Thursday, April 19th, 2007

Accent / Natto

The Japanese tell me that my English is very clear and easy to understand. However, I’m a little worried about evidence of a Midlands burr in my accent, which I wasn’t hitherto aware of.

I used the word “bright” — comparing the lighting in a izakaya to a typical British pub. They didn’t understand.

Wateru-san turned to Tamiya-san, looking confused: “Broit”?

Tamiya-san tried: “Hmm, ‘broit’…“.

Blast it, I thought I was Mr RP.

I had grilled fish with a side dish of natto for lunch today. Whenever I’ve had natto in the past it’s been a tiny spoonful dolloped on top of something. This time there was about 200ml. It was yummy though. Hard to pick up with chopsticks, so I poured bits on my rice and brought clumps of natto-loaded rice to my mouth.

Natto natto man! I wanna be a natto man!

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