I’ve told this story before but a lad I know was teaching himself French, and got to a natural ceiling where he really had to immerse himself in the culture and environment to really spread his language wings.
He did the odd weekend over the channel into France once or twice a year, but decided to watch French media in the interim - films; series; music etc.
He wanted to formalise his knowledge with a qualification, so booked himself an exam and did his oral exam with a video call to a French native.
She said “I can’t fault your French, but you speak like a drug dealer from Paris”
High praise, if you ask me.
I’ve heard a similar story except it was japanese and the guy spoke like a yakuza
Well, how do you native speakers think learning English is done?
I tell you:
You pick some English media you like, listen to it, slip into the roles you like most and emulate those.
And, yes, one of those roles has been Peter Griffin for me.
But as a Star Trek Fan, most of my imitated manners of speaking have been taken from some ST series. So sometimes I speak like Captain Picard or Garak from DS9.
Oh, and also: Friends. Learned a lot from that and often imitated especially Chandler…Please, please go for more Chandler and Picard and Garak than Peter Griffin.
Nearly everyone hates nasaly accents.
Also, maybe if you want a bit of a mindfuck:
Played Fallout New Vegas?
You know that two-timing fink, Benny?
That real motherless sonofabitch, who’d sell his own grandma to the Khans if it could make him some caps?
That’s Chandler.
Same (voice) actor.
RIP Matthew Perry.
Learned a lot from that and often imitated especially Chandler…
hoping you skipped his laugh
I mean, Hideo Kojima is basically the less cringey, somewhat classier version of this concept.
He emulates a bit higher brow elements of American culture in his work, although, initially, Snake was basically just a fan fiction version of Snake Plissken from Escape from New York.
Maybe not higher brow? Less cringey, more campy?
On the flip side of this concept, I’m maybe a very mild otaku at this point (compared to what I see these days)… but also, I was a karateka for over 10 years, so, whenever I try and actually say anything in Japanese… I kind of just naturally take on a very gutteral, based in the solarplexus, way of speaking, and the result is my voice drops an octave, as compared to my normal register in English.
Osu-!
Sometimes I will amuse myself by singing in English, sometimes, I’ll just do:
Omae wa mou shindeiru
…untill I giggle. Hahaha!
That’s fascinating about having a different register for different languages.
I guess being a man, if I wanted to speak Japanese, I might go for Gendo Ikari’s voice, which is lower than my usual voice. If someone pointed this out, would I switch to Shinji Ikari’s voice? His is way higher. Hm. Maybe Mamoru Chiba’s voice would be a better match.
So, after poking around, listening to a few different male Japanese voice actors…
I am actually fairly close to the pitch register of Tetsu Inada, when speaking in Japanese.
Particularly Dialogue 2, very uh, enthusiastic, energetic, angry, snarky?, from this following clip… yeah that’s pretty darn close to how ‘karateka’ me sounds:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=eQHzG4dG5SA
Which… is confusing to me, because like… Steve Blum has roughly that same kind of baritone in English… as what I think I’m hearing from Inada in Japanese… but normally, casually speaking English… well I do have about the same amount of fry and gravely-ness, but maybe half to a full octave higher.
Anyway, I would never under any circumstances recommend speaking with Shinji’s voice; he’s kind of the most famous mentally unstable, pathetic bitch boy in all of anime?
Like, originally, he’s literally voiced by a woman, in Japanese, Megumi Ogata.
Unless you are going for teenage angst, no, no, never be Shinji.
Gendo… Gendo’s original Japanese voice actor is actually also fairly close to my Japanese speaking voice, though maybe a bit too deep, a bit too… smooth, roomy, sustained, whatever the opposite of fry-y and gravelly is.
Uh, Mamoru Chiba, Tuxedo Mask?
His Japanese voice actor, Kenji Nojima, yeah he’s a good middle ground I’d say, more baritone than bass.
Foreigners learning Russian often speak as a mix of 19th century nobles and 90s mobsters.
Constantly falls down in the classic family guy pose.
Ah, wicked
You tell me which is worse. Speaking no English at all or speaking Howard Cossell?
