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Language mimicry (lemmy.world)
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[-] drolex@sopuli.xyz 93 points 2 months ago

Howdy, my name is Rawhide Kobayashi. I’m a 27 year old Japanese Japamerican (western culture fan for you foreigners). I brand and wrangle cattle on my ranch, and spend my days perfecting the craft and enjoying superior American passtimes. (Barbeque, Rodeo, Fireworks) I train with my branding iron every day, this superior weapon can permanently leave my ranch emblem on a cattle’s hide because it is white-hot, and is vastly superior to any other method of livestock marking. I earned my branding license two years ago, and I have been getting better every day. I speak English fluently, both Texas and Oklahoma dialect, and I write fluently as well. I know everything about American history and their cowboy code, which I follow 100% When I get my American visa, I am moving to Dallas to work in an oil field to learn more about their magnificent culture. I hope I can become a cattle wrangler for the Double Cross Ranch or an oil rig operator for Exxon-Mobil! I own several cowboy hats, which I wear around town. I want to get used to wearing them before I move to America, so I can fit in easier. I rebel against my elders and seniors and speak English as often as I can, but rarely does anyone manage to respond. Wish me luck in America!

[-] Rolando@lemmy.world 44 points 2 months ago

Texas and Oklahoma dialect, and I write fluently as well

Obviously fake. Texans don't read or write.

[-] TexasDrunk@lemmy.world 17 points 2 months ago

My buddy likes to tell people the biggest exports from his hometown are illiteracy and methamphetamines.

[-] SARGE@startrek.website 27 points 2 months ago

I own several cowboy hats, which I wear around town.

It took me until this part to recognize it.

"I own several kimonos, which I wear around town"

Well done. 10/10.

[-] Damage@feddit.it 16 points 2 months ago

This pasta has been served before tho

[-] drolex@sopuli.xyz 8 points 2 months ago

Not mine, alas. Probably from some forgotten 4chan genius.

[-] Bricriu@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

I understand these words separately, but together.... 🤔

[-] skulblaka@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 months ago

4chan has long been the fountainhead of the internet. All memes and pastas spring from there in some fashion or another. But so do other, darker things...

[-] Susaga@sh.itjust.works 47 points 2 months ago

There was a stand up act about a guy who was learning German, and decided to listen to German speeches as he slept to help him absorb the language quicker. You can probably guess how that can backfire.

[-] The_Picard_Maneuver@lemmy.world 31 points 2 months ago

Why? Lemme just google the 'most famous German speeches' really quick...

[-] yetAnotherUser@discuss.tchncs.de 13 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

https://youtube.com/watch?v=f7TboWvVERU

"Wenn Sie ... vom Hauptbahnhof in München ... mit zehn Minuten, ohne, dass Sie am Flughafen noch einchecken müssen, dann starten Sie im Grunde genommen am Flughafen ... am ... am Hauptbahnhof in München starten Sie Ihren Flug. Zehn Minuten. Schauen Sie sich mal die großen Flughäfen an, wenn Sie in Heathrow in London oder sonst wo, meine se ... Charles de Gaulle äh in Frankreich oder in ...äh... in ... in...äh...in Rom.

Wenn Sie sich mal die Entfernungen ansehen, wenn Sie Frankfurt sich ansehen, dann werden Sie feststellen, dass zehn Minuten... Sie jederzeit locker in Frankfurt brauchen, um ihr Gate zu finden. Wenn Sie vom Flug ... vom ... vom Hauptbahnhof starten - Sie steigen in den Hauptbahnhof ein, Sie fahren mit dem Transrapid in zehn Minuten an den Flughafen in ... an den Flughafen Franz Josef Strauß.

Dann starten Sie praktisch hier am Hauptbahnhof in München. Das bedeutet natürlich, dass der Hauptbahnhof im Grunde genommen näher an Bayern ... an die bayerischen Städte heranwächst, weil das ja klar ist, weil auf dem Hauptbahnhof viele Linien aus Bayern zusammenlaufen."

(assisted) English Translation"If you ... from the main station in Munich ... with ten minutes, without having to check in at the airport, then you basically start at the airport ... at ... at the main station in Munich, you start your flight. Ten minutes. Take a look at the big airports, if you're at Heathrow in London or somewhere else, my se ... Charles de Gaulle uh in France or in ...uh... in ... in...uh...in Rome.

If you look at the distances, if you look at Frankfurt, you'll see that ten minutes... you'll always take this much time in Frankfurt to find your gate. If you start from the flight ... from ... from the main station - you board the main station, you take the Transrapid to the airport in ... to Franz Josef Strauß Airport.

Then you practically start here at Munich Central Station. Of course, this means that the main station is basically closer to Bavaria ... to the Bavarian cities, because that's obvious, because many lines from Bavaria converge at the main station."

Translator's note: [sic]

[-] PlexSheep@infosec.pub 8 points 2 months ago

I'm a native German and I don't get it. What is the speaker talking about? Is this in favor of trains or planes???

[-] ElmarsonTheThird@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 2 months ago

Both, kinda. His point was (if O recall correctly) to promote a faster light rail track from Munich central station to the FJS Airport, also in Munich. The main benefit would be that you "start your flight on the train" because the transfer is seamless (in theory).

[-] yetAnotherUser@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 2 months ago

Almost, he advocated for building a ~37 km long maglev train (the Transrapid) between Munich main station and Munich airport.

The project never made it past planning because it would've cost billions with limited economic gain.

[-] starchylemming@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

as always new technology is developed in germany and then they dont manage to apply it on scale

hyper incompetent local politician Stoiber made heaps of terrible long term damaging decisions. But advocating for the locally developed transrapid isn't one. Wouldn't it be cool if it actually existed? His legacy remains this speech and rampant privatisation of public infrastructure which resulted in quality decline across the board😎 sadly no real 10 minute maglev

his incoherent speech in written form reminds me of orange man tho

[-] ink@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 months ago
[-] Susaga@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 months ago

Yes! I completely forgot his name, but I love the skit!

[-] teft@lemmy.world 40 points 2 months ago

I'm an american who lives in colombia. I learned spanish here. The locals like it because I'm the only gringo they know that doesn't speak like a mexican or a spaniard. The bad thing is all my friends are street kids basically and I learned how to talk from them and watching gangster novellas. Needless to say my slang is a bit like the OP in the meme. I've gotten a few colombians to laugh instead of be frustrated or mad at me for my language because I dropped a phrase that they don't usually hear from gringos.

[-] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 33 points 2 months ago

My father learned Norwegian from my mother. Trouble is that she speaks a super rural dialect. When he had business partners from Norway over he tried talking to them but they couldn't understand a word he was saying.

Luckily my mother isn't Danish.

[-] shikitohno@lemm.ee 19 points 2 months ago

Something similar, years back when I was taking Norwegian classes, my teacher was telling us about a relative of hers. According to our teacher, it was pretty common for families with the means to do so to send their kids off to an English-language immersion camp over the summer around the time they were 14 or so. She said most of the people would go to camps in the UK and come back with something of a posh British accent, but her one relative's parents dropped the ball on signing up and missed the chance to send her there, as all the spaces were booked by the time they checked. They looked around and found another immersion camp that was still accepting applications, and sent this girl off to perfect her English, in Arkansas. She came back with quite the accent, leaving people she spoke to in English baffled at how she wound up picking it up.

[-] AI_toothbrush@lemmy.zip 4 points 2 months ago

I live in sweden and know some swedish(still learning it) and when i was in iceland and asked for basic stuff they understood me and i understood them but when i go to denmark and ask for the toilet i dont understand a single word.

[-] undergroundoverground@lemmy.world 32 points 2 months ago

You mean like how Butcher from "the boys" sounds like a kiwi mimicking all the accents from a Guy Ritchie movie at the same time.

[-] sunbytes@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago

I really like how bad it is.

It really lends to the insincerity of the character.

Also his Dad had the exact same issue. And they both did English accents in LotR so I suspect they're having fun with it!

[-] themoonisacheese@sh.itjust.works 22 points 2 months ago

There's a guy on TikTok that has really funny experience to share because he learned japanese when he was living in basically a crack house with japanese thugs and he has a great japanese accent but it's basically the hillbilly accent

[-] AnarchoSnowPlow@midwest.social 20 points 2 months ago

"We only got old gangster movies, see? My dad, the old fink, didn't have two pennies to rub together see? Me and my buddy got nipped yanking some movie films from the local five and dime, he sang like a bird, so here I am up the river in sing-sing."

[-] knobbysideup@sh.itjust.works 17 points 2 months ago

The race guys from better off dead who learned English by watching Howard cosell

[-] jaybone@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

Such a great movie.

[-] YurkshireLad@lemmy.ca 16 points 2 months ago

There's a young Russian virtuoso guitarist online who speaks English with a brummie accent.

[-] Cadeillac@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

I'm an idiot American. What is brummie?

[-] Twofacetony@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago

Someone from Birmingham, a city in the middle of England.

[-] YurkshireLad@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 months ago

Sorry, I'm the idiot for assuming it's universally understood what a brummie is.

[-] dohpaz42@lemmy.world 15 points 2 months ago

I want to say this was a joke in the 80s or 90s where immigrants would learn English from the likes of watching John Wayne movies.

Though, as an aside, I would love to meet more non-native English speakers who learned English by watching the likes of Pauline Shore.

[-] teft@lemmy.world 26 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

There is a joke in The Good Place like this. One of the characters is describing her life "abandoned by my parents" "adopted by parents who died, yadda, yadda, yadda" "saved the human race, yadda, yadda, yadda". She goes through a few of those and the penultimate thing she says is "learned english watching Seinfeld".

[-] dohpaz42@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago

I mean who doesn’t like a good “yada yada yada”. I feel like more people should do that; especially at work. 😏

[-] teft@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago

I feel like more people should use yiddish because they have some great words like shmootz and chutzpah and schlep. They just sound great and the meanings are wordy in english so a single word translation is great.

[-] Cadeillac@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

You yada'd over the best part

[-] bamfic@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago

All the british invasion bands of the 60s who sung as if they were from tenessee because they learned music from old 50s rock and roll records

[-] feedum_sneedson@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I think it's how you refer to yourself, but it's been a while since I learned. Like there's three or four versions of "I", watashi, watakushi (very polite), and I forget the other two but one is extremely informal and possibly makes you sound like a delinquent.

Edit: ore and boku, can't remember which is the informal one, somebody who knows more step in and add some extra context please.

[-] fernlike3923@sh.itjust.works 10 points 2 months ago

俺?It's generally used amongst friends in casual conversations, referring to yourself informally.

[-] feedum_sneedson@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago

Probably that then! I study Chinese (Mandarin) now, so that's a very unusual character to me. Apparently it has a similar meaning but it's only used in regional dialects.

[-] fernlike3923@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 months ago

Sorry, I wrote it in kanji because I thought you were still studying Japanese. (the character is ore)

Why did you decide on switching to learning Mandarin?

[-] feedum_sneedson@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago

Availability of native speakers local to me, and the fact I was initially attracted to Japanese by the characters and ended up essentially studying Chinese when researching their history. I may return to Japanese later, there's certainly plenty of study materials.

[-] MindTraveller@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 months ago

Watashi is for adults and girls. Boku is for boys. Ore is for manly macho men.

[-] ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works 12 points 2 months ago

Someone who learned Russian from movies about organized crime would speak a distinct dialect. Speaking that way to either law-abiding people or actual criminals would probably be a bad idea. Is Japanese like that too?

[-] ImplyingImplications@lemmy.ca 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

There's definitely words only used by "tough guys" but I've never heard anyone call it a dialect. There are also words only used by anime characters. So if you learn Japanese through media, you're probably going to be told "you sound like a tough guy/anime protagonist" eventually. However, most native Japanese speakers believe that their language is very complex and will forgive foreigners for misspeaking.

[-] twinnie@feddit.uk 9 points 2 months ago

I knew a guy from Guinea Bissau and they learnt English by watching the Tweenies.

[-] smeg@feddit.uk 4 points 2 months ago

I'm assuming they were always ready to play?

[-] user1234@lemmynsfw.com 6 points 2 months ago

Reminds me of the Japanese students in Better Off Dead who learned English from watching Howard Cosell on the Wide World Of Sports.

[-] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago
this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2024
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