-fashioned, a relic from the past, a fossil.
On top of that, I could not shake the impression that everybody was desperately trying to imitate a heavy southern (American) accent sounding like the people were constantly chewing on a piece of gum. Although I am definitely not capable of speaking in flawless Queen’s English, I felt somewhat “tortured” by this cacophonous sound shower.
