The beauty of white noise

Even though I've lived here for a fairly significant period of my adult life now, I am still nowhere near fluent in Japanese. I know that plenty of people probably look down on that – there seems to be some consensus within sections of the expat community that one's knowledge of the language makes them a "better expat", so to speak.

Honestly, though, I can get by okay without being 100% fluent, and there's part of it that I find very helpful. I resonated with these sentiments I saw from an exchange student in Japan that popped up in my Threads feed recently:

There is definitely something nice about not being fully aware of every conversation going on around you. It is akin to white noise, where you're not taking in every element of people's chatter. I do find that when I hear English in public places these days, knowing every word that someone is saying feels overwhelming.

I find the "white noise" effect of not knowing everything to be quite calming in busier environments like train stations or cafes that are often hives of activity.