I guess the only reason why that seemed unconvincing to me is that I’m not one of those people who can have someone tell me their name, then immediately pronounce it totally wrong, repeatedly. I grew up believing these people were just straight up being racist and making fun of them. I guess it actually does make sense though. Japanese people are largely incapable of pronouncing anything other than Japanese too. Actually of people I have heard trying to replicate a pronunciation after hearing it, with multiple tries, Japanese people may even be the worst. American English speakers just somehow seem offensive when they can’t do it.
I still feel like if it were me I could have retrained my vocal capabilities to be at least 60% as before in a year at worst though. I can’t imagine not being able to pronounce my own name correctly, especially in the case of japanese in any non japanese body. It’s like “Hi I’m Tah-kesh’ee. I’m absolutely truly not a weeb. I’m actually japanese, I swear. It’s just that I can roll my R’s and differentiate them from L’s. Nah Roo Toes? The little spiral fish discs? I love 'em to bits. Oh you met my brother Die Soo Key? Oh no, you pronounced his name right, I just can’t do it because my body is American.”
Fuck I just reminded myself of the three separate times when I was still in school thay we had homestay students named Daisuke. My parents kept calling him dai suki, pronounced fairly close to how a japanese person would pronounce daisuki. It made me die inside every time I saw their facial expression react. Like a hint of “are they trying to demonstrate the japanese words they learned? What a bizarre choice though” that quickly fades to “oh. They meant my name…”
I guess the only reason why that seemed unconvincing to me is that I’m not one of those people who can have someone tell me their name, then immediately pronounce it totally wrong, repeatedly. I grew up believing these people were just straight up being racist and making fun of them. I guess it actually does make sense though. Japanese people are largely incapable of pronouncing anything other than Japanese too. Actually of people I have heard trying to replicate a pronunciation after hearing it, with multiple tries, Japanese people may even be the worst. American English speakers just somehow seem offensive when they can’t do it.
I still feel like if it were me I could have retrained my vocal capabilities to be at least 60% as before in a year at worst though. I can’t imagine not being able to pronounce my own name correctly, especially in the case of japanese in any non japanese body. It’s like “Hi I’m Tah-kesh’ee. I’m absolutely truly not a weeb. I’m actually japanese, I swear. It’s just that I can roll my R’s and differentiate them from L’s. Nah Roo Toes? The little spiral fish discs? I love 'em to bits. Oh you met my brother Die Soo Key? Oh no, you pronounced his name right, I just can’t do it because my body is American.”
Fuck I just reminded myself of the three separate times when I was still in school thay we had homestay students named Daisuke. My parents kept calling him dai suki, pronounced fairly close to how a japanese person would pronounce daisuki. It made me die inside every time I saw their facial expression react. Like a hint of “are they trying to demonstrate the japanese words they learned? What a bizarre choice though” that quickly fades to “oh. They meant my name…”