This reminds me of another comical video on accent reduction:

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert...ks-chinese

I would rather listen to Rush Limbaugh than the Young Turks, Rush is slightly easier to ignore

Rush Limbaugh said something offensive. News at 11. ;p

Hmm when I listened I thought Rush was doing a hybrid Hitler/Bugs Bunny.

I wonder what a person who speaks a different language sounds like imitating English... (if they have 0 knowledge of English)

caivano Wrote:I wonder what a person who speaks a different language sounds like imitating English... (if they have 0 knowledge of English)

This is close: http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/10...redit-card (00:34 seconds to 01:04)

they are saying actual English words though, I'm guessing in that Rush guy clip he's not saying real words, just what he roughly thinks Chinese words sound like...! would be interesting to hear English equivalent of that.

caivano Wrote:they are saying actual English words though, I'm guessing in that Rush guy clip he's not saying real words, just what he roughly thinks Chinese words sound like...! would be interesting to hear English equivalent of that.

You mean like this? http://boingboing.net/2009/12/17/gibberi...-song.html

We have a thread about this one: http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?p...#pid103433

caivano Wrote:I wonder what a person who speaks a different language sounds like imitating English... (if they have 0 knowledge of English)

This reminds me of various Hong Kong movies with some stereotypical Americans overemphasizing their accents. It's hilarious when combined with exaggerated acting like in A better Tomorrow 2.

(25 sec long)

caivano Wrote:I wonder what a person who speaks a different language sounds like imitating English... (if they have 0 knowledge of English)

caivano
Member
From: Tokyo


You never had this happen to you?

nest0r Wrote:

caivano Wrote:they are saying actual English words though, I'm guessing in that Rush guy clip he's not saying real words, just what he roughly thinks Chinese words sound like...! would be interesting to hear English equivalent of that.

You mean like this? http://boingboing.net/2009/12/17/gibberi...-song.html

We have a thread about this one: http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?p...#pid103433

Ah yeah that's more like it, kinda hurts my head listening to that..

Womacks23 Wrote:

caivano Wrote:I wonder what a person who speaks a different language sounds like imitating English... (if they have 0 knowledge of English)

caivano
Member
From: Tokyo


You never had this happen to you?

ah a couple of times in passing now you mention it, at schools... mostly it's random words like "YES WE CAN!" or something rather than random gibberish. will pay attention to the gibberish next time...!

You need to get out and mingle with the drunk salary-men more.

Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, George W Bush, Sarah Palin....
Sometimes it is embarrassing to admit being an American.

bodhisamaya Wrote:Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, George W Bush, Sarah Palin....
Sometimes it is embarrassing to admit being an American.

Why, they add that necessary element of hilarity. Otherwise, things would be all "actually get things done" and "in the interest of the people" and stuff. Without extremely vocal, ignorant, change resistant figures like these, what would become those people who need them.

Someone has to let the voice of stagnation be heard! Someone has to stop the damned liberal agenda!!!

Womacks23 Wrote:From: Tokyo


You never had this happen to you?

It's actually super rare, at least in Kyoto. I've only had one person do gibberish-English in front of me in three years of living in Japan. People imitate famous catch phrases with exaggerated accents, but that's not the same thing as gibberish.

Basically, I had a kid in one of my classes that was a total punk, and he would sometimes switch to gibberish English when I asked him to do pair or group work.

(Edit:

This is probably because almost everyone in Japan knows some English, even if it's just a few phrases or words. So there's no reason for people to completely make up sounds when portraying English. The only reason you get a lot of people in America impersonating Chinese with complete gibberish is that the majority of the American population can't even say a single word in Chinese--and even most that can only know how to say hello)

bodhisamaya Wrote:Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, George W Bush, Sarah Palin....
Sometimes it is embarrassing to admit being an American.

Yet you come to a country where war crime denial books are best sellers and half the Japanese parliment is completely on board with these lines of thought...

Womacks23 Wrote:

bodhisamaya Wrote:Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, George W Bush, Sarah Palin....
Sometimes it is embarrassing to admit being an American.

Yet you come to a country where war crime denial books are best sellers and half the Japanese parliment is completely on board with these lines of thought...

They are best sellers in America as well, and the 2010 elections more than acknowledge the embrace of a war-lust society.

Edit: Something I can say for America is that Obama did give the best State of the Union address in my lifetime: Part 1 Part 2

bodhisamaya Wrote:Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, George W Bush, Sarah Palin....
Sometimes it is embarrassing to admit being an American.

Yes, I'm sure we have the monopoly on dumb politicians and dishonest media personalities.

This is an honest question: What country aside from America elevates their most extreme media pundits to an idolized status, and do those countries' pundit-idols exist in similar numbers, and have the same level of (perceived) influence/cachet (and same level of polemic in their expressed views)?

Edit: And by 'this is an honest question' I mean that I'm not asking for rhetorical purposes with a particular bias in mind (America this but Japan that, if you loathe Japan and its residents the way Womacks does, for example), it's something I'm really interested in as a global phenomenon but have never asked people from around the globe about.

nest0r Wrote:This is an honest question: What country aside from America elevates their most extreme media pundits to an idolized status, and do those countries' pundit-idols exist in similar numbers, and have the same level of (perceived) influence/cachet (and same level of polemic in their expressed views)?

FYI, not all Americans treat such extreme media pundits as idols. However, that being said, his listener base may not actually consider him extreme. He epitomizes the American right wing's authoritarian streak. Then he peddles some advertisements here or there and generally follows a corporatist political stance. It's simply tribal nature, so I think your question is flawed. You are really asking people about why they think certain media figures are "extreme." I suggest that you consider trying to understand why those people are "extreme" (and IF they may actually qualify as "extreme": perhaps Limbaugh is just a sad drug addict who is fighting for attention and can't cope with admitting one has made a mistake [hypocrisy].) and what factors (education, economic, etc) cause such people to reach elevated status. Just my opinion

dat5h Wrote:FYI, not all Americans treat such extreme media pundits as idols.

I don't think that is what she was saying. Those who pay attention to political pundits are a small minority. Though many, like me, watch humorous political takes from the likes of Steven Colbert, Jon Stewart, and Bill Maher almost daily.

dat5h Wrote:You are really asking people about why they think certain media figures are "extreme."

No, I'm not. But if you want to explore that topic and even base it on my comment, I applaud it as it is interesting on its own merits. However, please do not do so by turning my comment into something it isn't and using that as your premise.

If you took, in my comment, 'America' to mean 'all Americans, without fail' rather than '(an unspecified number of) citizens of America' or 'extreme' to a be subjective evaluation rather than objective relativism, then please, read 'extreme' instead as 'polarizing'. Likewise if 'idolizing' is problematic, read it as 'make them into wealthy, internationally well-known pundits by giving them and/or their polemical sociocultural commentary a profundity of positive and negative and neutral attention'.

I had hoped my comment was vague enough to accept its basic premise and ponder similar dynamics in other countries, with answers only incidentally qualified with their own understanding of that dynamic. Ah well, I guess you can't talk about pundits without collapsing into reality tunnels and sagely pronounced meta-arguments. ;p

You are both right, I over simplified nest0r's comment in my response, but I never actually thought nest0r actually though all Americans think that way (though, I have met some who did think in such narrow ways). But, in the end, I think, in some way, your question really holds valid for all nations to some extent or other (with variation), which is what led me to wonder why such things exist. Oh, and I can definitely agree with your definition of "idolize". I think I'd love (read: cringe) to hear other people's experiences with the "extremes" of as many countries as can be represented.