Oct 31, 2024 Salon
Guests:
K-san, J-san
Discussion Content:
K was the only one for a while (J came later), and she said that A can’t come. I checked her pronunciation of “can’t” and said she should use the British English pronunciation, because it’s easier to tell the difference between “can” and “can’t”, since “can’t” sounds like “karn’t”.
However, even within Britain, there are some people who will pronounce “can” like “karn” (eg Scottish accent), so it can be very tricky for English learners.
K then mentioned how she had trouble with the Kentucky accent when she was living in America. I found a man on YouTube speaking with a Kentucky accent, and when he said “side to side”, it sounded like “sad to sad”. K said when she spoke to a woman from California it was so much easier to understand her. Kanami thought her English listening ability had suddenly improved a lot.
Just then, J arrived, and after I told him what we are talking about, and also played him the video of the man from Kentucky, J talked about “diversity” and how we need to accept diversity but it can sometimes be difficult.
For example, he said, these days there are a lot of telephone scammers calling from India, and so some people will associate an Indian accent with a scammer.
Another example for him was seeing Chinese people on the train in Beijing just letting their child urinate inside the train. Apparently, this could be a common thing for people from the Chinese countryside areas.
I agreed, and said that the human brain automatically discriminates based on past experiences, and said another example of this is Middle-Eastern people being associated with terrorism.
K spoke about the example of people with tattoos, and said an American mother was angry with her son for getting a tattoo because she thought it would make it hard for him to become a doctor. In Japan, tattoos have always been associated with the Yakuza, but overseas it depends on the person and the type of tattoo.
K said her mother was angry when K got her ears pierced. She said “Don’t damage your body!”.
J then talked about cosmetic surgery (also sometimes called “plastic surgery”), and told us about a Korean couple who both had cosmetic surgery to make themselves look more attractive, but then when they had children, the children did not look like the parents.
We wondered what would happen in the future. Sometimes cosmetic surgery can end up making the face look unusual over time.
Useful phrases:
side to side
diversity
accept diversity
a scam
a scammer
The Middle -East
discriminate
brain
pee (urinate)
cosmetic surgery
plastic surgery