Kind of a confusing thread title. Anyway, this video features an interview with a native Japanese speaker who studied in England and consequently speaks English with a British accent:

(skip to about 4:30)

Now, to me, she's indistinguishable from a native (British) English speaker. But I don't know how much of that is her actually having a very good accent, and how much is from the fact that, to my U.S. West coast ears, a British accent (even when spoken by a native) sounds different enough that I can't pick up on the nuances of pronunciation that sometimes give away non-native speech. I wonder if I would see the same effect with, for example, someone who learned to speak English with a Southern U.S. accent.

It would be really interesting if she actually didn't have a very native-sounding accent but I just couldn't hear it (not that I think that's the case here. The comments suggest her pronunciation is very good, and I myself can hear that the fluidity and intonation of her speech are, as well).

I don't know a lot about the different dialects/accents in Japan. Are some of them different enough that native Japanese speakers might observe the same effect?

Anyone else noticed this phenomenon? Any does anyone have an example of someone speaking British English with a noticeable non-native accent, so I could compare them?

Just listening to it casually, I would have thought she was born in England. Nothing really jumps out to me as far as strange aspects of her accent, and the actual way she speaks sounds pretty much the same as native speakers.

Trying to listen again while reading along with the transcripts (which spelt Birmingham incorrectly), and I can't really think of anything that odd there either. The only one was this line:

"I mean you have to be put in a situation where you have to speak the language, don’t you? To properly learn it."

That sounded a bit odd, the way she was stressing it. But I'm assuming it was spontaneous speech, which isn't going to perfect all the time for anyone, native or not. (At least I hope other people speak/pronounce things weirdly from time to time and it's not just me.)

Edit; then again, I never was that good at placing anything but the really thick, verging-on-stereotypical accents.

IceCream Wrote:but her british accent is a little bit too mashed up too.

I probably can't tell because mine isn't much better :p I have a kind of 'posh'-Northern accent.

I've noticed this phenomena. I worked with a Japanese woman who lived in England and Australia for a while. To me (an American) she sounded very Australian, and because of that I would constantly forget that she was not a native speaker. This created problems because I would use slang more frequently than with other English teachers, and she would get confused.

But, she told me that people in Australia told her she had an English accent. And people in England sometimes told her that she had an Australian accent, and sometimes an American accent (probably because American English is usually taught in Japan, where she originally learned).

So, in this situation it's obvious that her English does not have a consistent accent anywhere, and she periodically makes obvious mistakes, yet the accent was good enough to trick my mind into thinking she was a native speaker from somewhere.

Her accent is very good, but sometimes a bit mixed. Her manner has totally turned British too.

She might be the same as me where I tend to pick up the accent of the person I'm speaking to within a range, which can make it variable. For example the other day I was talking to someone at the gym and after a little while he asked me if I'm from South Africa (where he was from) based on my accent. I've never been to South Africa.

I tend to pick up American accent when speaking to Americans too, but can never fully hide the Brit accent on words like "can't" without trying hard (kaant vs keant )

vosmiura Wrote:Her accent is very good, but sometimes a bit mixed. Her manner has totally turned British too.

This is something I noticed. When I was working as an English teacher in Japan. I did many many level checks for prospective students. I could tell pretty reliably how good their English was in the first 3 seconds that I see them before we speak.

Those that are good have had to retrofit their personality so they are capable culturally of expressing themselves in English. There is an openess and directness about them. I think doing this is key to learning a language.

Watch the video from 1:35 - she appears to have a Northern/Nottingham/Brummie accent. Rest of it is London. She also uses very natural language, grammar and tons of British colloquialisms ("know what I mean..", "proper gutted", "that really p#ssed me off" etc).

As someone mentions her whole deminor comes across as British not Japanese. If I met her in real life I'd just assume she was British born asian.

Here's a video of her speaking Japanese (she's now a radio presenter in Japan).

Weird, she speaks Japanese sooo fast - I can't believe it's the same person..

Wow, her accent sounds very natural. She actually speaks a lot better than some pommies I know that live in Australia - no cockney swearing ;-) . And just her general demeanour and way of speaking is very native-like for an English speaker. Especially at 4.58 the way in which she starts her answer to the the question about whether she was born in England,

Also the interviewer is definitely a New Zealander.

Man, I gotta put my pirate speak video on youtube.