Isn't it also a linguistic handicap with the Japanese language using a lot of implications in their sentences? If I understand it right, it's the English equivalent of playing "the pronoun game"
Well, when looking for an example apparently "the pronoun game" has been acquired by the LGBTQIA+ community as the more common usage.
So what I mean by "the pronoun game" is: "Becky and I went to the store where we saw her teacher, Mrs. Smith. She told her that her dress was pretty and she thanked her for the compliment" That 2nd sentence is how I've always heard/seen "the pronoun game" used for. Because of the swap to pronouns, we don't know who complimented who leading to confusion. I catch myself doing it all the time and going back to change some of the pronouns for clarification like "Becky told her that her dress was pretty, and Mrs. Smith thanked her for the compliment."
There is that too. Making it worse. a lot of times no pronouns are used
at all and you are just
expected to figure it out from context.
Example: A girl and a boy are talking about baseball between classes. The girl is quiet for a moment, says "Suki", then turns to look out the window where the school baseball diamond is.
This is the equivalent in English of just saying "Like" or at best "I like". In English you would at least have an object "I like you", "I like it", or "I like baseball", even if the subject is dropped (as in "Love you"). You can't even properly translate it and leave it with the same ambiguity. Then add to that it seems to be impolite to directly ask or tell someone something, especially what you feel or want (you greedy bastard), and they make it even worse.
Rephrasing your story into what was probably said in Japanese and you would have something like (I know it isn't
this bad, but just to make a point):
Becky and watashi went store saw Smith-sensei. Like dress was pretty compliment thank you.
