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My Brother's Accent
弟の話す秋田弁がときどき理解できません。断片だけ外国語を言っているように聞こえます。早口だから聞き取れないのか、なまっているからなのか・・・・・・。わたしの第一母国語は秋田弁なのに、わからないとは口惜しい。
しかし弟よ、若いくせにそこまで訛るとは、職場の環境ってものすごい影響力があるのね。彼の名誉(?)のために一応付け加えると、学生時代は訛っていませんでした。

初めて東京で働いたとき、絶対に出ていないと信じていた秋田弁、新潟弁ですが、忙しかったり、テンパったりすると出ていたようで、当時の上司(今は友人)に、
「方言ってひきずられる!しゃべってるとなんかラクだし、ひきずられてるってわかっても気持ちいい」
と言われました。

引きずられやすい言葉に、身近に接しているわたしは、かーなーり、危険です。





I saw my brother. He works as a fire fighter, so he is busy and his working schedule is irregular. I haven’t talked to him for a long time. I didn’t know his phone number and email address. He changes his phone number and email every time he breaks up with his girlfriend. It’s silly though.
Anyway, he has very strong accent. It’s called Akita-ben. Sometimes I have to ask him what he said even though it’s Japanese.

By the way, it’s funny because all of my friends think I can listen and speak English same as Japanese. Actually, I could see a movie without subtitle, but I sometimes don’t understand other English such as British English and English as a second language.

Even if I can get over 800 of TOEIC, I am still not good at English. TOEIC stands for “Test of English for International Communication.” No one said I am a good English speaker in America, but everyone thinks I am good at English in Japan. Before I came to the US, one of my friends told me I would be able to speak English fluently for two weeks.

I think this is funny example; LG (Korean Company for electric products) wants employees who have over 900 TOEIC score. If you have less than 900 TOEIC score, you can’t be hired. If you have 900 TOEIC score, you can use English for business even if you are struggling using that. However, many companies in Japan want you to take about 500 to be hired. (Bibliography in Japanese) If your native language is English, it’s very easy. You can get perfect score while many Japanese people have been studying harder.

I don’t mean I want to blame them about it. I know learning a foreign language is very difficult. I just want to say many people believe we can easily master a foreign language. However, I might want to say “No!”
by naokochin1 | 2007-05-24 21:10 | Japan Summer 2007


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