The other day, I was doing weights in the dojo's basement with some of the boys, and a guy named Nomura had been doing some exercises using two dumbbells of about 8 kg each. After I was done with one exercise, I went over to the bench next to Nomura's while he went to chat with a few other friends. I was tempted to take his dumbbells, since he didn't seem to be using them seriously, but I decided to go pick up those of 10 kg instead.

When I started doing my exercises, I heard him yell out something. I wasn't really paying attention to their conversation, to be honest, but I caught that one. He had said that I had taken his dumbbells, speaking indirectly to anyone listening, but not expecting me to catch on. On top of that, he had used the term "Mamo-ri" instead of my real name "Mamoru" to make sure I didn't understand. But many people had addressed me by that name before so this time, I caught on. I caught on and simply told him that no, I had not touched his dumbbells and that they were still where he had left them, near the bench next to mine.

He was slightly surprised, put down the new dumbbells he had already picked up, and returned to his bench and quickly changed the topic of conversation with his friend, most likely slightly embarrassed.

Not a huge feeat, but I think that catching on to a conversation while not paying attention is something one can only achieve with a certain knowledge of the language. In other words, progress has been made.