|
 |
Is anime real Japanese? | ||
Tags: Comic Strip/Cartoon | Japanese | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| irrationale Tetraglot Senior Member China Joined 6051 days ago 669 posts - 1023 votes  2 sounds Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Tagalog Studies: Ancient Greek, Japanese | Message 1 of 27 12 June 2011 at 10:27am | IP Logged | ||||||||
|
I am looking for input from more experienced Japanese users out there as well as native speakers.
Since starting Japanese, I have become dubious to whether anime is good input. After listening to anime and then listening to a Japanese talk show, I can tell that it seems that in general, the style of voices in anime are over-exaggerated, the girls voice especially, different vocab seems to be used (I am not to sure of this but it is my impression), etc. In short, it seems way different to me. This is true as well with video games in Japanese. For example, Genki's voice actors seems to be using the anime style overdone voice. I am sure Japanese people in real life don't sound like this. It is a small detail perhaps, but I am just wondering how deep does the difference go? You may say that it goes the same way with English and English shows like Friends, etc, but it seems that anime has it's own style of voice acting and perhaps vocab that simply isn't real. Since so many people that learn Japanese say that they are listening to anime for practice, it just makes me wonder what kind of input they are getting. Thoughts? Edited by irrationale on 12 June 2011 at 10:29am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6012 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 2 of 27 12 June 2011 at 11:45am | IP Logged | ||||||||
|
Well for a start, anime functions on a different level of politeness from talk shows....
1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Lucky Charms Diglot Senior Member Japan lapacifica.net Joined 6950 days ago 752 posts - 1711 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: German, Spanish | Message 3 of 27 12 June 2011 at 3:22pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
From Khatzumoto's twitter feed:
Whether anime has weird language or not will depend on the series. The ones depicting everyday life will use everyday Japanese. The ones depicting feudal Japan will use (watered-down) Japanese from that era. The ones depicting pre-adolescent girls with magic powers will use over-the-top girly, energetic Japanese, and so on. The Dragonball series uses über-macho Japanese from the 80s, which might get you laughed at if you use it. It really has to do with the content of the show more than the medium itself. Personally, I used to enjoy studying from Master Keaton, an series for adults about an archaeologist's adventures in different countries, and I don't think my Japanese is any worse off for it. The one thing I'd caution against imitating is the melodramatic way emotions tend to be expressed in anime (and dramas and movies). Think along the lines of a low-budget soap opera: "Is there something wrong?" "Well... I mean, n-no! Nothing at all! What makes you think that?" Series targeted toward young boys and young girls (i.e. most of the popular ones) are especially guilty of this. (Think of Ash Ketchum's "I'm gonna be the #1 POKEMON MASTER!!! RIGHT, Pikachu?!" or Sailor Moon's "In the name of the moon, I will punish you!" and you'll get the idea.) It's still authentic Japanese, but just a tad overenthusiastic. I don't think it means you should avoid it altogether.
By "Genki" you mean the textbook series, right? This isn't an "anime voice"; it's the standard Japanese "announcer voice". You'll hear it at the airport, or from your cashier or waitress, or from the MC introducing an event, or for anyone trying to sound formal and professional, but you're right: these people don't speak like this at home with their friends, just like Americans don't walk around speaking like the Pimsleur narrator ("Excuse me, miss. Are you American?") In fact, after I spent a few weeks shadowing the audio for Read Real Japanese Essays and consciously trying to imitate the narrator's speech, I was told by my boyfriend, "You sound ridiculous. Nobody ever walks around talking like a narrator. Just talk like a normal person." I never was told this after shadowing anime ;) Edited by Lucky Charms on 12 June 2011 at 3:26pm 10 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6440 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 4 of 27 12 June 2011 at 3:38pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
|
It depends on the anime. In general, it has a broader range of politeness levels, styles, etc, than talk shows do. Some use archaic vocabulary, very rude speech, or registers appropriate for addressing royalty. Overly cute girls' voices, as you've noticed, are certainly found in some.
You can't really generalize about what kind of input people listening to anime are getting, because it really does vary from anime to anime. At worst, it broadens your awareness of Japanese, but you wouldn't want to imitate it. At best, it's a perfectly usable model. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Luai_lashire Diglot Senior Member United States luai-lashire.deviant Joined 5829 days ago 384 posts - 560 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto Studies: Japanese, French | Message 5 of 27 12 June 2011 at 3:46pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
|
As long as you get input from a lot of different sources, you should be fine. I've had a couple occasions where I
watched anime for 8-12 hours a day for several days and afterward it was incredibly difficult to make myself use the polite form because all I'd been hearing was super-impolite language and slang. After listening to some radio and watching a police drama (where they tend to use formal language a little more often) it was all fine. Actually, varying your input is good for another reason as well- it'll help you learn to differentiate between the type of language used in different mediums and situations, and then you'll KNOW if you sound like an idiot. As for anime being full of "made-up" vocabulary, it's at about the same level as American TV shows. If you're watching a fantasy show for example, you'll get a couple made-up words describing the characters' powers or the names of fantasy species, but it should be easy to distinguish these. Otherwise they use the most casual, informal form of speech, and a LOT of slang, which isn't "fake" Japanese by any means but certainly should not be used in every situation. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5767 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 6 of 27 12 June 2011 at 3:51pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
|
If you compare an anime to a live action TV show that is targeted at the same audience, you will still notice differences in the way language is used. Or maybe you can find interviews and live action roles of a voice actor.
I guess the question isn't whether the language used in anime is 'good', but rather whether you're able to use the caricatures as a place-holder until you learn how a real person would say the same in the same situation. (And then, perhaps, you get the joke.)
I think I have to watch Dragonball now. :D Edited by Bao on 12 June 2011 at 3:54pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Mei190 Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5341 days ago 29 posts - 40 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese | Message 7 of 27 12 June 2011 at 7:01pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
|
What everyone has said is true. As long as you have sources from all different areas it shouldn't matter if you watch some anime. Maybe not reproducing some of the sentences however.
I have never seen Dragonball which is mentioned so cannot comment :D Someone repeating some of Sailor Moon's lines however would make me laugh lots ;) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| cathrynm Senior Member United States junglevision.co Joined 6126 days ago 910 posts - 1232 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Finnish | Message 8 of 27 12 June 2011 at 8:04pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
|
To my ears, anime characters speak relatively clearly compared to normal Japanese who slur and mumble and talk over each other. I think real native speakers, especially when talking to each other, are more difficult to understand.
3 persons have voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
