Dec 26, 2024 Salon
Guests:
K-san, A-san, J-san
Discussion Content:
First, K and A arrived together. A had a name tag on her bag that said both her name and the name of her Japanese pub. The tag was made out of wood, and when she said “wood” it sounded like just “ood”, so we talked about the pronunciation of words that begin with “woo”, such as wood, wool, woosh, woof, etc.
They hadn’t heard the word “woosh” before, so I explained that it’s used to describe something moving quickly. Then, purely by coincidence, I showed them a video of my wife making a latte art design, and in the video I actually used the word “woosh” to describe the final movement of my wife’s hand when making the design.
Just then, J also arrived, and I explained to him what we had been talking about so far. When I talked about the word “woosh”, J mentioned that in his work he often uses sound effects, and “woosh” is one of the categories of sounds. It is used for such things as a sword moving through the air, etc.
J then talked about “Foley”, which is the art of reproducing everyday sound effects that are added to films, games and TV shows. He said the sounds are usually exaggerated to increase the effect, and are used to replace the real object, which can be too expensive or difficult to obtain (such as weapons, etc), depending on the budget of the film.
For some reason which I can’t remember, J mentioned in Japanese the word “chuusei” (中世), and I said that in English we usually refer to that as the “medieval” period”, but you can also say “The Middle Ages”, which is closer to the Japanese word, and so may be easier to remember for Japanese people.
K then mentioned how the term “Middle Ages” could be confused with “middle-aged” (中年), which is true, as there’s only a one-letter difference, so it can be tricky to remember.
J then said that one of the things he finds “tricky” with English is to recognize the difference between the words “can” and “can’t”, when spoken with an American-English accent. (When spoken with a British-English accent they are pronounced completely differently and are thus easy to distinguish).
In most situations, it’s clear from the context and intonation, and I gave some examples of these, but there are times when you would have to ask the speaker to clarify. To do this, simply ask them, “Sorry, but did you say ‘can’ or ‘cannot’?”.
K then mentioned one time when she was in the USA, she said the word “horse”, but the American lady couldn’t understand her. However, when I heard Kanami say “horse”, it was perfectly clear, so we worked out that the American lady, who was in her seventies and from the state of Kentucky, was probably used to only hearing “horse” pronounced with a Kentucky accent.
I then mimicked a Kentucky accent, and K laughed and said it sounded really nostalgic, just like when she used to live there.
I then showed everyone a couple of photos I took of the sunrise that morning, and then J showed us a photo he took of a sunset that also showed the Skytree tower in Tokyo and Mount Fuji in a direct line. J said he can see them both from his apartment, which is on the 9th floor. Apparently, there is a direct line between Mount Fuji, Skytree, Inzai City, and then a famous temple here in Chiba.
Useful phrases:
woosh
Foley (sound effects)
gravel
exaggerated
budget
ancient times
medieval times
The Middle Ages
middle-aged
tricky
can vs can’t pronunciation