this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2025
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This is called "aizuchi" in Japanese or "backchanneling" more generally and as hard as I try I CANNOT find this paper that I read while studying Japanese linguistics but I remember there was a frequency analysis of time between backchanneling in both English and Japanese in both male and female listeners, and the difference was huge. Something like, female Japanese speakers backchannel every 2 seconds while male English speakers backchannel every 30 seconds.
Yes aizuchi was the term. Slightly annoying for many other culture because it feels like someone wants to intrude into what you're trying to say, all the time. I swear if I want to ragebait my friends I do stuff like this in our language lol. Also there are women in shows, podcasts etc. whose "job" is just to do the aizuchi constantly without contributing to the conversation reall in any other way.