【[Surprise] About the English I speak】Beautiful stories from far away From Japan
2022-08-01 ｜ TOSHI
❚ [Surprise] About the English I speak
Dear followers and readers, how are you? I’m TOSHI, a Japanese woman.I wrote this essay in English, but you don’t know how my English sounds in person, right? Let’s talk about that today. Maybe you’ll be surprised.
“Obon” season/Return of ancestors【Beautiful stories from far away From Japan】
❚ What an island country, Japan is!
First of all, I have to say this. Japan is an island country. There are other countries with the same geographical conditions, but I think that among them, “psychologically, foreign countries are relatively far away”.
For example, from the mainland, you can see the neighboring country clearly from the opposite side, you can easily swim there with permission, no, you can walk from the mainland, in the first place, you can go abroad by car during the summer vacation. It is physically impossible in Japan.
There are some exceptions near the border, but more than a thousand years ago, when our country was young, there was a time when the people of this island went to the continent by ship and imported continental culture into Japan.
There was a man who was appointed to this role and refused due to a false illness. One of the reasons is that the ship sometimes was shipwrecked.
After that, there was a time when Japan was almost completely closed its door to foreign countries. Ironically, it can be said that its isolation “helped” to form a unique culture.
Even now, especially when I go to rural areas, there are people who have never been abroad, even though they have a lifetime to travel. Some people are richer than me, and successful at work, yet have no desire to go abroad.
One beautician I know, who has the skills to be invited to a big event in Paris, just said, “The event was great, but the food was not for me.”
Also, in Japan, some people who have succeeded in their job are too busy to take a vacation to go abroad. But they seem content.
❚ The reason why I study English
This varies greatly from person to person, but Japanese people, including myself, are not in an environment where they can easily surround themselves with foreign languages.
When someone else finds out that I can speak English to some extent, they often asked “Why?”
In a relatively conservative area of the countryside, I was almost self-taught until some years, and from that point on, I went to an English conversation class schools all the time to learn English.
When I was little, bilingual version manga with English and Japanese was sold at a nearby shopping mall. Before I understood the grammar, I read it all the time, watched English-speaking movies and TV dramas that my family enjoyed all the time, and after a certain age, I bought English teaching materials by mail order. After listening to English-speaking songs and studying in an English conversation class, I was able to speak English.
And, although I’m not aware of it, my English is said to be “very American”.
Come to think of it, all the English teaching materials I bought after seeing the advertisements were in American English. The first foreign land I visited was California.
I was 18 years old. The first foreign place in my memory is Santa Monica. It was a really beautiful place. After that, I studied English for a while in the suburbs.
Since then, I have been studying English in my own way. Most of the English conversation teachers I met were American or Canadian.
❚ English is called English, because…
And from a certain time, when I met the occasional British teacher they would claim that
“Your English is very much influenced by American English!”
I noticed that it was said.
Japanese people are not good at pronouncing R, but about that too
“The sound of R is also very much influenced by American English!”
I was also told.
If it’s a song that you sing slowly, you’ll learn pronunciation, so it’s probably because I practiced a lot.
Most people don’t say anything when they meet for the first time, but as they get used to it, they smile brightly during breaks and say, “Ahhh, your English has a lot of American influence.”
I was also told when I was going to an international exchange meeting. There was a couple from England and they told me the same thing. At that time, I had a younger female friend, and she was a Japanese who loved England greatly, even she told me about that.
I’m sure only one person from the UK hasn’t said this to me about my American-sounding accent before.
I was wondering why, but the other day, when I was interacting with a European person on SNS, she was talking about Shakespeare, and when I heard that her English teaching material was British English, I noticed it for the first time.
“English is called English because it came from England.”
It’s a recent epiphany of mine.
I’ve been studying English for decades since I was a kid, but why didn’t I notice that until recently?
Ideally, I would like to be able to speak American English with Americans and British English with British-speaking people.
Anyway, I love English. It’s the first word that taught me about foreign countries. It’s not easy, but I like languages, so I want to improve my English and other languages.
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Helpful feedback is always welcome!
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The beautiful and profound world of “Kawaii”【Beautiful stories from far away From Japan】