Katawa Shoujo Forums

Scarlet Fox wrote:I wonder how hard the Japanese work on English pronunciation, because it rarely seems right. They usually add an extra vowel sound at the end, since that's what they're used to, I guess. Like... Red would be 'REDDO' or something, ice would be "AISU", and stuff like that. Though that's what I like about Japanese, a lot of vowels. And conversely I like how German has a lot of consonants.

It's not really about how hard they work, it's about how they are learning a whole different language, with completely different rules, and all they have to go on is their own language. You may not know it, but I think that English is a pretty popular second language in Japan.

The Japanese language is very syllable heavy, with almost all syllables containing a vowel at the end. That's why they pronounce things as you mentioned. It's how thier language works, you can't expect them to get all of English's rules without years of study and practice. Also, a lot of their 'English' is actually katakana, the Japanese alphabet for pronouncing foreign words. It mostly mimics the word they are trying to pronounce, but the last character in the word will invariably be Japanese, and will end with a vowel. Japanese who study actual English may pronounce things a little closer to how they sound to natural English speakers.

Also, think about how a Japanese person speaks English, with the accent and all. This is probably how you sound to them, if you try to speak their language.

Most intriguing. Japanese is more similar to Hebrew than I thought.
Sometimes I wonder why languages all around the world develop the way they do, hmph.

Minister of Gloom wrote:Most intriguing. Japanese is more similar to Hebrew than I thought.
Sometimes I wonder why languages all around the world develop the way they do, hmph.

It's mostly down to where the people in that country originally came from and who has invaded who over the centuries.

English is a brilliant example of a language made mostly by invasion. It's got bits and pieces of every language from the British Isles and most of Europe purely because the Isles have been invaded by everyone in Europe at some point.

It's interesting how languages share similar aspects, maybe a bit more than one might expect. It reminds me of dragons, how most cultures have them in some form even before they had contact with each other. Also, bow and arrows. How did all these different peoples come up with this without trading tech!? Europeans, Asians, Native Americans...

Anyway, I wonder if they mock our accent when we try to speak Japanese. I have never seen a Japanese person do that, but of course, my exposure to the Japanese is limited. We all know people like to mock their accents...

Scarlet Fox wrote:Anyway, I wonder if they mock our accent when we try to speak Japanese. I have never seen a Japanese person do that, but of course, my exposure to the Japanese is limited. We all know people like to mock their accents...

In my experience the initial shock that someone who is not Japanese can even attempt to speak Japanese prevents them from making fun. When they do most of them will do it in their usual passive aggressive manner.

It depends on how much you are supposed to know.

If you speak a little and are obviosuly a tourist then it is "cute" for you to hav ea little bit of an accent.

Then you get to the point where you start making sense and they laugh because they are elitist and think that no-one else can do their language. However once they start to know you they will just speak to you like anyone else.

If you are doing a job as a professional translator (or something that requires dual language, like a flight attendant) then they will definately mock you if you have an accent.


It's not all that dissimilar to how anyone else would treat someone trying to speak their language. Toursits are given a bit of a free pass, but as soon as you're trying to do a job then you'll get the shits if they aren't speaking your language in a manner that you can understand.



PS Anyone that says "Shi-zune" is a blemish on society.

cpl_crud wrote: PS Anyone that says "Shi-zune" is a blemish on society.

Agreed.

But do they have something like commercials with people with an obvious foreign accent to make fun of them? This is going to be horribly described, but what about something like how some people here like to pretend to be a karate-trainer and say stuff such as, 'young grasshopper'?

I think what I'm trying to say is if they have any stereotypical behaviour that goes along with the accent when they mock it.

Scarlet Fox wrote:I think what I'm trying to say is if they have any stereotypical behaviour that goes along with the accent when they mock it.

Unfortunate as it may be, I think stereotyping is an almost universal facet of society. Every society. With a culture as insular as Japan's I wouldn't doubt the existence of stereotypes made by them.

Though if you are asking for specific examples, I have none.

G3n0c1de wrote: Though if you are asking for specific examples, I have none.

Silly gaijin. Japanese society loves dividing the world into "Japanese" and "foreign."

Any isolated place develops stereotypes about the outside. And yes, humans making stereotypes is pretty much universal.

Sajomir wrote:... And yes, humans making stereotypes is pretty much universal.

Yep, it seems the human brain loves to take things and lump them together into categories.

Bara wrote:

Sajomir wrote:... And yes, humans making stereotypes is pretty much universal.

Yep, it seems the human brain loves to take things and lump them together into categories.

Well it makes sense.

Wrench Wench wrote:Well it makes sense.

I wish it didn't.

G3n0c1de wrote:

Wrench Wench wrote:Well it makes sense.

I wish it didn't.

But then life would be very very different and we'd probably still be living in caves assuming our species survived at all.

That which is not me must be someone else. Therefore it is immediately lumped into the "others" category. That which is part of the tribe falls into both the "others" and "tribe" categories, those who are not in the tribe fall into both "others" and "outsiders". More categories are made depending on defining characteristics.

If we were incapable of doing that we'd most likely be long dead.

Cool, uh... and it connects to "Pronunciation of names" how exactly?

Smoku wrote:Cool, uh... and it connects to "Pronunciation of names" how exactly?

I have absolutely no idea.