Japanese
New Kanji for the "New Normal"
New kanji was created to indicate a socially-distanced gathering. The original symbol resembles two people sitting near each other, and the new creation sets them further apart. [Published on 12-25-2020]
Japanese/English Code Switching / Borrowing
Play videoNihonglish Gairaigo -- English words sprinkled throughout the speech... although this is was created mostly as a showcase of intonation, it seems to be a bit of a social commentary on language use and foreigners.
Tokyo Bon 東京盆踊り2020 (Makudonarudo) Namewee 黃明志 ft. Meu Ninomiya 二宮芽生 @亞洲通吃2018專輯 All Eat Asia
Play videoThis is a song about how Japanese people speak English. In this song, many of the English words are put in the lyrics. People might find that there is a huge differences between Japanese and English pronunciation. And this video can also help people understand more about Japanese accent in speaking English.
How to speak Japanese properly
Play videoThis is a Canadian YouTuber who enjoy learning Japanese. Although this video only 2 minutes long, it shows proper language usage in Japan and see the cultural difference. This video can help people to understand the asian culture, especially how Asian show their etiquette in a formal way. Specifically, in the use of language, the video shows a very complicated sentence to express gratitude, but the expression in English is very simple, just simply say thank you.
Video Proves Logan Paul Did Many More Utterly Offensive Things In Japan
CW: Suicide Logan Paul is an online personality from America that basically just makes video blogs. Recently he went to Japan and vlogged about his time there. He came under fire almost immediately for positing a video of him in the Suicide Forest where someone had just committed suicide. In the week following, people also watched other videos of his time in Japan where he basically disrespects anything and anyone. At one point he breaks a game boy on purpose and brings it back to the salesman saying it was “much-o, broken-o”. Him and his friends also get together and yell “arigato” before running around — which shows he probably had no idea what it meant but yelled it because it translates to “thank you” in English.
Though the things he did were disrespectful to Japanese culture for a number of reasons these things discussed linguistically showed the shallow amount of knowledge he had on the place he was visiting and the lack of care he had for the people there. I see this as a form of speech communities - because Logan Paul is from a very laid-back, privileged, English speaking community online and went to Japan but changed nothing, therefore observably offending members of the speech communities in Japan. [Published on 01-05-2018]
Dave/Erina trying Super Spicy Yeobki Tteokbokki
Play videoIn this video Dave (the man) and Erina (the woman) are trying a super spicy Korean rice cake dish. In the video both are using Korean, neither being their native languages, but through the experience of eating the food we see an instance of code-switching from both parties due to the spiciness; Erina to Japanese, and Dave to English.
Differences between English, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese
Play videoThe four speakers compare word pronunciations across languages with the general discourse held in Korean. Terms involving English morph to and from other languages depending on phonetic inventories. Also, note that the social practice of taboo words in Korean carries over when other languages a have a taboo Korean word in the comparisons leading to a humorous moment.
"Samurai English"
Play videoThis is a Japanese commercial of Nissin cup noodles. In this commercial, a CEO of a Japanese company made an announcement that they are going to made ENGLISH as an official language of his company although his employee were not fluent in English. This situation is represented as a historical war, probably in 1850s. Languages and fluency is presented as weapon and their strength: Japanese weapon was too weak same as their English language ability. This commercial represents the centrality of English, globally. It is funny because it is written ironically: the “Japanish” has strong Japanese accents and they can only say typical sentences which Japanese people learn in junior high schools. It also express irony toward globalization which is oriented in English. This commercial is focused on Japanese, but this form of globalization on happens everywhere.
Classic Trade Federation Episode 1 Lines
Play videoThis video is a compilation of all the lines from the trade federation in star wars episode 1, in this video you can see that all the people in this certain race all speak in a heavily overemphasized "Japanese" accent. they are also depicted as incompetent and unintelligent in the film series. In the star wars prequels George Lucas had a habit of assigning alien races with an american depiction of what a foreign accent, usually over emphasized and looking back on it may be racist and considered a mock version of that language's accent.
lesson 7.1 Tokyo vs Osaka Accent - same words, different sounds
Play videoThe differences in intonation between Osaka dialect and Tokyo dialect. Tokyo dialect is accepted as standard Japanese and is what is taught outside of Japan. In the video, the Osaka dialect speaker says that she is able to speak standard Japanese very well, but her pronunciation of "sensei" is what clued people in to her Osaka origins.
Code-Switching Baby
Play videoThis video shows a young child speaking in German with his father for most of the video until he looks up and sees his mother, with him immediately switching to Japanese upon seeing her. This shows how code-switching is prevalent even in younger multilingual speakers and is used as a way to communicate with different people. Although the child in this video is very young, he still is aware enough to know that his father understands German best and that his mother responds best to Japanese.
"Engrish" in the anime Jojo's bizarre adventure
Play videoThis video is a compilation of samples of "Engrish" from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. "Engrish" is the term used for English used in what is perceived as an "incorrect" or "awkward" way. Primarily this term is applied to English translations. The most famous of these would be from the intro of the game Zero Wing. The Japanese version has the villain saying: "With the cooperation of Federation Forces, all your bases now belong to us." However, the english translation became "All your base are belong to us". This term has developed a broader meaning, being used to describe code switching in Anime. Often times these phrases seem almost nonsensical, such as "hail to you", other times the accent is incredibly think and difficult to understand.
Japanese Gendered Language: How to Talk Like a Girl or Boy
This article discusses gendered language in Japanese, which includes the origin of "feminine language" (which started off as a form of "vulgar" language that schoolgirls were using) and how gendered language can be used as a form of self-identity or as a way to rebel against the strict standards of Japanese language. In the language ideology of Japanese, there have historically been opinions on who can use what type of language and how, but this article demonstrates that these ideologies are changing today. [Published on 02-05-2014]
Keith Ape - 잊지마 (It G Ma) (feat. JayAllDay, Loota, Okasian & Kohh)
Play videoMusic video depicting East Asian (Korean and Japanese) rappers using AAVE. This video was highly controversial because many felt the rappers were appropriating black culture, especially since the song itself was based off of an African American hip-hop song ("U Guessed It" by OG Maco).
Japanese Women's Language: Commercial
Play videoA 2006 Japanese commercial that spooks Japanese women's voices.