I've a Japanese friend that often attends international conferences where the common language is English. She tells me that those for whom English is a second or third language usually understand each other quite easily.
The only ones whose English they often find unintelligible are the English and American attendees. ;-)
Hai, watashi live Nihon 1970s. Learn speak Nihongo but takasan Engrish I sound because wastashi Aei Kaigun gaijin. I was great at mangling the Japanese language and would mostly get polite nods for my efforts. I did master the important things like the size and amount of beer I wanted ( "oki, statsu"), ordering food and most important telling the taxi driver "hidari, migi, masugu, STOP!, koko desu". (Right, left, straight ahead, STOP!, right here) "Doko obinjo?" (Where is the toilet?) And of course, as Japan is a very polite nation since 1945 one learned the civility phrases. I can remember training Japanese Navy ships in Hawaii and I was called upon to communicate in Japanese in an Electronic Warfare exercise. While I was struggling with my meager Japanese vocabulary, the equipment we were using to broadcast various radar signals that were to be intercepted, analyzed and located by coordinated direction finding the shore based transmitter failed. Spontaneously, some of my forgotten vocabulary came back to me..."Baka mitai... damn sukebe 15-E-1 takasan broke, watashi wa wakari nai when the Hell fix, nei. Hiyako maybe. Gomen nasai desu" There was a pause, and some of the Japanese sailors chuckled. Seems I had reverted to some gutter language I had picked up. Not a big deal, we were all sailors. Truth be told most of those sailors spoke English. I was just trying to be polite and speak some of their language while aboard their ship. It was understood that I was the barbarian.
I get sometimes amused at parties and gatherings with friends. My wife is a Filipina and while among Filipino friends I can get the gist of most conversations because of the generous smattering of English words interspersed with the Tagalog, Ilocano or their native dialect when they are talking. Most of our friends immigrated 40-50 years ago. My wife speaks 5 languages. My eldest daughter speaks 3 fluently and can read scientific texts in 2 other languages. I get by in just 1 language but can point and grunt too. I admire the multilingual. HeloIndiya kee mejabaanee ke lie dhanyavaad, Jayashree. Did I get even close? ☺
Thanks for sharing these fun incidents! Sailors, indeed! :-)
Excellent memory—impressive if you remembered enough Japanese and Hindi to string together sentences and get by! When I was in Tokyo, I mostly relied on English, but when traveling further outside the city, I had the concierge write down a few Japanese menu items for vegetarian food.
Once, in a small village, I got stuck trying to dial for a taxi from a public telephone because the signs were all in Japanese. Luckily, I met a couple on an evening stroll, and the lady, who knew a bit of English, kindly helped me out!
Travel and learning languages while traveling is fun. Of course, Google Translate takes a bit out of the fun now - I was able to scan signs at the grocery stores and read them in perfect English!
Dale, I have spent much time in Japan performing on TV shows in the past. I took delight, ready your message, and relate to a few of these! Thank you! And I would like your post, except for some reason I can’t like posts unless it’s in the app. One of those glitches.
I have visited India twice in my life, and I found a mixture of English and East Indian language is comforting. The English gave me a sense of familiarity. I have many East Indian friends because our community has a large population of them. Their English of course is British English so they might call a garden hose a pipe. Thank you Jayshree for this, and I will check out your other installments as well!
Only got as close as Ceylon. I've been to other former British colonies (Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Kenya, Pakistan, Jamaica) and was also given a sense of comforting familiarity to hear a clipped British accent from many of the people. Got some friendly chiding in Portsmouth and Penzance about my near-unintelligible English accent. My parents were Okies and I was raised in the Deep South.
I've a Japanese friend that often attends international conferences where the common language is English. She tells me that those for whom English is a second or third language usually understand each other quite easily.
The only ones whose English they often find unintelligible are the English and American attendees. ;-)
lol, nice, thanks for sharing!
Hai, watashi live Nihon 1970s. Learn speak Nihongo but takasan Engrish I sound because wastashi Aei Kaigun gaijin. I was great at mangling the Japanese language and would mostly get polite nods for my efforts. I did master the important things like the size and amount of beer I wanted ( "oki, statsu"), ordering food and most important telling the taxi driver "hidari, migi, masugu, STOP!, koko desu". (Right, left, straight ahead, STOP!, right here) "Doko obinjo?" (Where is the toilet?) And of course, as Japan is a very polite nation since 1945 one learned the civility phrases. I can remember training Japanese Navy ships in Hawaii and I was called upon to communicate in Japanese in an Electronic Warfare exercise. While I was struggling with my meager Japanese vocabulary, the equipment we were using to broadcast various radar signals that were to be intercepted, analyzed and located by coordinated direction finding the shore based transmitter failed. Spontaneously, some of my forgotten vocabulary came back to me..."Baka mitai... damn sukebe 15-E-1 takasan broke, watashi wa wakari nai when the Hell fix, nei. Hiyako maybe. Gomen nasai desu" There was a pause, and some of the Japanese sailors chuckled. Seems I had reverted to some gutter language I had picked up. Not a big deal, we were all sailors. Truth be told most of those sailors spoke English. I was just trying to be polite and speak some of their language while aboard their ship. It was understood that I was the barbarian.
I get sometimes amused at parties and gatherings with friends. My wife is a Filipina and while among Filipino friends I can get the gist of most conversations because of the generous smattering of English words interspersed with the Tagalog, Ilocano or their native dialect when they are talking. Most of our friends immigrated 40-50 years ago. My wife speaks 5 languages. My eldest daughter speaks 3 fluently and can read scientific texts in 2 other languages. I get by in just 1 language but can point and grunt too. I admire the multilingual. HeloIndiya kee mejabaanee ke lie dhanyavaad, Jayashree. Did I get even close? ☺
You did great on the Hindi - and thank you!
Thanks for sharing these fun incidents! Sailors, indeed! :-)
Excellent memory—impressive if you remembered enough Japanese and Hindi to string together sentences and get by! When I was in Tokyo, I mostly relied on English, but when traveling further outside the city, I had the concierge write down a few Japanese menu items for vegetarian food.
Once, in a small village, I got stuck trying to dial for a taxi from a public telephone because the signs were all in Japanese. Luckily, I met a couple on an evening stroll, and the lady, who knew a bit of English, kindly helped me out!
Travel and learning languages while traveling is fun. Of course, Google Translate takes a bit out of the fun now - I was able to scan signs at the grocery stores and read them in perfect English!
Dale, I have spent much time in Japan performing on TV shows in the past. I took delight, ready your message, and relate to a few of these! Thank you! And I would like your post, except for some reason I can’t like posts unless it’s in the app. One of those glitches.
I have visited India twice in my life, and I found a mixture of English and East Indian language is comforting. The English gave me a sense of familiarity. I have many East Indian friends because our community has a large population of them. Their English of course is British English so they might call a garden hose a pipe. Thank you Jayshree for this, and I will check out your other installments as well!
Only got as close as Ceylon. I've been to other former British colonies (Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Kenya, Pakistan, Jamaica) and was also given a sense of comforting familiarity to hear a clipped British accent from many of the people. Got some friendly chiding in Portsmouth and Penzance about my near-unintelligible English accent. My parents were Okies and I was raised in the Deep South.