Might be a strange question here but there’s a video gaining a lot of attention on TikTok of an American idol group member using a “Japanese” pronunciation for “strawberry” saying ストロベリー etc.
she speaks with an American accent the entire time except those words, but then actually says some phrases in Japanese. What’s everyone’s opinion on this?
I didn’t think much of it until a ton of reaction vids came out calling her out for using a “fake japanese accent” it made me kinda self conscious because when I use loan words sometimes I get that same feeling of like “shit, this feels kinda weird to say, do I sound offensive?”
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You don’t sound offensive to Japanese people (I mean, there are Japanese racists who will get offended at the idea of non-Japanese people speaking their language, but eff those people), and their opinions are the only ones that matter when you’re speaking Japanese. A lot of Japanese speakers wouldn’t even be able to understand you if you didn’t use the transliterated pronunciation.
If that’s the name of the band it’s ok to say it.
I think she’s okay? I’m not the arbiter of good taste, however.
In my personal life, I’ll use the Americanized pronunciation of words like “karaoke” and “karate” out of habit, but will default to the Japanese pronunciation when speaking Japanese.
Idunno, I don’t really know the situation, but I think monolingual people also won’t really understand that bilingual people will make mistakes, especially learners who haven’t totally nailed down the language separation. I tend to do this by accident or habit at times. It’s a brain fart. If it’s on purpose to use a loan word pronunciation mid English sentence it’s a little eccentric though.
> I didn’t think much of it until a ton of reaction vids came out calling her out for using a “fake japanese accent” it made me kinda self conscious
Callout culture is garbage and you should completely ignore those people.
This bullshit only exists online. In the real world people LOVE sharing their language and culture.
If you’re speaking Japanese and use a Japanese pronunciation for an English loan word, that’s not offensive, that’s just speaking Japanese.
Is this what is being talked about?
[https://popcrush.com/california-idol-group-sorb3t-problematic-viral-call-and-response-tiktok/](https://popcrush.com/california-idol-group-sorb3t-problematic-viral-call-and-response-tiktok/)
I’m not Japanese, but i do see how this can be interpreted as a mocking , even if not intended that way. That aside, this is a high cringe warning for anyone wanting to watch the clip.
Offensive is maybe not the word, but depending on the context you might sound odd or awkward or just plain cringe. Personally I think if you are speaking Japanese go with the Japanese pronunciation, if you are speaking English go with the English pronunciation. If you drop Japanese pronunciation into your regular English conversation, some people are going to wonder why you are doing that, and may not think particularly well of you.
TikTok. Social media. Exacerbated feelings. I don’t think it’s a real concern.
I think people commenting on this should be sure to watch the video before they say anything on it. The video is primarily in English, and intended for an english speaking audience. She makes the leap from English to a few different Japanese loan words with nothing in between…and it gives off the impression that she’s using the loan word rather than the English word in order to sound cutesy, and it comes off as mocking a Japanese accent as a result.
She later made an apology/explanation video, where she says that the bit with the loan words is meant to be in line with future music she is writing which will be entirely in Japanese. The explanation makes sense, but i still think she should’ve thought things through a bit more, and without that context the video does not look good.
Sounds like an American made problem to me
this is another example of TikTok culture being super toxic. there’s people in the comments claiming that she’s fetishising and appropriating Japanese culture just because she spoke Japanese. “fake japanese accent”? that’s literally how most non-japanese people sound when they’re learning the language.
idk, people seem to be taking offence on behalf of other people’s culture even though it’s done out of respect and good intent.
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTREE8FMS/
Bet the people who got offended were white people or Americans in general. LMAO. STOP being offended for other people. Makes you racist af… I’m Asian living in Japan FYI.