Would native speakers still understand words that are basically the same in Japanese as English? - eviltoast

Like “radio” or “fantasy” or “game…” They’re basically the same in Japanese (radjio, fantaji, gaamu) so if I just said them in English pronunciation, would someone with no experience in English still be able to tell what I’m saying?

  • YourPrivatHater@ani.social
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    3 months ago

    Idk for shure but pretty likely also most people around the world nowadays do get English education at least a little so its probably hard to find one that doesn’t know English at all, at least among the younger people.

    • mocha_lotsofmilk@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Adding my experience in Japan real quick, this is a bit more likely to be the case in huge cities like Tokyo, but the majority of Japanese folks I interacted with in Tokyo and Kyoto had an understanding of English the same way you would if you took Spanish all through highschool (or whatever your local equivalent to this analogy is). They could sort of understand very basic phrases, but I wouldn’t expect a conversational grasp.

  • mocha_lotsofmilk@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    I think it depends on the person you’re speaking to and how good they are at understanding accents. Because that’s essentially what you are describing. When someone says a word in English using pronunciation guidelines from their native language, you hear that as an accent. The same would be true here, even though the words are loan words. They are used to hearing it through their own pronunciation guidelines, so it might take them a while to decipher it.