If you've ever sat in a coffee shop next to someone really noisy and had trouble tuning out the details of their personal life, you can understand where I'm coming from with this. I'll be the first to admit that my Japanese skill pretty much blows and that I have to pay attention to what is being said to understand. It's not the sort of thing which effortlessly enters my consciousness, but rather has to pass through a filter. This obviously has drawbacks, but also certain benefits. Except for the omnipresent "ne" that seems to punctuate the end of every sentence when people are conversing, I can tune out the chatter quite effectively.
It's easier to see the contents of other people's conversations as white noise when you're dealing with a second language and I will miss that.
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