1: 【中国電 – %】 ◆fveg1grntk 2017/07/29(土) 19:49:34.29 0.net
[Listener: Are there different accents even in English?]
Nonaka: Yes. There are.
Kaga: Ooh.
Makino: Really?
Nonaka: People who speak British English sound really, really smart — this is something a lot of people who speak American English will say. They just seem really intelligent. As for like Australians, when you’d normally say “Monday,” they pronounce it like “mandai.” Even their pronunciations for weekdays are different. This can sometimes make communication surprisingly difficult.
FM-FUJI “GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS =FULL BOOST= Morning Musume ’17 no Morning Diary”
Appearing: Nonaka Miki, Makino Maria, Kaga Kaede
2017/7/27 broadcast
7: 名無し募集中。。。 2017/07/29(土) 19:54:23.56 0.net
Beckham seems like an idiot though.
9: 名無し募集中。。。 2017/07/29(土) 19:54:45.51 0.net
How long was it that she spent living over there? 10 years?
12: 名無し募集中。。。 2017/07/29(土) 19:55:49.27 0.net
Chel has a bit of a Southern accent. (I know this since I’m bilingual myself.)
68: 名無し募集中。。。 2017/07/29(土) 21:07:18.45 0.net
But it’s not like Nonaka’s English is that great either, right?
71: 名無し募集中。。。 2017/07/29(土) 21:11:23.66 0.net
>>68
That’s because she learned to speak English when she was a child and moved back to her home country right after. Someone who’s trying to bring their language ability up to a level appropriate for their age, after having already moved back…? That’s the kind of improvement in language skill that’s really difficult.
17: 名無し募集中。。。 2017/07/29(土) 19:57:57.38 0.net
The people who first emigrated to America were all these protestants and peasants who couldn’t support themselves — the upper class people in the UK never had to emigrate. Maybe that’s the reason American English might sound less intelligent than British English?
I get what she’s saying about Australia, though.
67: 名無し募集中。。。 2017/07/29(土) 21:04:44.10 0.net
Australia and NZ English is the English of deported people.
45: 名無し募集中。。。 2017/07/29(土) 20:19:26.13 0.net
Nonaka: “Stop your blabbering and speak real English, Tokunaga-san.”
62: 名無し募集中。。。 2017/07/29(土) 20:53:00.91 0.net
British English is easy to understand for Japanese people.
78: 名無し募集中。。。 2017/07/30(日) 00:05:17.96 0.net
Is that true? About British English actually being easier to understand?
22: 名無し募集中。。。 2017/07/29(土) 19:59:12.37 0.net
British people actually pronounce the word “is.”
25: 名無し募集中。。。 2017/07/29(土) 20:01:52.06 0.net
Ah. I so get this.
27: 名無し募集中。。。 2017/07/29(土) 20:05:36.87 0.net
I bet you’d get bullied if you were to speak British English in America. The peer pressure over there is way harsher than it is in Japan.
28: 名無し募集中。。。 2017/07/29(土) 20:07:34.66 0.net
The thing with Nonaka is that even though she did live in America, it was in the state of Alabama… which is like way out there in the sticks of pure southern conservatism. If you were to make a comparison, the Alabama of Japan would be something like the Saga prefecture.
32: 名無し募集中。。。 2017/07/29(土) 20:10:15.48 0.net
>>28
She was saying though that she’s been correcting hers to “standard English” since she returned to Japan.
31: 名無し募集中。。。 2017/07/29(土) 20:09:08.72 0.net
There are also some spelling differences, like “center” vs. “centre.”
40: 名無し募集中。。。 2017/07/29(土) 20:17:33.97 0.net
“centre” just seems needlessly cool to me for some reason.
33: 名無し募集中。。。 2017/07/29(土) 20:12:43.90 0.net
37: 名無し募集中。。。 2017/07/29(土) 20:15:25.38 0.net
Indian English is pretty terrible.
51: 名無し募集中。。。 2017/07/29(土) 20:27:59.88 0.net
Scottish English is just hellish.
52: 名無し募集中。。。 2017/07/29(土) 20:28:34.51 0.net
Welsh English is awful, too.
55: 名無し募集中。。。 2017/07/29(土) 20:31:14.48 0.net
Sato speaks Hokkaido English.
54: 名無し募集中。。。 2017/07/29(土) 20:30:39.66 0.net
Is Beckham comparable to like an insanely handsome Japanese guy who just happens to speak in a Tohoku dialect?
56: 名無し募集中。。。 2017/07/29(土) 20:32:15.19 0.net
>>54
In Japan, dialects are geographical.
In the UK, dialects are social.
59: 名無し募集中。。。 2017/07/29(土) 20:48:27.01 0.net
It’s often said that in the UK, people can tell how you were raised just by your dialect.
20: 名無し募集中。。。 2017/07/29(土) 19:58:37.76 0.net
Beckham has that real working class dialect. I’ve heard that he’s constantly made fun of for it in his come country.
26. ℃-uteな名無しさん 2017年07月31日 00:31 id：yydecmXf0
Ah, I remember how during the World Cup people were going on about how Beckham speaks with an accent. I’m envious of people who can speak English so they can enjoy little differences like that.
83: 名無し募集中。。。 2017/07/30(日) 02:04:13.91 0.net
Speaking British English gets you a lot of respect in America.
84: 名無し募集中。。。 2017/07/30(日) 05:31:19.56 0.net
I guess that really is true.
10. ℃-uteな名無しさん 2017年07月30日 11:38 id：pbZJSrie0
So even someone at Nonaka’s level is considered to have poor English? Whenever you see a foreigner who can speak even elementary school level Japanese, people will be praising them as being super gifted. Why is it that when it comes to English and the Japanese people, one has to have pretty much mastered the language before they get any acknowledgement for it?
11. ℃-uteな名無しさん 2017年07月30日 11:44 id：UGBlDIB40
You sometimes see foreigners who’ve been studying Japanese more than even the average Japanese person.
15. ℃-uteな名無しさん 2017年07月30日 12:13 id：BHlzxFyh0
Whenever I’m watching foreign TV shows or films, I’m always surprised by how easy to understand “noble” English is. To us Japanese people who learned English from textbooks, American English is just too colloquial.
Also, another thing that’s really easy to understand are all the speeches of American presidents — past or present — that are addressed to the public. They’re aware that many of their citizens aren’t native speakers, so they have to use easy-to-understand expressions while also pronouncing everything slowly and clearly.
14. ℃-uteな名無しさん 2017年07月30日 12:12 id：sMWyIdN50
The “Queen’s English,” right?
Jamie Oliver is really easy to understand.
22. ℃-uteな名無しさん 2017年07月30日 17:43 id：QqTb1LRV0
I lived in the UK for two years. The UK is such a large area — even England alone is huge. Nowadays, what you’ll often hear is something called Estuary English, a kind of English that was originally spoken along the River Thames all the way to around the London area. To give you a couple of examples of it, “go to” often becomes “go down to.” Or when they pronounce “pub,” it sounds more like “pob.” It has all kinds of things about it that are a little different.
When you live around the London area, that’s the accent you’re going to get. Sure, when they’re teaching you in a language school they try to teach you something that’s close to the Queen’s English, but even the people teaching it feel that the Queen’s English accent is out-of-date. Thus, they don’t use it, so it hardly sticks at all. By the way, the English spoken by politicians and news anchors is also close to the Queen’s English — it’s commonly known as Oxbridge English — but it’s not commonly used in spoken language. I’m guessing when Chel spoke about English that sounds “smart,” she meant Oxbridge — because Estuary English doesn’t sound particularly smart.
27. ℃-uteな名無しさん 2017年07月31日 02:29 id：laOZzaXB0
In London, the English I most can’t stand is Indian English. I just can not understand the intonation of it at all. Back in the days you didn’t come across it all that often, but now, you’ll find them working even at hotel reception desks. They’re like everywhere now, so I’m screwed. Even all the people working at call centers are Indian. I really wish they’d stop it with that.
12. ℃-uteな名無しさん 2017年07月30日 11:46 id：f.YeLg..0
It’s weird seeing how many of you guys are so knowledgeable about how things are overseas.
8. ℃-uteな名無しさん 2017年07月30日 11:05 id：irLt.9a60
Everyone in the thread was so deep into the dialect stuff, hardly any of it had to do with Chel!
24. ℃-uteな名無しさん 2017年07月30日 23:39 id：Ov2VGHhQ0
When you watch American TV shows, the characters are always saying how British English sounds sexy. So if you’re only going to learn one version of English, you might as well make it that one.
25. ℃-uteな名無しさん 2017年07月31日 00:16 id：.8CSEwLr0
Guys, let’s all watch movies like Trainspotting and Snatch and learn how to speak English!
Henkka: I love the mental image. A typical, black haired Japanese guy, suddenly busting out an impeccable British English accent. “Yeah, I just learned it, man. The Yanks think it’s sexy.“
Source: http://c-ute.doorblog.jp/archives/50481197.html
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Upper class English accents make you seem smart, lower class English accents make you incomprehensible.
To add another movie/play: My Fair Lady. Of course. Totally shows how there’s a difference between lower and higher classes in terms of dialect.
However when it comes to Beckham – I mean he’s from Manchester. Manchester is a typical working class city… you can’t expect him to sound like he just graduated from Oxford lol.
He’s actually from London, and he has a very typical London (almost Cockney) accent. Actually noone makes fun of him for that accent, it’s the fact that his voice is very high for someone who looks so rugged and manly
I can’t watch Red Dwarf without thinking about what geniuses they sound like.
If people in Japan decided to learn english by watching Red Dwarf, they would all be calling each other “smeghead” all the time.
My big takeaway from trying to be bilingual (and living in Japan):
English was designed so users could decipher what someone is saying even when they butcher the language.
Japanese is so strict that the slightest deviation can cause an entire sentence to be indecipherable to a native Japanese speaker. Part of this had to do with Japanese people often being unable to compute when Japanese comes out of the mouth of a foreigner.
The times I’ve met Chel – only at group handshakes – I’ve rarely spoken English to her. I guess that’s cruel of me. I rank her in the top half of Momusu members, so I should be nicer. Next time!
At first I couldn’t tell the difference between American and British English. When I could, I started watching English girls youtube channels, they are so cute, lol.
I still can’t tell the difference between different American accents. Do Canadians have a different accent?
I think Miki’s English is ok, but she lacks a lot of vocabulary, like anyone who speaks a language and can’t practice it everyday. It happens even to adults who were fluid and then stop using the language for several years.
Canadian has its own differences, yeah. A couple of the most noted are that about often sounds like “aboot” and sorry is more like “sorey”.
AS A CANADIAN, I CAN SAY THIS SO NOT FUCKING TRUE.
Canadians HATE the aboot/sorey thing because it’s not true. It’s ABOUT. Why the fuck do Americans continue to think we talk like this??? The only Canadians who say it like that are Newfies (from Newfoundland in the East). I had a geography teacher from there once, and he spoke like that, and I was just like, “So THAT’S where it comes from!” And american heard a newfie say that once and he spread it like wildfire, and now everyone thinks the whole country’s the same.
That’s like saying that every Amercian speaks in a southern accent, and you all sound like hicks.
Counterpoint: A bunch of genre shows are filmed in Toronto these days, and it’s always amusing to me to hear the actors dropping some of the Canadian accent into their lines. I’ve definitely heard the “sory” in several shows.
I spent a week in training with Newfies from Newfoundland and Cowboys from Calgary. It is just like you said. Some of my fellow Americans teased the Newfies without mercy. After a while it really got under their skin and a fight almost broke out our last night together. We kept telling them just to raze them back. Tease them about their New York or Chicago or Southern accents. The Newfies were to prim & proper to stoop so low. They had no jokes about Americans. Which just made it even funnier!
Oh, so it’s the Newfies! I’ve often wondered why Americans thought we spoke this way.
Even if English isn’t my native language I felt kind of offended by the first half of this thread on behalf of the English speaking population of the world. Aren’t the questions on these radio shows send in by listeners? Why do they even start off by talking badly of American an Australian English when obviously some listener and Maria and Kaga had no clue that there are different dialects to begin with?? Is there a language in this world without different dialects??
And even if Mikis English isn’t perfect I think the average Japanese person isn’t one to judge. Neither on the fact that it has it’s flaws nor on whatever accent she speaks in.
Everytime I watch videos of Nonaka speaking in English, I find it really weird. Is it because of her intonation? It sounds like she speaks English with a Japanese intonation, it’s rather strange.
She does. She’s also got Japanese language style rhythm.
her english definitely from southern america with a rather thick accent so it kind of difficult to hear from more international/hollywood american english perspective… she definitely not using english with japanese accent… you can compare it to babymetal english, they more into english with japanese accent…
Her Southern Drawl PLUS her Japanese intonation makes her harder to understand for English speakers; she only has diction and rhythm conflictions.
Like, even if she didn’t need to improve her vocab and language flexibility, she’d still take a while to be understood. Because it’s not a very common combination for most to hear.
Southern drawl? This southerner detects very little if any actual drawl left in her, at least not the few times I’ve heard her speak at length.
You could hear a little of her Southern drawl when she first joined. I don’t really hear it anymore.
>Her Southern Drawl PLUS her Japanese intonation makes her harder to understand for English speakers; she only has diction and rhythm conflictions.
Oh. It’s her Southern drawl mixed with Japanese intonation. I always thought she had a speech impediment or that her mouth was lazy.
Please don’t tell me that cockney sounds smart.
LOL
Americans do find it charming though.
I always thought it would have been funny if Chinami had come back to Japan with a thick New Zealand accent.
As an american myself, i gotta somewhat agree with her.. England english is the type of english you’ll see straight out of a text book… They’re accents vary depending where your from, but i gotta imagine the thread commentors are talking about Buckingham palace king and queen type english as the easiest for japanese people to understand which makes sense..
As for Miki’s english, yeah her pronunciation has a slow slurry sound to it which is basically cause she grew up in the south… If she grew up in the northeast like me her speech would be as close you can get to clear english, i feel we north-easterners dont really have accents or weirdly different variations of words as much as other parts of the county
North East certainly has accents, Boston, NY, and Maine just to mention a few.
Nah, boston people are just weird lol.. Theyre trying to hard to force their accents.. I know quite a few people from that area that dont do the accent
As a non-American I can assure you that you definitely have an accent, no matter which part of USA you come from. Fact is, every country and region has an accent, there is no base, pure form of english to compare it to. Even received pronunciation is an accent.
The American accent, is actually the original accent of the British. Nobles created the current British accent to set themselves apart from the peasants. Eventually, it lead to the whole population speaking that way.
So the Brits that immigrated to the new world (US) maintained the original accent, eventually becoming what is known as the American accent.
Great thread. Loved the comment that said this discussion got so deep that it wasn’t about Chel anymore! And there really are knowledgeable wota hanging around, huh?
(also i’m canadian and live in a bordering town in ontario, and we definitely speak in a different accent than people in michigan. my neighbour grew up in new brunswick, and sometimes i can’t barely understand him. there’s a ton of accents so i don’t know why canadians get so cranky about this stuff lol)
It depends more on the social level than on geography. 😉
17: “The people who first emigrated to America were all these protestants and peasants who couldn’t support themselves — the upper class people in the UK never had to emigrate. Maybe that’s the reason American English might sound less intelligent than British English?
I get what she’s saying about Australia, though.”
About the first part of this comment… Nah, that’s Australian English.
Orly. People think i’m an idiot or autistic.
My mum’s British, but she has a northern accent like Christopher Eccleston and Sean Bean (I think).
I don’t have a strong Australian accent like most, and have been told I have a very “BBC” accent (and voice). Some people think I’m actually British, but I’ve lived in Australia my whole life.
And British English is easier to understand for Japanese people, because the vowel sounds are the same, where as in American English, the vowel sounds are … ‘harder’, I guess?
She must fucking love Game of Thrones and Downton Abbey, then. Seriously.