As someone mentioned Nao Touyama isn't a bad English speaker herself. She intentionally plays up the engrish to add that "moe factor" to the characters she voices.
Also Kongou's engrish in my personal opinion is part of her charm.
As someone mentioned Nao Touyama isn't a bad English speaker herself. She intentionally plays up the engrish to add that "moe factor" to the characters she voices.
Also Kongou's engrish in my personal opinion is part of her charm.
Some people seem to find it annoying, but we have to remember the target audience is Japan, where despite English being a required subject in school for decades the average person has terrible English proficiency.
As someone mentioned Nao Touyama isn't a bad English speaker herself. She intentionally plays up the engrish to add that "moe factor" to the characters she voices.
Also Kongou's engrish in my personal opinion is part of her charm.
I don't see what's wrong with being a peppy battleship girl.
If I were a real Admiral and I had a ship girl screaming about "Burning Love" I'd probably assume she needed help getting to the Venereal Disease ward.
Some people seem to find it annoying, but we have to remember the target audience is Japan, where despite English being a required subject in school for decades the average person has terrible English proficiency.
That and target audience probably find it Moe and most of the time they don't care much for the language.
Personally, I have a hunch that it's out of a bit of xenophobia that they refuse to fully grasp proper English. Granted Japan has become a lot more open to outside influences in later years but there does seem to be rather subtle resistance to them. I mean most of us get surprised if some Japanese media or artists reference a western pop culture reference.
Japan isn't exactly alone in this case though. I'm sure other countries are just as adamant. But this is just a personal theory of mine. I'm no analyst.
Japan isn't exactly alone in this case though. I'm sure other countries are just as adamant. But this is just a personal theory of mine. I'm no analyst.
That may be true. In my country, some communities reacts negatively against any influence from different culture, especially if its a western-ish culture. There's this incident that is particularly memorable. Education department: the English standards are declining, we need to add 2 more hours of English lessons to schools. Certain community: They are trying to erase our culture from the country!! We must resist!!
I'm not sure if...learning English from games/musics/movies are considered proper
Since back then in my Highschool/College years, I didn't really learn English seriously during class
It depends really. Remember that language is flexible and ever changing. Even if you can learn all the basics and nuances of a language in a class. You really get some exposure from media or that use it or everyday use. Of course it doesn't beat an actual formal class, but you do get something out of it.
In my case most of my Filipino comes from reading newspaper comic strips like Pupung and Pugad Baboy. I confess that I'm an "inglesero" as some would call us over here and I barely speak or write Filipino. But most of my reading comprehenstion comes from reading those comics.
French are famously horrid at speaking english. In their case, it's because you never really need to learn english for anything who isn't computer science : everything is decently translated and subbed everywhere, be it comics, movies, novels, videogames, and whatnot. So only people actually interested in english tend to talk it well.
I expect Japanese to have a similar problem with english, given they also have most of their entertainement in their native language.
It depends really. Remember that language is flexible and ever changing. Even if you can learn all the basics and nuances of a language in a class. You really get some exposure from media or that use it or everyday use. Of course it doesn't beat an actual formal class, but you do get something out of it.
On a related note, while I am reasonably fluent in my native language (Chinese), I get lost on Chinese forums because of all the slang terms they use. This is because I usually surf the net in English, so I didn't have the opportunity to pick up much Chinese netslang. Heck, I have an easier time going through Japanese forums.
Imagine, for a second, getting your grandma to read and post on reddit. Or heaven forbid, 4chan. To them it might as well be another language.
You'd be surprised how much Thai kids know English compared to the so-called "English Majors" despite them learning the majority of their English from English game forums and video games.
That said, I myself advocate learning colloquial English for everyday use over "academic English" you would only use for writing dissertations and research papers. That kind of day-to-day skill is much more valuable than being able to write a coherent research paper unless you're working in R&D.
Edit: Also of note - The standard English language class available to most K-12 students (and even some University-level classes) is equivalent to middle-school English class in the US.
you can't really ignore the influence of video games and movies on non english speakers. i myself learned most of my english through video games and a bit of movies
I'm not sure if...learning English from games/musics/movies are considered proper
Since back then in my Highschool/College years, I didn't really learn English seriously during class
You will ONLY learn a language and keep it if you use it outside of studying. I had a basic English course when I was six years old, then i started playing online games, listening to English music and watching English movies / subbed anime (in English) and that's what taught me my English to a much greater degree than the schools ever did.
