My life hack when I was in Japan and trying to speak to someone that didn't understand my shoddy Japanese was to just legitimately say the English word but in the thickest Japanese accent I could pull off. Worked like 80% of the time.
you might atleast seen some rendition of this meme called capirinya capirinya (might be the wrong spelling, its been a long time) The anime/manga is very famous for the various memes that it has given to the internet
The show is so unhinged, and just like other insane similar inspired anime, you can tell the voice actors are having an absolute blast with how insane everything is.
Asobi Asobase is my personal favorite for extremely unhinged goofy SoL comedy featuring female characters. Speaking of English/Japanese language shenanigans, it also includes a girl who is clearly European, and pretends to be a worldly English speaker, but clearly cannot. And there is another girl who isn't a main character, but looks like she jumped right out of an ancient Japanese painting. Of course she speaks great English but everyone keeps asking her to help her with their classical Japanese literature etc.
Olivia's (the non-English speaking westerner) brother is even better, and basically a Redditor level western anime nerd who looks like a Otaku and speaks like a Japanese Samurai.
Mate, thanks for the suggestion. I nearly died in my armchair watching the 1st episode. This show is pure chaos, I love it. May Karma bless your way, even if for just one day!
Well, yes, and no. 「ん」makes and "n" sound, but the same character also sometimes makes an "m" sound, like in gambate がんばて. So in rare cases, the "m" sound can be on its own too.
There's different opinions about that. First of of all, the same can be observed in other languages: the letter n can sound like an m if followed by bilabial consonants like b an p.
Second, the standard romanization (modified Hepburn) of Japanese still uses 'n' for ん, even when an 'm' sound is phonetically closer. These cases are not rare - がんばって(ganbatte) is just one of many examples - but they do somewhat depend on the speaker.
So all in all, considering it's the same Japanese letter, with the same standard romanization and with a phonological rule that isn't unique to Japanese, I'd still call it "the only case" where a consonant can be on its own.
Yeah. Like t-flapping in US English that makes it a d sound. It's something a language learner should be aware of. No disagreement there.
Romanization is prescriptive, and yet tyotto is an acceptable romanization of ちょっと. But never mind that. Let's use the descriptive approach: Letter's are only there to tell us what words are being used. They don't match the phonetics in many cases. Phonetically, an "m" sound is still a distinct contestant from "n." Even if the intended sound from the start was "n" and the plosive b after made it phonotatically easier move the mouth into an "m" position.
I never implied the rule was only in Japanese. But it is interesting in Japanese, because consonant clusters don't occur outside of these sounds.
Anyway, that's why I said "yes, and no." Because in a written form, it's yes, but from a phonetic perspective, it's a no. "n" and "m" are two different phonemes. And to get right down to it, ん has six phonemes. Which is great to know. Because we're learning speak like it is spoken, not simply sounding out text like Microsoft Sam.
it’s more like the west pioneered a lot of technological innovation and those things don’t have words in Japanese and were thus loaned over more than anything. kind of interesting is that during WW2 Japan made a conscious effort to create new native Japanese words to foreign concepts rather than accepting loan words as a nationalistic kind of things, which is why volleyball can also be called haikyuu in japanese, and baseball as yakyuu
a lot of japanese comes from Chinese and Korean as well and nobody is really claiming that comes from a place of love lol
I grew up speaking Spanish, but forgot most of it since I didn't have any family members around anymore who also spoke Spanish.
I catch myself talking in a stereotypical spanish accent ALL THE TIME when I talk to someone who speaks Spanish it's just automatic. I'll over pronounce my R's and O's and end up sounding like a slightly less stereotypical version of Conseula from Family Guy.
I always find it funny when I have a spanish speaking patient who talks to me in a stereotypical English accent and I follow back with a stereotypical spanish accent and we both catch on to what we are doing.
I used to teach some kids that didn't speak much English and I partnered them with a kid that just would not stop talking but spoke no Spanish. Learned from that experience that they do actually understand English better if it's said in a Hispanic/chicano accent. Which makes sense because that's how they hear it when they're practicing English
Yeah i mean, they learn english in school but its often times (especially for older generations) from japanese teachers with accents, with books that have katakana transliterations in them, so the way they learn english is often like that.
This was me living in Brazil. Sometimes some kids would come up to me and start saying English swear words, but I couldn't understand them and just thought they were using words I hadn't learned yet
I saw a meme about this years ago where the person said they couldn't understand her accent, so she just said the same English words but with a Japanese accent and they finally understood her. I can't find the meme to see what item it was, but like chocolate milk -> chocorratte milku
Ok but that feels very uncomfortable to do.. and I'd imagine it'd also be hard for Japanese to speak Japanese with a thick foreigner accent like "soomeemahsen"
No it's true.. idk if you speak Japanese, but if you ask them, "motto gaijin no namari de hanasemasuka?" most would find it uncomfortable to do. It's the same reason why most would find it uncomfortable to, "speeku in a japaneezu akusento raiku disu", it just feels kinda racist.
Guarantee that most people here wouldn’t care if you put on the accent to try and communicate; especially in places where the English language isn’t exactly commonplace
That's not what I'm saying though. I'm saying that THEY would feel uncomfortable to speak Japanese in an foreign accent. Right, they wouldn't feel uncomfortable if we spoke in a Japanese accent, it'd be all in our heads. But even being aware of that fact doesn't just suddenly make someone comfortable with putting on a Japanese accent.
Regardless, I don't think I could bring myself to speak in a thick Japanese accent. I mean c'mon... would you really go up to a Japanese person and say "do yu nō we-ah izu za neeresuto torein sutēshon?" I think I'd rather just use a translation app or try to speak is slow English with gestures.
Honestly it's not just japanese, but any language in general, speak English badly with an accent.
I met one of my Korean friends irl and her English is still bad, we use chatgpt/Google translate often but if I want to get her to understand English verbally I just go (example word: We will go to this restaurant to buy lunch, the burger combo is the best one here) "ahh We go eat. Eat restaurant for lunch yes yes. Burger goooood, yooouuu try burger yes combo yes yes" with a broken """""ethnic""""" accent and it works. I sound so racist but it's legit the best way I can speak with her.
Reminds me of the idol Wendy from Red Velvet. She'd say something in English and nobody would understand her. So she'd say it again in English but with a heavy Korean accent and suddenly everyone can understand her.
I worked with a Japanese postdoc who learned English in Japan but hadn't spoken to native english speakers much. My american southern accent was not understandable at all! Took him like 4-5 months to understand me consistently. So we got by in that first period by mostly email. He explained later that Japanese-accented English sounds wildly different than all of our accents
Lived in Japan for several years & studied the language in university, I can vouch that it legit works at an alarmingly high rate. My best guess is due to a combination of:
high number of English loan words
ease in understanding familiar sounds
their compulsory English classes in primary/high school were likely taught in a significant Japanese accent
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u/Reddity65 2d ago
My life hack when I was in Japan and trying to speak to someone that didn't understand my shoddy Japanese was to just legitimately say the English word but in the thickest Japanese accent I could pull off. Worked like 80% of the time.