Nukemarine wrote:
Well, that depends. Can you change your accent that easily without constant attention? I think Mel Gibson completely voided his Australian, but Swarzenegger kept a strong portion of his (to bring about two well known examples).
Subconscious habits like accents are difficult to change, but not impossible. That said, you kind of made a good point that fluent feminized Japanese is better than little to no Japanese.
PS: I'm not learning much Japanese from the Japanese lady I'm seeing now. I prefer to think I'm learning cultural things from her instead. That said, I'm saying "Gomen" a bit too much now, which is something she says alot.
On the other hand, she felt embarrassed about how high my kanji writing ability was compared to her that she did go out and buy a kanji study guide. Luckily, I convinced her that Kanji was my hobby, much like Flamenco was her hobby. I'm not expecting her to have my level of something I'm actively studying, nor should she expect me to learn to dance.
It's a hell of a lot easier to switch up masculine/feminine speech than it is to alter your deeply ingrained speech patterns.
Btw, you meant Arnold = Austrian right?
I also learn from a Japanese wife, and it's not a big of a deal that people make it out to be here. But then again I live in Japan and have exposure from a variety of sources. Still the wife is by far my main source of interaction.
Heck I know native Japanese little girls who use 僕 mistakenly and get laughed at.
Last edited by frychiko (2008 August 14, 1:23 am)