all smiling death

I've always put the stress in the middle.

I was just educated by a sushi chef in Osaka, so right now I'm the headphones wanker of sushi. He was very polite, he just said it back to me, properly, twice, I repeated, he nodded and smiled, and then sliced up said sashimi like a fly mofo.

adkm wrote:

I was just educated by a sushi chef in Osaka, so right now I'm the headphones wanker of sushi. He was very polite, he just said it back to me, properly, twice, I repeated, he nodded and smiled, and then sliced up said sashimi like a fly mofo.

Ask him how he pronounces haggis, battered mars bar and a can of irn bru, then you can correct him, the pompous twat.

Anyway, ittadakimasu

That seems thoroughly and cheaply attainable. Trouble is, then you have to play a bunch of DOTA and shit.

Could you not just buy the mice, and use them for Excel?

With Japanese though it's a matter of different stress patterns. When we see a Japanese word written we assign stress to a particular syllable, in line with English words, whereas they stress each syllable equally.

It therefore makes sense when communicating with other (native) English speakers to use the English version, just to be understood more easily. Unless you want to teach everyone Japanese first.

Do you also say Ned-er-lands?

And why do we call it Germany? Has it always been Deutschland natively or is it a relatively new name?

JonB wrote:

With Japanese though it's a matter of different stress patterns. When we see a Japanese word written we assign stress to a particular syllable, in line with English words, whereas they stress each syllable equally.

It therefore makes sense when communicating with other (native) English speakers to use the English version, just to be understood more easily. Unless you want to teach everyone Japanese first.

Yep, which is why I disagree with everyone pronouncing foreign words foreign, it's just harder to be understood, even if you've done your research on the local language and accent before pronouncing a place name.

It's fun trying. OooSAkah!

It's worth mentioning here that people from Egypt call their home country El Masry. Using that name with a native English speaker means that either the person you're talking to won't know where you're referring to or you'll have to explain every time you use the term, which is more likely to come across as pretentious than anything else.

There are basic pronunciation changes that are fine but expecting English speakers to do a French or Spanish r for example would be unfair. Ay instead of ee is ok though.

I learnt how to say Ghibli a few weeks ago, it's pretty much nothing like the English version at all, more like Shi bu ri. On the whole, I find that the easiest way to pronounce foreign words correctly is by trying to say them in their accent. In fact, when speaking to someone foreign, whether in English or their language, you're more easily understood if you put on their accent, the cheesier the better as It's emphasises the differences you'll get wrong thinking in English.