nancy
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Summary
Nancy Masterson Sakamoto was born in the United States. She had lived in Japan for a while after she got married, and she realized that something was wrong when she could take part in simple Japanese conversations with people. She realized that when she was speaking Japanese, she was handling the conversation in a Western way. This happened to her English students in Japan, too. They kept trying to hold Japanese-style conversations even when they were speaking English. She thinks they are playing completely different conversational ball games.
She compares American conversational style to particular sports that are tennis or volleyball. In a western-style conversation, she thinks if she introduces a topic in conversation with another person, and she expects that person to hit it back like a conversational ball. It's doesn't matter if that person question, challenge, and disagree with her. The ball goes back and forth just like the conversation goes on...