American English in Japan

[hallo]

yeah it seems they prefer it. think they think it is easier to understand and in junior high schools most if not all texts are written in American English.

www.teachjapanforum.com

additionally, the u.s. is the biggest importer in the world while japan consistently ranks in the top 5 as the biggest exporters. japanese companies most likely interact more with american companies than british companies. i work with some german students and i'm told they think the u.s. pronunciation and usage is easier to learn and people don't have to worry (so much) about whether or not they're acquiring the 'right' accent. as there aren't as many variations of the american accent as their are of the british accent. and even less so re: the canadian accent. i just spent time with a student who learned a version of a *beep* accent. once acquired, such problems are very hard to correct.

for some reason the accent i'm trying to write about gets a bleep. but i want to say a c*ckney accent.

[Twelvetongue]

I think there is a lot of imitation of some 'American' styles: soul, rap, country-western, bluegrass, blues, jazz etc. I've also heard Japanese doing Japanese that sounds a lot like the Jamaican reggae English (only done in Japanese of course).

I like that "Jamaican Reggae English." It's called Patois, and I wish the Japanese preferred a more 'Posh/colonial' English like Indian or Jamaican English, that way they would spell Catherine Smith (in Katakana) as Kyatarin Sumiitu instead of Kyasharin Sumiisu. The Ethiopians do the same thing in their dictionaries, they transliterate th as s or z instead of t and d, and it is so annoying....why don't they consult native speakers on phoneme substitutes as a sign of respect before putting it in a dictionary or major magazine? [/quote]