Do you have a Southern accent?

What body of water is closest to you?

Showtalk said...

Do you have a Southern accent?

Yes, but I rarely use it anymore. I basically only used it around my grandparents and other relatives.

My father has one but doesn't use it much himself.

And even though I've been in Japan over 40 years, I still haven't lost it.

I do occasionally use it though to baffle Japanese who speak fairly fluent English. LOL

FWIW

They can’t understand your accent? How do you speak Japanese with an American southern accent?

Showtalk said...

They can’t understand your accent? How do you speak Japanese with an American southern accent?

Ahhhh.... you've caught on to my little secret about speaking 5 languages.

I can speak French with an American accent, a Southern accent, a German accent, a Japanese accent and a French accent.

I can speak Japanese in an American accent, a Southern accent, a German accent, A French accent and a Japanese accent.

Etc. all the way down the line.

And oh, before I forget, I can speak English in an American accent, a Southern accent, a British accent, an Australian accent, a German accent, a Singaporean accent, an India accent, a Japanese accent and probably several other accents.

That's just it... it all boils down to pronunciation and whether you pronounce it properly so that they can understand or not.

Example: Pouvez-vous Français can be pronounced as Parlevou Fransay in English but the French will diss you for your pronunciation.

Ai canu speek Engulish uisu a Japanese akusento bato ito saunds sutorengi two Americans.

And there in is my secret for learning multiple languages. It's mainly in the pronunciation!

FWIW 

That would be fun to do.  I worked with a boy who was immersed in a Spanish public school,program but couldn’t read in English.  It became very clear almost immediately, he had learned to say his letters and to sound out words using a Spanish pronunciation for the vowels.  So I worked with him on English phonemes and taught him when he reads English words, to use English vowel pronunciations and when reading Spanish to use Spanish sounds.  The problem was fixed in three sessions.  He was 6 years old so young enough that it was easy to learn the difference.  He was also very hyperactive so the sooner I got done with him the better, not for me but for him.   

Now that you mention it... and because I had learned Spanish before I came to Japan, I realized this but vowel alignment for Spanish and Japanese are the same.

In English, it's A E I O U.

In Spanish, it's A I U E O.

In Japanese, it's also A I U E O.

FWIW

Spanish and Japanese use the same vowel sounds?

Not only the sounds but the ordering of the vowels themselves are exactly the same.

We say A E I O U

Japanese and Spanish say A I U E O and the pronunciations for both are exactly the same.

We pronounce "A" as our normal ABC's but Spain and Japan pronounce it as "ah" and so forth.

FWIW 

Do they come from the same root language?