Tuesday, February 24, 2009

"Please speak in Japanese"

I read an article called "Please speak in Japanese" and it 
was written by a French guy who is fluent in Japanese and
lives in Japan. It was about how sometimes when people look
at you as a non-Japanese person and immediately start speaking
English. I wrote a response to it. Please leave me comments in
Japanese. If I make any mistakes, please help me notice them.
Thanks!


「日本語でお願いします」を読みました。かれの困っている事は私と同じです。

日本人はよく私と英語で話したいとおもっています。東京に住んでいる時、
それは困りました。日本語の勉強はできなかった。関西は東京より、英語がで
きる人が少ないですから、関西の人は私と日本語で話してくれます。それは嬉
しい事です。

バ―に行ったら、よっぱらった人はいつも私を見ると、英語で話し書けてきます。
さいきん、よっぱらった人は「Yes we can!」と「Come on! OK!」と叫びます。
それはさいきんオバマさんがとても人気者だからだと思います。だから、
日本でバ―はあまり行きたくないです。知らないよっぱらった人は苦手ですからね。

今日本語を勉強したいから、外国に行ってもし日本人を見たら、日本語を話し
たいです。でも外国に住んでいる日本人は英語を勉強したいと思っているから、
英語を話さなければならないですね。日本語を話したら、ちょっと失礼かも知りません。
友達になったら、英語でも日本語でも大丈夫です。

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

その記事は面白そうですね。

日本語が本当に上手ですよね!

ちょっと小さな漢字の間違いを気づいたんですけど・・・
この「英語で話し書けてきます」の「話しかける」には「書」という漢字は平仮名で書きます。多分、それは「書く」と言う動詞じゃありませんから。

ブログは頑張って下さい!本当に面白いですよ。

Nate Wendt said...

僕は同じ事と考えた。なぜ日本で白人はぜったい英語人だと思える、ちょっと変な感じですね。あなたの回答を一応読んだ、一個の部分を変更したいんだけど。「かも知りません」は「かも知れません」、「れ」が変更されている文字。日本語がうまい、ほんとに感心です。

Freya said...

Could you post an English translation? I can read some of that, but without furigana I'm pretty useless.f

Julie said...

Sorry, it will take too long to write in romanji. Basically don't worry about it, though. It's only interesting for people who can speak Japanese anyway. It's about how people think foreign people can't speak Japanese sometimes.

Julie said...

Freya, your journal is pretty. I like the candy picture.

@Wendt
Your children are gorgeous and your Japanese is, too.

I'll reply in Japanese when I get to a JPNS computer.

Dia de los diy said...

I have friends who are fluent in Japanese and who are not of Asian decent and this is one of the things that frustrates them the most. It's weird when you see someone with this high level of ability to communicate in Japanese get constantly spoken back to in crappy broken English. It's almost like some people can not believe a foreigner actually can attain that level of language skill. I remember one story about this guy who went on a cross country trek to Hokkaido and this guy refused to speak to him in Japanese so he said to the guy " how about I kill you?" in English and the man didn't understand. I had to laugh about that one.

Anonymous said...

it's equally frustrating when you are of asian decent but low japanese ability. firstly, you get high speed japanese, then looks of confusion (sometimes disgust) and then it's the same refusal to speak any japanese. i am not fluent, but i do have intermediate japanese ability. i cannot communicate at their high speed level, then when i don't understand, it's the same refusal to speak any japanese.

--

i don't think it's that they don't believe a non-japanese person could attain that level. i think it's just a bit different for them. i speak two other languages, and i still take notice when i see a caucasian person speaking japanese. i'm not entirely sure why.

i also think it's quite a thing to be frustrated by a proficiency in any language. instead of complaining how others assume you don't speak japanese, how about being thankful that you can function with greater ease in the country. as a caucasian person, you may not be able to get others to speak japanese to you immediately, but think of the reverse. when a foreign person moves to canada or the us, they have greater stigmas and prejudices to overcome than people assuming they don't speak english.

didn't mean for this post to be so long, but i thought maybe a different perspective could help

Julie said...

Ha. My friend calls himself the "Fake Japanese" because he looks Japanese but has only spoken it for around a year. He says that people sometimes talk to him as though he's mentally disabled.

If we ever speak in English, people stare at him.

HOLY your Rs and Ls and Vs and Bs are AMAZING.