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Things I have heard this winter

 

- Rasta-su (intended meaning Rusutsu)

- Sappokkoro (intened meaning Sapporo)

- Haluka (intended meaning Hakuba)

- Habula (intended meaning Hakuba)

- Niseko (inteneded meaning Nisoko). Oops, being silly.

 

Any more good ones.

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- Hookooba (for Hakuba) - and they argued the toss with me when I gently and politely corrected them.

 

And the endearing mispronunciations of a friend of ours:

- Higashima (Higashiyama)

- Hazarno (Hanazono)

- Nesko (Niseko)

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shinge ga hidari desu.

 

<taxi driver tilts head>

Shinge?

 

eeeeto - shinge?

 

<taxi driver is killing himself trying not to laugh>

 

Obviously i meant shingo. I found out later though that shinge means pubes smile

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yeah....also names. My mrs name is "Makiko", not difficult in the least, all natural sounds that are used in English too....but could my family and friends get her name right?? Makika, Makiki, Makikir.....I was getting a bit angry, so I slowed it down and said it MA-KI-KO.........the result was they called her "MAAAAAAAAAAA-kiko" doh

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Originally Posted By: panhead_pete
How do you say Hiroshima?

Hero she ma

or

Her rosh e ma?
The trouble with trying to explain pronunciation is that the result depends on the origin of either the explainer OR the hearer.

For example, I have an iPod app that gives the pronunciation for "i" as "as in hate" I would NEVER pronounce "i" like "ay" which is how "hate" is pronounced here.

There are also regional differentials, as "ellen", a girl's name here is pronounced, by Victorians (a state of Aus) as "allan". Which explains why a student (Ellen) was always marked as absent on the rollcall at school when the (ex-victorian) teacher called her name.
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Japanese generally have the same vowel sounds as Maori so it shouldn't take too much work to teach a NZ'er japanese pronunciation. (unless they are especially white old and from the south island.)

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Originally Posted By: RobBright
It would be interesting to see which nationalities have problems with Japanese sounds.

Wouldn't be surprised if it was Australians and New Zealanders. wink

I, personally, don't have a problem, but there are locals whose pronounciation is atrocious! And, I think American pronunciations of the vowels would be more problematic. (Even the word "problem" can end up being pronounced "prarblam"). But, it is not the pronunciation, rather the representation of the pronunciation in romaji, and the explanation of what the sound should be "like" that is the problem IMHO.
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yeah I can understand that.....kids in my class all wear name badges that are written in English/Romanised Japanese, not spelt by me however, but the teacher. So I call out what the badge says in english, example "Taizo", the kids snicker and the teacher says..."No his name is TaiJO"....then why didn't you write that you twit?! biggrin Some of the romanised spelling of japanese names in particular can be weird. What's worse is that it isn't standardised so from person to person the spelling is different, it reminds me of when you read excerpts of english text from a few hundred years ago. Spelling was all different from one page to another

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Originally Posted By: Tubby Beaver
yeah I can understand that.....kids in my class all wear name badges that are written in English/Romanised Japanese, not spelt by me however, but the teacher. So I call out what the badge says in english, example "Taizo", the kids snicker and the teacher says..."No his name is TaiJO"....then why didn't you write that you twit?! biggrin Some of the romanised spelling of japanese names in particular can be weird. What's worse is that it isn't standardised so from person to person the spelling is different, it reminds me of when you read excerpts of english text from a few hundred years ago. Spelling was all different from one page to another


I've totally been there man. One of my kids wrote 'Atutosi' on his name badge, so when I ask Atutosi to answer a question, everyone corrects me 'it's Atsutoshi!'

Another kid's name is Marina. When I pronounce Marina, the kids all hear Maina (which is the name of another student in the same class), so I've had to really roll that R Italian style so they can understand me.
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haha, today I was flicking through a Snowboard Bus Tour magazine and they had Shiga Kogen spelt "Siga Kogen". So its no wonder that foreigners get it wrong when they can't get it tight themselves

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