Tokyocooney's Japan forum

Hey, Cooney or anyone else who thinks they can answer this question, I was just wondering if when you speak Japanese do people ever tell you that you have like an accent? Like we all know about people having accents when speaking English when they're from a non-North American country, but I'm just wondering to what extent does it go the other way? I'm assuming you have some type of accent since you aren't Japanese, or have you kind of assimilated your accent out of your speech as you've grown accustomed to the speaking Japanese? Just thought would be an interesting question...

I realize Cooney does not visit this forum that often, so everyone feel free to give some thoughts on this question or feel free to answer if you have some type of experience with this type of situation.

I for one have a strong american accent in my Japanese. Im old that often, and usualy by other foreigners because sadly discussions of language ability often become some assinine pissing contest.

On a side note, I think you should speak so that the locals can understand you. But it bothers me to some extent when people try to immitate exactly the way japanese people speak. I think, more often than not it will leave the japanese confused if you speak too perfectly. Unless of course you are trying to be taken seriously in a certain field like law or what not I think its unnecessary to try and sound completely native. More often than not those who focus to heavily on their accent are actually just dealing with self-esteem or ego issues. But thats just my 2 cents

Interesting. Do you ever find that Japanese people have trouble understanding you or that you have trouble saying certain words/phrases, or do you speak Japanese very well? And how long did it take you to pick up the language to the point you could communicate sufficiently (eg. to order food) with other people in Japanese. I know that some people can have thick accents but speak English perfectly well and are easy to understand, while others can be very difficult to understand in some cases... anyways, thanks for the response and keep up your awesome vids.

I often have communication problems. My japanese is not that good yet. But annoyingly, at work in lengthy meetings conducted in Japanese Im able to express myyself and discuss difficult topics with coworkers. However, when walking into a starbucks the staff totally freak out and panic and refuse to understand anything I say. Sometimes the communication issue is as much the fault of the listener as the speaker. In first interactions the locals are often surprised that you are speaking in Japanese. Ive had to actually tell people.. "Im speaking in Japanese. This is a japanese word I am saying." And they go "Ohhhhh I see." One that often used to cause misunderstanding so now I basically avoid it is: "Ohiya" meaning water and its similarity to "for here." So now I use the slightly less correct "mizu" because they are more likely to recognize that I am speaking Japanese. Any way, ex-pats usually have tons of such stories.

You actually develop little techniques to deal with retard shop staff. But people I know, who know I speak japanese have little difficulty understanding me.

Hmm, that's interesting. Thanks again for the responses.