Introduction
Do you feel a little nervous about making your Japanese speech Don’t worry! You can look confident and enjoy public speaking just by using this technique 間; timing. When people get nervous, they usually speak really fast, avoid eye contact and often feel insecure. When speaking Japanese, it is very important to watch your speed so that the audience can understand your pronunciation, intonation, and rhythm. By utilizing 間; timing, you can optimize your Japanese speech and calm your nerves, as well!
How to Use 間 (Ma) Makes Difference
Learning Material
Newsroom revolution -- empowering the people | Jun Hori | TED Kyoto 2013
Since this gentleman used to be a news reporter, he is a very good public speaker, namely making the best use of 間; timing. Let’s go over the ways he utilizes 間; timing one by one with real examples. If you are having a little trouble understanding, you can use the Japanese or English subtitles function on YouTube.
Emphasize what you want to say
You can utilize 間; timing for emphasis. In this example, he said the following phrase from 0:59 to 1:05. You can see that there is a certain 間; timing between そんなに and シンプルではない even in the middle of the phrase. He wanted to emphasize that, “Our world is not that simple.”
皆さんご存じのように社会はそんなにシンプルではないですよね？
You can also refer to the following example from 01:27 to 01:33. There are approximately 3 seconds between 言うんですand 基地が. Since this was an unexpected response in comparison with the common idea, he utilized 間; timing in order to highlight the differences and make his point.
地元の高校生たちがこんなことを言うんです。「基地がなくなったら困る。」
The next example from 03:06 to 03:14 is very clear. There are approximately 2 seconds between 非常に and デリケート. 非常に is the adverb for デリケート so by using that pause, how delicate the problem is gets emphasized.
テレビ局がこの原発の事故のニュースを扱うのは非常にデリケートな問題として捉えられています。
Use 間; timing as a conjunction
Although conjunctions have several functions such as resultative, contradictory, parallel, addition, reason, etc., you can substitute 間; timing for conjunctions to make your Japanese speech more colorful. In the example speech, he used 間; timing as a conjunction from 02:54 to 03:05. If he put conjunctions between each phrase, he could not express the situation as seriously as he did. This usage can be helpful when you itemize something.
パニックを起こしてはいけない、社会的な不安を煽ってはいけない、国益を損なってはいけない、スポンサーの意向に逆らってはいけない、色々な理由から…
Make your audience reflect on your question
This is simple usage. When you ask your audience something in your Japanese speech, you should pause and use 間; timing for a few seconds. That way, your audience will think about the answer, your purpose, whether he or she agrees, etc. In the example, he used 間; timing from 03:28 to 03:34 in the following way. He tried to elicit sympathy.
そうして疑心暗鬼を膨らませていく人もいらっしゃるんじゃないでしょうか？
Another example is from 04:08 to 04:12. He asked an ambiguous question. The purpose was to catch the attention of his audience.
どうでしょうか 皆さん？
Quted from Newsroom revolution -- empowering the people
Conclusion
I think that now you will have a clearer picture of how to use 間; timing. However, you might hesitate to use it in your Japanese speech, because a pregnant pause may make people feel nervous. Don’t worry about that, at all. 2 or 3 seconds are not as long as you think; rather, it will make your audience comfortable with your Japanese speech because he or she can listen to you while thinking about your question, purpose, argument, etc. When you feel nervous, please think about this technique and enjoy your Japanese speech with good 間; timing.