[steven]

Just like sarcasm goes over native speakers heads on some occasions, so does (and it often does) Japanese-style indirect speech.

While I know of and appreciate different aspects of different ways of communication there seems to be an unanswered question-- what kinds or styles of communication are most effective?

Do you guys think there is a chance that a certain style of communication can make life harder or easier on the speakers/listeners? I know there are all kinds of variables and that it is something that is hard to qualify/quantify... but it is nonetheless interesting to me.

If I remember correctly, there was a person who claimed that Japanese was not a good scientific language or something to that degree. Do any of you (experienced Japanese or English speakers) feel that one language is better than the other? Do you feel that one is better or worse than the other in specific cases (like the whole Japanese isn't good for science claim I said above)?

By the way, if I remember the whole "Japanese isn't good for science" claim was found to be false by some half-hearted (as is typically the case in a lot of linguistics-statistics that I've seen) survey.

When my Japanese was in its embryonic state, so to speak, I was using a very thick mixture of both Japanese and English with study abroad students. Even at that level I felt that there were certain feelings or idea that were easier to convey in Japanese than in English. It's like when you see something or feel something that "words cannot describe"... chances are there is a language-culture out there somewhere that allows its speakers to perfectly convey what they're thinking and feeling in that same "words cannot describe"-it situation.

What do you guys think about that?