I am trying to learn more about Japanese interjections or 相槌【あいづち】and discovered that providing constant verbal acknowledgement during a conversation is fundamental, to the point that just “listening politely” to what a Japanese speaker says might make the person feel uncomfortable.
From what I’ve found, it is okay to speak a little bit over the other person when using these interjections and there are different levels of formality depending on the ones you use.
This is regarding one of the most common forms of 相槌 : 「はい」which is apparently used mostly in formal settings.
Given the fact that these type of interjections are expected on a constant basis during actual conversation, I would have thought that repeating this would be appropriate in a similar way to saying something like 「そうそうそう」in a casual setting, for example.
While looking further into the topic, I found mention of this being a “bad form” of 相槌 specially when saying at least two of these in a row as 「はいはい」.
So I want to confirm if this is indeed the case or if I am misunderstanding something. If this is indeed true, what is the reason behind it being wrong? Would it be okay to constantly say 「はい」as long as there is a brief pause between each repetition (i.e. not stringing them in a row)?
Please feel free to correct me if I said anything wrong and thanks in advance for any explanation you can share!