Comments by "Seven Proxies" (@sevenproxies4255) on "Do Japanese Mix Up "L" and "R" When Speaking English? | ASIAN BOSS" video.

Hiroko TV: Japanglish sounds bit funny sometimes I have to admit. But I wouldn't judge someone because they have a hard time pronouncing english. Especially since I know that it's not their native language, the english classes could use some improvement and the fact that natural "L" doesn't exist in japanese to begin with will of course make it a lot harder to for japanese people to pronounce unless they get extra ordinary amounts of practice. Besides, I'd probably sound like an idiot if I spoke japanese. I think I can pronounce it, but my grammar knowledge is next to non-existent. And then there's the fact that I can't really read japanese characters without looking at a cheat sheet. So as far as i'm concerned, the japanese have an advantage over me in lingual knowledge.
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Absolutely true. When you're still a kid in school, being forced to learn a new language just feel like a chore. It's only when you grow up that you realize what a useful skill it is to have. And also how much easier it is to learn a new language when you're young. This has it's explanation in how human brains develop. As children we are the most receptive to picking up language skills as we will ever be in our lives. Just look at how babies go from not knowing any language at all to being able to speak to their parents at around age 2 or 3. It's amazingly fast compared to how long it takes for a normal adult to become fluent in a new language. And the cool part is that this ability to learn doesn't even get "overloaded" by learning several languages at once. So in a way, our schooling systems are kind of poorly designed in relation to how our brains work. If we had schools that utilized our brain development, then first grade to third grade would barely have any mathematics at all (because our brains aren't developed enough to understand it at that age anyway) and would instead be almost exclusively dedicated to learning not one language, but several languages at once.
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calforrai: I don't know if I agree. For one asian languagase are quite beautiful in written form. Whereas the western alphabet look very clunky and unappealing by comparison. I mean, people even go so far as using japanese and chinese characters as tattoos because of the way they look. But when people have tattoos with western alphabets it's usually only the meaning of the tattooed words that are considered important, and not really the way the individual letters look like.
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That's true. In the end, language is just a tool meant to facilitate communication between people. It doesn't matter if spelling, grammar or pronounciation is perfect as long as people can make themselves understood.
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Doesn't it have something to do with the fact that there aren't any japanese words at allt that naturally use the western way you pronounce "L"? I've looked through the katakana and hiragana alphabets and none of them contain any characters with L in it. Only R is included (ra, ri, ru, re, ro) which explains why japanese sometimes substitute L with an R in their pronounciation of english words.
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R Age: Let's face it, americans are not exactly known for expert pronounciation of other languages either. :P
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I didn't study spanish in the U.S. I think class was pretty good though, since our teacher was from Chile. The wierd thing is, even though I didn't put much effort into spanish class, and can't say I could really hold a conversation, I still got a pretty good grade. I later found out that apparently my teacher was in love with my pronounciation and gave me a better grade because of it. :S I guess my approach to language is a bit unconventional. I basically parrot the way native speakers sound, before getting into what the hell i'm actually saying. :D
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Honestly, schools are terrible at teaching language. The best educational aid you'll ever find is local movies and television series spoken in the local language, but with subtitles in your own language. That's how I learned 90 percent of all my english and did so several years before the other kids in class because I loved watching Star Wars, Alien, Predator, The Terminator and Big Trouble in Little China as a boy. Just find some of those mexican soap operas or something with english subtitles if you can, and you'll be well on your way to learn spanish, if you don't have a hispanic friend to help you.
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Well, keep in mind though. "Making fun of" someone is not necessarily a hostile action in many cultures in the world. So there's not always evil intent behind it. Like how close knit friends can joke at eachothers expense. They don't do it because they dislike eachother (most of the time). They do it because they like eachother. It's a way to defuse eachothers differences through making fun of them, rather than going around and dislike the differences. But this practice doesn't translate well into every culture in the world. Which can cause misunderstandings and hurt feelings.
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Miki Cerise: Indeed! And spanish R's are also very sharp and rolling. Whereas R in english is so soft it almost sounds like a completely different letter, like you're saying "Aaaah".
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TheShadowofDormin: It's because of their alphabets. Specifically katakana and hiragana. These characters mean a specific sound, but each character is always a vowel and a consonant, unlike the western alphabet where each letter is either a vowel or a consonant. So while our letters sound like "a, b, c, d, e" katakana and hiragana are always pronounced as "ka, ki, ku, ke, ko" or "ra, ri, ru, re, ro". So in a schoolbook teaching japanese students english, they probably use katakana or hiragana letters to demonstrate how an english word is pronounced. Which then makes the words include a lot of redundant vowels, like having a "u" sound at many words. Like the way they pronounced "kit kat" in the video, some of them said "ki-tu ka-to".
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Shynell Vaux: it's not privilige. It's just marketing. The natives realize that english speaking tourists bring a lot of money with them, so the more accessible they make their country by including signs in english, the more money they stand to gain. They're not bothering with english signs out of the kindness of their hearts. :P
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Partly true. Although I've heard some japanese dialects where they say "sayonara" and the "r" is pronounced very similarly to how you pronounce "th" in english.
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Eva Verheij: I haven't heard many actual dutch people speak english to be honest. But I'd guess it sounds a bit like how certain afrikaaners in South Africa speaks english? The Netherlands have many redeeming qualities though. Your people pretty much invented hardcore techno! :D Gabber forever here!
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Lisa Shearer: English isn't my native language, but it's so prevalent here due to the education system, and I have to say that I don't think northern irish is hard to understand. I love the way Irish girls speak. I think it's probably my favourite english accent from the British Isles honestly. I find the Scots a bit more difficult to understand though, but not terribly so.
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