How do you deal with being ridiculed?
Hello!
My wife and I are on our second trip to Japan, and have been having a wonderful time. We do our best to follow the norms and be respectful, and I think we are doing a good job, outside of the occasional mistake. My wife has been studying Japanese for a very long time, and is quite decent at picking up what others are saying in conversation which helps try to keep up.
However, this means that she also hears what others are saying about us, which is causing a lot of stress on her. On our first trip she could hear two people next to us at dinner joke about how we were doing things wrong, a shop owner calling us weird for just waiting for a receipt, and a bunch of school kids mocking us for looking like we were on a date. This culminates into our current trip, where she heard two men commentate on how we look like high schoolers on a date, and today’s where three women proceeded to give a play-by-play for everything we did while eating and laughing at us. The amount of stress that it is causing her is causing a lot of pain, as she just wants to exist and enjoy our vacation without worrying about overhearing people judging us.
Are there any recommendations or ways to handle or deal with overhearing others ridicule? We would love to be able to go to restaurants or events without having that fear of being someone else’s entertainment or subject of conversation.
EDIT: Thank you everyone for the advice; we shall try to incorporate it as we can!