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0 pointsajeet_dhaliwal9y ago0 comments

There's a UK comedy show from a few years ago called Little Britain that has this same thing happening in a recurring skit except with English. There was a British woman who claimed to never understand what an old Indian woman wearing a sari with an Indian accent was saying despite it being quite clear. I wonder whether this is some low level passive aggressive behaviour around the world due annoyance of dealing with a 'foreigner'.

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greggman9y ago

The difference in Japan is you can have zero accent and speak fluently and just by looks some Japanese will have some kind of mental block understanding and/or acknowledging your Japanese.

Examples: I can call some business on the phone and people won't know I'm a foreigner. No accent. I've gotten in a cab late at night, talked to the driver for 10 minutes, and then had him freak out went he turned around to collect the fair because based on conversation he thought his ride was Japanese. I bring those examples up only to point out having zero accent and being able to speak in a way that I'm perceived as being fluent.

And yet I still run into people who's brains seems unable to accept that I'm speaking Japanese to them. It's a common complaint by friends who've been here 15-20-25 years that they still get this. Over time I've learned to accept they are trying to be helpful and I'm the 1 in 50 or 1 in 100 foreigners that can speak Japanese well so just thank them ... in ridiculously polite Japanese.

laurieg9y ago

I share the same experience in Japan. Once a blue moon someone will just not be able to process a white face speaking Japanese.

I think it's because languages are all about expectations. If some piece of information has primed me to hear one version of a homophone the other meanings never even pop into my head.

I've noticed a related effect while watching videos on youtube recently. I'm a native British English speaker. When I click on a random youtube clip I don't know what accent I'm going to get. If it's a strong accent I don't hear often it usually takes 5 seconds or so for my brain to 'work out' the accent. During that time I don't really understand what is being said. As soon as it clicks I can rewind the clip and hear the exact same audio with perfect understanding.

I think when the Japanese people don't understand me a similar thing is happening. They see my white face so are trying very hard to hear English. The sounds come out and are run through the 'process the English' part of their brain. Of course, they can't make heads or tails of it so end up not understanding anything.

I'm not a linguist but I'd love to know if anyone had any references on this effect.

CapitalistCartr9y ago

As Bruce Willis said in Fifth Element, I only speak two languages, English and bad English. Yet I've had the funny experience of "translating" between Vietnamese English and Bosnian English.

But yeah, when native-born Anericans act like your English is unacceptable, they're being assholes.

Symbiote9y ago

Cringe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpiAhxaE_oI

I don't think I've ever met anyone in England like this, but I can well believe they exist.

walshemj9y ago

The infamous racist nan that Gordon Brown ran into wilst campaigning.

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