Job Discussion Forums

24601 · Joined: 25 May 2006 Posts: 75

printo
cardo
foodo

etc...

but...

Toront?

Why is it impossible to get them to say TorontOH?

I'm actually curious on this one.

And why is it Hirosheeee but Takash. As in the "i" in Takashi is never pronounched. Same with Suunichi. What's up with that?

Tomasama · Joined: 18 Mar 2005 Posts: 18 Location: au

I made a discovery that was of ground breaking proportions at the time.
I wanted my high school kids to work with syllables e.g name 5 countries with one syllable in the name; France, Chad Spain etc.
These kids hit a wall. Blank faces all around. Syllables?!?
After messing around trying to explain what they are, we matched it with onsetsu which seems to be more a musical term.
It seems not one single teacher had ever bothered to teach this rather important tool for pronunciation and intonation. It's understandable why. The japanese alphabet is syllabic. I guess English teachers just assume Japanese students can grasp and understand this concept however as we all hopefully know, Japanese syllables and English syllables are very different.
All these goes to explaining why students pronounce English with a katakana slant. Pre-ju-dice becomes pu-re-ju-di-su, mu-sic becomes mu-si-ku and so on.
I've not yet had the time to research this out but it might be helpful if every English teacher devote some time in their lessons and do some drill work when reviewing vocabulary or something. Hopefully kids will start speaking intelligably with accuracy.

kdynamic · Joined: 05 Nov 2005 Posts: 562 Location: Japan

They also say "Orland" for "Orlando" (the city in Florida). I can't figure it out either, since you're right about the "foodO" "printO" thing.

I don't know if it's just the accent around here, but they do it to Japanese words too, like toF (not tofu). And in English it's "phoT" (photo) and "bicyc" (for bicycle).

Lynn · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 696 Location: in between

And don't leave out mosquit

Apsara · Joined: 20 Sep 2005 Posts: 2142 Location: Tokyo, Japan

And tuxeed. I have heard some Japanese people, mostly male, pronounce Kyoto as "Kyot". Just some idiosyncrasy of the language. Japanese people I have asked seemed not even to notice they were even doing it, let alone know why.

kdynamic · Joined: 05 Nov 2005 Posts: 562 Location: Japan

Yeah! The KyoT thing really grates on my ears. I have never ones heard anyone who actually lives in Kyoto drop the o...

Sherri · Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2007 6:49 am Post subject:

Don't forget the epic film, "Gone with the Windo"

NorthofAmerica · Joined: 17 Jul 2006 Posts: 187 Location: Recovering Expat

same thing goes with "u" except when saying tissue which magically becomes "tish"

Sherri · Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2007 9:26 pm Post subject:

The problem is caused by katakana. Because it is used for non-Japanese words, it gives people the impression that they are correctly pronouncing a foreign word. That is why people will say "shirts" even when they are talking about one shirt (same with "grapefruits" or "coconuts"). Then there is the over compensation you get with tuxeed and mosqueet. I hate katakana, there is no reason for it to exist. There I have said it!
Sherri

kdynamic · Joined: 05 Nov 2005 Posts: 562 Location: Japan

Yes of course it's caused by katakana pronunciation, but the question remains: why do they ADD a vowel to the end of some words and DROP it from the end of others? Is it just random? It seems pretty random.

Synne · Joined: 06 Apr 2004 Posts: 269 Location: Tohoku

I've never heard anyone say Toront...

...or Orland.

fat_chris · Joined: 10 Sep 2003 Posts: 3198 Location: Beijing

Yeah. Ditto about the "u".

My Japanese is virtually non-existent, but I do know the phrase "hottu doggu" which amuses me.

As a New Yorker, I have been wondering if that famous franchise of coffeehouses is called "Starru Bukku".

Heh heh heh. Making up my own Japanese words...

furiousmilksheikali · Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2007 3:32 am Post subject:

ripslyme · Joined: 29 Jan 2005 Posts: 481 Location: Japan

furiousmilksheikali · Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2007 3:42 am Post subject:

In fact, スターバックス is actually "Sutaabakkusu". But looking at the romaji it is easy to see why romaji is such a terrible medium for learning Japanese.

As for katakana, of course it is annoying, particularly when students use it to learn English. But in Japanese it is quite useful. Given that Japanese already uses kanji for most content words in written form, katakana helps distinguish words - or sounds - from such things as verb changes and particles, which are usually written in hiragana. Written Japanese would be far more ambiguous in meaning if it only used hiragana.