Tim’s Ramblings

This little thought has been rattling around in my head for quite some time. I’ve talked about this in one way or another with a few coworkers and friends…but I think it really makes an impact on me due to the fact that I’m bilingual.

Basically it comes down to this. Pronounciation of English and Japanese words bother me more than I think it does most other people…whether they are American or Japanese. I’m curious if Spanish speakers or other 100% bilingual speakers feel the same way. Let me explain.

A good example would be this show that I recorded on my DVR last night from the History International Channel. A really well made 2 hour documentary on the samurai. They give the facts without embellishment, they have lots of authentic photographs and paintings to help with the narration, and so far I am quite entertained by it. However, the pronounciation of the Japanese words and names have been grating on my nerves for the past hour.

As a Japanese living in the US, I have no problems with people pronouncing Japanese words with an American accent. If you pronounce a Japanese word in the middle of an English sentence in the true accent, it just sounds odd and unnatural. Even my last name is not pronounced correctly by anyone except the few Japanese people I work with. But when I tell other non Japanese people my name, I also pronounce my last name with an English accent.

However, the narrator and certain experts being interviewed for this documentary seems to WANT to say the words with the correct accent. Unfortunately none of them are saying it correctly. At all. Instead they just sound like someone trying to say the word in a stereotyped accent. The narrator is not really that bad…but one of the guys being interviewed….UGH!! He’s apparently an expert on Japan and even wrote a book on the samurai but whenever he says ANY Japanese it just grates on my nerves.

Imagine if you will…hmm….any Asian character from an American cartoon. They have that certain type of speech you know? I think it’s an overblown exaggeration of old kung fu films and Godzilla movies. The people dubbing those movies were…well…they weren’t so good AND they had to talk fast sometimes to fit the words to the mouth movement because the script writers sucked so it sounded unnatural.

Um..hello…we do NOT sound like that. But this guy…EVERY time he says a Japanese word, it just sounds like that’s what he’s doing. With a horrible accent that is not English and definitely NOT Japanese. But I can guarantee you, I show this show to an American or even a Japanese person who do not speak English well and they won’t get it and think I’m crazy.

Case in point, we have a guy at work with a heavy Spanish accent. He went to Japan to teach a class a few years back and all of us in the US went “Oh dear god….some people have a hard enough time understanding him here! The guys in Japan will have NO clue at all!!”. Um…nope…. I asked the guys in Japan later and they said that they understood him just as well as any other American…and when I asked them what they though about his accent the response was “…accent? What accent?”. So to them, the expert in this documentary will only sound like he is saying the Japanese word just as incorrectly as the narrator or any other American.

Oddly enough, the thing about not catching accents works to some people’s advantage too, just like the guy who went to Japan to teach that I meantioned above. Rock bands are a prime example. Everyone knows or have heard at some point, what you think is horrible and unintelligable English spewing out of the mouth of some Japanse rock band vocalist. To us it sounds grating and distracting and funny as hell sometimes. “How”, I’ve said and I know so have many of you, “can others listen to this crap??” But the reason why they can listen to it is because they don’t know it’s wrong. To them it’s just part of the music. Kind of like how I enjoy listening to some of the French songs in the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack. For all I know the French is HORRIBLE and grammatically incorrect and any French speakers would be shreaking in frustration. But to me, it just sounds cool :)

That’s also why many Japanese bands make it in Europe but never in the US. You play a big festival in Germany or Sweden or Estonia or whatever…I mean…sure they can all speak English but to them, the Japanese guys singing in accented English doesn’t bother them as much.

That’s why the only Japanese rock band I can really stand listening to is Seikima-II. They don’t sing in English often but when they do toss in an English phrase or two, the lead singer, Demon Kogure, sounds decent :) (yes…that was a quick and totally unneccessary shout out to my favorite Japanese metal band…my journal….so there..ha!)

Anyway, not much point to this long and rambling post. Just saying that it’s interesting how, depending on how we hear language, and our understanding of the language, certain things can be enjoyed while others can drive you nuts. I’m sure there’s some sort of sociology or communication science thesis in here somewhere but…eh. If you do get inspired and write a paper based on this, just make sure to credit me so I can feel cool and important (^_^)