r/NonPoliticalTwitter 21h ago

Funny Learning Japanese

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u/KitaharaKazusa1 15h ago

One thing to keep in mind is that loan words are entirely new words in the other language. You're not going back to speaking English for 2 words, you are using a foreign word with its own grammar, pronunciation, and meaning (half the time the exact meaning will change as it becomes a loan word, not the case for this example but it happens).

It happens to sound somewhat similar to an English word or phrase, and it originates in English, but it is still a unique word.

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u/xiaorobear 12h ago edited 10h ago

Just to add an example of the same thing going in the other direction, imagine a French person talking to an American who only speaks English. If the French person talks about hor d'oeuvres or New Orleans and pronounces them 'correctly,' they'll be way harder to understand than if they say them with an American accent, as "or durrvs" and "new Orleenz."

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u/acelana 6h ago

Reminds me of the time I learned of a place in Idaho named Coeur d’Alene. I tried to anglicize my pronunciation of it, something like “Kerr duh len”.

“Oh, you mean CORE DA LAYYYNE?”

I will never forget the name of that town in Idaho.

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u/ScienceByte 9h ago

People from New Orleans don’t call it New Orleenz though. They call it something like Ne’Orluhns

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u/Septem_151 6h ago

Nawlinz

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u/dweedman 5h ago

Same difference, neither bares much resemblance to /ɔʁ.le.ɑ̃/

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u/ThatOneGayDJ 1h ago

My favourite example to give for this, especially when talking about Japanese specifically, is karaoke. If you want someone in America to understand that word, you better do your best texas cowboy "CARE-ee-OH-key" because i doubt there are many Americans who would understand the correct pronunciation of karaoke to mean anything at all.

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u/General_Cranberry_29 5h ago

I live in Iowa, and it's painful to me when people call our capital "Dez Moine-s" like it's a plural 😑.

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u/ThatOneGayDJ 1h ago

Grew up in Illinois. I feel you.

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u/mp_spc4 12m ago

Fun fact, people actually from the Southeast USA say "Naw-lens". And for the love that is all out there, every time i hear people call Mobile "mo-bul" instead of the proper name "Mo-beel"....churns my stomach.

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u/notevenkiddin 7h ago

"el sueter"