I found this article at k5 to be rather entertaining.
One point though (and the author touched on this a little bit) is the distinction between talking like a woman or talking like a man. Japanese can be complex. But seriously. If you’ve got a Japanese girlfriend, for the love of God don’t let her teach you how to speak Japanese! I don’t know how many friends I’ve had that would try to impress me with their Japanese and in the end, I would just end up laughing. If you want to speak that way, that is cool. If not, then learn how to speak for a guy.
Another point (which the author did touch on), is tone. Tone makes a world of difference in Japanese. It’s the same in english too, but more so in Japanese. A good example perhaps is speaking like Yakuza. They have the gutteral, deep sounding tone. (I know this is stereotypical, but it’s just about true!) They also use different variation of words. Kinda like how people in different areas speak a different dialect. There is a Yakuza dialect ya know.
But alas, that is not the point of that article. I’d have to give that article +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1. It made me laugh. :coolcheese:
