But this is too funny:
http://www.engrish.com/image/engrish/offrimits.jpg

LMAO- Me rikey very much!

I love the URL (though it gave me a 500 error.)

Originally posted by med_mx6
But this is too funny:
http://www.engrish.com/image/engrish/offrimits.jpg

Ok, PEARLAND, TX. Where in the hell is that? South of Deliverance, west of Wrong Turn? LOL.

I, too, hate to perpetuate stereotypes.

Heh, reminds me of a caption I saw in Circus magazine years ago (Heavy Metal mag) regarding a Japanese band called "Loudness".

The caption was "Lock and Loll with Roudness!".

shift_zoom8:
Ok, PEARLAND, TX. Where in the hell is that? South of Deliverance, west of Wrong Turn? LOL.

I, too, hate to perpetuate stereotypes.

Pearland is Houston. Lot of rocket science going on in dem dar woods.


Houston/Pearland/Baytown link:
http://www.gulfimagesphoto.com/motorsports.html

thats wong opps wrong haha:)

LOL..I, myself being asian don't understand it either....why asians with accents seem to mix the "r" and "l" letters...i've asked my parents, and they're just like, i don't know... so neither do i...shrug

Originally posted by strong bad
LOL..I, myself being asian don't understand it either....why asians with accents seem to mix the "r" and "l" letters...i've asked my parents, and they're just like, i don't know... so neither do i...shrug

Japanese speakers don't "mix" the R and L sounds...they just have trouble pronouncing L's. The reason for this is that there is no L sound in Japanese. So someone who grew up hearing and speaking only Japanese simply never learned how to pronounce an L sound. The R is the closest sound they have.

It is not a speech "impediment" -- I've heard native Japanese speakers who have learned English well who are able to pronounce the L.

I mean I don't know if Literatii was joking, but based on his post...it seemed that the japanese captions did mix the R and L...and my nationality is chinese and taiwanese, and both my parents as well as my friend's parents DO mix em from time to time...so I'm just saying, ya know? and by the way, it's not ALL of the R's and ALL of the L's...it seems to be only with certain words that they do it...

And whoever said anything about a speech impediment? I said accent... totally different. I figure if you've lived somewhere long enough, then move to a foreign country, it's near IMPOSSIBLE to eliminate the accent from your speech when speaking in that language. I mean my parents have been in the states for about 38 years...and my mom's got pretty good vocabulary and stuff...but she's got a very noticeable accent (to go with the R/L thing). It's just the way it'll be most of the time...

ROFLMAO

Actually I wasn't joking ;)

When I was in the US, americans made fun of my canadian "accent".

Them: "Hey -- say out and about!"

Me: "Out and about!"

Them: "Hahaha!"

Originally posted by Literatii
Me: "Out and about!"


You mean: Me: "Oot and aboot!" It's a regular riot. If you ever watch the South Park movie the entire UN breaks up laughing at the Canadian delegate and they keep asking him to say that. Even like the Ethiopian diplomats, etc. think its way funny.

Thank you for the laughs boys!

"Me rikey very much" is classic. LOL

Originally posted by HIX8
Pearland is Houston. Lot of rocket science going on in dem dar woods.


Houston/Pearland/Baytown link:
http://www.gulfimagesphoto.com/motorsports.html

You're telling me. Lot's of swamps and alligators and weirdass stuff. If it weren't for downtown Houston and that mall with the skating rink, Houston would just be Louisiana swampland where it's not just white trash but rather mutant white trash. I mean this is beyond Tennessee and Alabama. Those mutant cannibals in Wrong Turn just WOULD NOT die.

Originally posted by strong bad
LOL..I, myself being asian don't understand it either....why asians with accents seem to mix the "r" and "l" letters...i've asked my parents, and they're just like, i don't know... so neither do i...shrug

Please allow me to explain. Infants from any culture are able to receive and process phonemes (one syllable sounds in a language) of ALL languages even if those phonemes do not exist in the infant's own-culture language. Around age six or seven, this biological window is constrained or closed so that the individual's brain only processes those phonemes it has commonly experienced up to that point (phonemes in the immediate surroundings, which usually are those of the native language). Those phonemes are believed to be represented and categorized in physical (certain brain structures) and cognitive space.

When a Japanese adult who does not ordinarily encounter L sounds hears someone speak an L sound, his/her brain does not process that phoneme as an L because his/her brain does not contain a representation for it. One could hypothesize that the person's brain might not hear anything or "hear" something similar that IS represented in the person's brain. The latter is what actually happens, which leads to the question: What is the most similar sound? The most similar sound is simply the phoneme that resides closest to the foreign phoneme on the physical and cognitive spatial map. In Japanese natives, the phoneme R is closest to the phoneme L.

Amazingly, it seems that you can't SAY something correctly if you can't first HEAR it correctly. That's why people born deaf sound like crap. That's also why white people butcher Asian languages beyond belief. If only native English speakers could become aware of how incredibly stupid they sound trying to speak Chinese or German, aware that they might even sound more stupid than an Asian person trying to speak English. Of course, they do not and the reason for this is another phenomenon that I call "the egocentric brain," but one bedtime story is enough for now.

Originally posted by strong bad
I mean I don't know if Literatii was joking, but based on his post...it seemed that the japanese captions did mix the R and L...and my nationality is chinese and taiwanese, and both my parents as well as my friend's parents DO mix em from time to time...so I'm just saying, ya know? and by the way, it's not ALL of the R's and ALL of the L's...it seems to be only with certain words that they do it...

And whoever said anything about a speech impediment? I said accent... totally different. I figure if you've lived somewhere long enough, then move to a foreign country, it's near IMPOSSIBLE to eliminate the accent from your speech when speaking in that language. I mean my parents have been in the states for about 38 years...and my mom's got pretty good vocabulary and stuff...but she's got a very noticeable accent (to go with the R/L thing). It's just the way it'll be most of the time...

If you read my previous post, then you'll be able to explain your parents. They came over here or first learned English after the biological "window" transition at age six or seven.

If you have a bunch of siblings of various ages, you can even observe a gradation among you and your siblings. Siblings who came over BEFORE six or seven speak English perfectly but older siblings who came over AFTEr six or seven don't.

And of course, learning grammar rules or vocab has nothing to do with the biological transition (that has to do with the phonemes your brain can process).

That's why I like the RX8. It's doesn't discriminate. It doesn't give a rat's ass who the hell you are.

Originally posted by strong bad
LOL..I, myself being asian don't understand it either....why asians with accents seem to mix the "r" and "l" letters...i've asked my parents, and they're just like, i don't know... so neither do i...shrug

Ok, Im Chinese. I speak Cantonese (badly) but my english is perfect.. Im an ABC.. Here's the explanation from my point of view. In Cantonese there a the "L" sound is very very prevalent.. and there is no "R" sound.. but in Mandarin the "L" sound is replaced by the "R" sound.. Anyway thats what I get out of the 3 years of Mandarin I took in college.

Originally posted by shift_zoom8
If only native English speakers could become aware of how incredibly stupid they sound trying to speak Chinese or German, aware that they might even sound more stupid than an Asian person trying to speak English. Of course, they do not and the reason for this is another phenomenon that I call "the egocentric brain," but one bedtime story is enough for now.
good game, shift_zoom8. I totally agree with you on this. That's why it totally irks me when none-native Asian speakers "pretend" to speak an Asian language. For example, when Shaq "pretended" to taunt Yao Ming. To me, that's totally unforgiveable. Shaq is a role model to many, and for him to "mock" the langauge did not make me happy... other examples: Andy Rooney's character in Breakfast at Tiffany's, or that stupid landlord in Brooke Shields' old sit-com "Suddenly Susan", the list goes on... but as shift_zoom8 said, "one bedtime story is enough for now"

Your explanation re: phonemes is also quite interesting. I don't know the Japanese language at all, but I know Mandarin Chinese pretty good-like. (hahaha) There is definitely an "L" phoneme in Mandarin, but my parents (who have lived in the States for 30+ years) still have quite a bit of trouble with their "L"s and "R"s, but as strong_bad said, it's only some of the R's and some of the L's.

to me, the brain is way too complicated (and fascinating) to understand...

P.S. Just to clear up any ambiguity, the picture is NOT one that I took, nor is it a car in Pearland. The funny thing about Pearland is that it shoulda been called Appleland, since I believe I read somewhere that back when Pearland was founded there were more apple trees growing than pear trees. TMI, huh?

ouch...that's funny...you say that about native english sounding stupid speaking chinese or German...

I am a mix of German and Italian, born in Augsburg, Germany and moved, (before age six) to US. I grew up speaking all three languages and still do to this day...I carry no accent at all even though growing up primarily in the SouthEast (thank god), except for a few years in Coronado, CA. I don't usually take offense to things at all but you calling me stupid for trying to speak a diff languange, that is ...well stupid; i do consider myself a native english speaker since that is what i mainly converse in except when around either side of my family. I have been to both Germany and Italy and have never had anyone ask or been able to tell i am from somewhere else...So as far as your stupid comment, makes you look pretty stupid...

OK, I think we've had enough of people throwing around the word "stupid" at each other here...

Originally posted by XeRo
ouch...that's funny...you say that about native english sounding stupid speaking chinese or German...

I am a mix of German and Italian, born in Augsburg, Germany and moved, (before age six) to US. I grew up speaking all three languages and still do to this day...I carry no accent at all even though growing up primarily in the SouthEast (thank god), except for a few years in Coronado, CA. I don't usually take offense to things at all but you calling me stupid for trying to speak a diff languange, that is ...well stupid; i do consider myself a native english speaker since that is what i mainly converse in except when around either side of my family. I have been to both Germany and Italy and have never had anyone ask or been able to tell i am from somewhere else...So as far as your stupid comment, makes you look pretty stupid...

Did I really call you stupid for trying to speak a different language?

And so the semantics game begins. What I wrote above perfectly explains multi-lingual people like you. You understand what I wrote. I understand that you understand what I wrote. So why act like you don't understand what I wrote? Are you stupid?

You understand that when I wrote "native English speaker," I meant people who ONLY speak English or English speakers who do not speak Chinese or German.

What I wrote doesn't sound stupid at all. You know that. And you know that I know you know that.

sorry I misunderstood...no worries...you don't need to be a prick about it...but it is a world wide consensus that English is the hardest languange to learn...mainly because there are so many damn meanings for one word and all the funky letters that are silent and blah blah blah...my wife's a second grade teacher and looking at the crap they teach these kids, "phonics", I mean I got confused trying to figure this stuff out..and I speak English fine...

my point being...I have no problem with anyone trying to speak any language..sure there are american's, especially when I was in college as an aid to the German professors for 1st and 2nd level courses, that completely butcher the language especially when they have a southern US accent (whatever that's called..anyway point being I find it flattering that someone cares enough to try and learn to speak with me and my heritage with our own language...sure there are times it's hilarious when people try to speak but it's all fun..why get pissed off about what someone sounds like, you should be glad someone gives a shit about who you are and where you come from enough to "try" and converse with you on your own level...that includes american's and other ethnicities...that's the problem with this world....everyone thinks they are better than the next...