Gaijin accents

[KyleGoetz]

Yes, he. It was common at my American university to have, for the first two semesters, classmates who would randomly quote anime to show off their skillz-with-a-z. Any anime, regardless of rationality.

Those people tended to fail out or switch to Spanish by the time third semester rolled around.

And Nago, re: that Chad Mullane guy, man his Osakaben is pretty good. He makes for an entertaining ボケ! Where did he get that fluency?

[MMM]

Originally Posted by KyleGoetz

Yes, he. It was common at my American university to have, for the first two semesters, classmates who would randomly quote anime to show off their skillz-with-a-z. Any anime, regardless of rationality.

Those people tended to fail out or switch to Spanish by the time third semester rolled around.

And Nago, re: that Chad Mullane guy, man his Osakaben is pretty good. He makes for an entertaining ボケ! Where did he get that fluency?

Living in Kansai it is hard not to pick it up, in some ways, because even if you speak normal Japanese to Kansai people, in informal situations they will always answer you in Kansai-ben. For better or worse that is the accent I picked up after living there for three years (accent, not necessarily dialect) but do use Kansai-ben with close friends from Kansai. I have met people that think it is weird for a gaijin to use Kansai-ben, and I can understand that, which is why I try not to in mixed company, though sometimes after some social lubrication it rears its head.

[andylaurel]

I was just about to write that I have never heard a foreigner speak Japanese without an accent that (even I) can pick up on, but then I watched that Scottish comedian's video. He was amazing.

I don't hear myself speaking with an accent, and when I listen to other foreigners speak Japanese I cringe at their poor pronounciation. I do however, realise that I also have a terrible accent.

Only the Japanese people close to you will keep it real with you. I'm told by all my students that my Japanese is really good, and that I barely have an accent, but they are just being polite. When I ask my girlfriend, she tells it straight. 'You're pretty bad' is what I get.

[andylaurel]

So I guess my point is, don't tell people you speak without an accent, because no one likes a boaster.

[Nagoyankee]

@andylaurel

You've brought up a good point. Japan is a country where a foreigner gets a rockstar treatment even for knowing 3 words of its language. We would rarely tell foreigners that they have a bad accent, except maybe as a joke at a drinking party.

The U.S. isn't like that (if that's where you're from). I write essays, poems, research papers in English. I've delivered speeches impromptu at social gatherings in America. But I've never received a rockstar treatment for doing those things over there.

[jesselt]

The difference being that people in the US expect everyone to speak flawless English before coming here to even visit =/