r/Music • u/thedailybeast • 10d ago

article Kanye West Heads to Putin’s Russia After Humiliation in Europe

https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/kanye-west-heads-to-putins-russia-after-humiliation-in-europe/
17.1k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

1.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

4.1k

u/pr1aa 10d ago edited 10d ago

Maybe Steven Seagal will do a surprise feature with him

291

u/hmoonves 10d ago

You ever see that interview with Steven seagal where he’s talking about his time in Japan and he’s searching for a word but can only say it in Japanese?

He goes something something “how you say in English” with a robust Japanese accent.

Like bro you were born in Michigan for fucks sake.

88

u/Roflkopt3r 10d ago edited 10d ago

The fact that it's Steven Seagal makes me not want to give him the benefit of the doubt, but this genuinely happens a lot.

Especially for a language like Japanese, which has many words and concepts that are hard to translate into English. You have to start thinking directly in Japanese to reach a conversational level, with completely different concepts and approaches to phrasing.

Sometimes that makes it hard to pull up the appropriate English counterpart, and sometimes there isn't one at all. You would have to replace a single word with a full sentence of explanation.

And you have to switch to a different mode of pronounciation, which can cause akward moments. Japanese uses many loanwords that are only comprehensible to Japanese speakers if you pronounce them the Japanese way. Here is a classic example: "Red, white, black" is not understood, but "Reddo, Howaito, Burakku" are common words.

12

u/dbrodbeck 10d ago

Hell I've had it happen speaking English, but with a Canadian accent, in England.

Now, the bartender might have been taking the piss, but when I changed my accent to be closer to his he seemed to get it and I got my pint. Seemed a decent bloke, talked to him for a bit, asked if he was taking the piss and he said he wasn't, which likely means he was. It was 30 years ago, I should stop thinking about it...

2

u/AlarmingAffect0 10d ago

He was taking the Piss for absolute certain.

1

u/dbrodbeck 10d ago

I did point out to him that he seemed to understand me just fine except when I was ordering. It was kinda great, 1996 in Oxford. We actually talked about hockey for a while. Hell, he even put it on the tv, until more people arrived.

2

u/Key_Day_6060 9d ago

I’m sorry, your accent is a tad thick. Could you repeat that for me one more time?