MovieChat Forums > L: Change the World Discussion > My ears hurt whenever they speak 'Engris...

My ears hurt whenever they speak 'Engrish' lol.....

posted 16 years ago by bboy_vmax
27 replies | jump to latest

One thing I hate about asian cinema is when the actors
try to speak in English and try to pass
it off as a coherent, back-and-forth conversation,
but clearly sound like
they are just reciting the written dialogue from the scripts.
The delivery, the tone, the accent, and the inflection
is way off and so instead of hearing them speak
proper English, it sounds choppy and awkward.

You mean to tell me that they couldn't find
any single Japanese actors/tresses who speaks fluent, clear English?

I remember watching a Korean movie called "My Tutor Friend"
where the tutor started to criticize the main character because
of his lazy attitude during study,
then he got angry and started speaking "Engrish" out of the blue (because
in the story, he studied English overseas)...
he's like "Uh-kaaan-deww-it...shuddafaaakkup!" (I can do it, shut the *beep* up!) lol

[–] DDFB2UK 16 years ago

One thing I hate about people trying to review asian cinema is when
they try to speak in English and try to pass it off as a coherent back-and-forth conversation but clearly sound like they failed to get a passing grade in their own native language they are just reciting the written dialogue from the scripts given to them by their fellow klan members and at no point looks at sentence paragragh structure and contains hardly any Punctuation

You mean to tell me that they couldn't find
a single western actors/tresses who speaks fluent, clear Japanese/Cantonese/Mandarin/Thai/Korean?

I remember watching an American movie called "Breakfast at Tiffany's"
where this white guy with tried to sound Oriental but came out as a rascist undertone to the film LAUGHOUTLOUD.

You people make me laugh, let us see you try and speak two completely different Language structures. Before you comeback with a retort, I speak English first, Polish, French, a bit of German and a fair bit of Japanese.

\(^o^)/ "Flying Man!" Says Symbol Hiro.

[–] bboy_vmax 16 years ago

What's the matter, can't stand to hear the "tlooth", poser?

[–] DDFB2UK 16 years ago

Call me what you will but I'm calling you on your message for being so close-minded and actually bordering on rascist post just as this last one of yours.

\(^o^)/ "Flying Man!" Says Symbol Hiro.

[–] TheBeardedWonder 15 years ago

Hahaha, man you were just looking for something to cry about weren't you? The 1st post wasn't racist at all, and 2nd was a joke on you for being such a big cry baby.

It's not like the OP came here and said 'every Asian person is terrible at 'engrish' and are dumb because they can't speak it' or something. He came here with a valid OPINION, backed it up with a specific, and that was that. Go tampon on someone else DDF...

And I agree with the OP. When it's so awful that you can't tell what they're saying in English because they obviously don't speak it, yes, it can take you out of the movie for a moment...

"Andrew, we can't possibly be dead. We have cable." - Nothing

[–] helene-troy 15 years ago

Hey Al

Complaining again about the American Language? :)
I thought it was Englisch what is the American language MR Yankee?
Read some History and i had a look at your profile,hahaaha you posted 760 reply's
So you are yust Hillarious,hahaaha ,Boy get a LIFE,hahahaha :):):)

[–] TheBeardedWonder 15 years ago

Sorry, but I have no idea what half of that post means. I'd clarify some of what I said, but I don't know which part confused you.

"I thought it was Englisch what is the American language MR Yankee? "
-What. Does. That. Mean?

"Read some History and i had a look at your profile,hahaaha you posted 760 reply's "
-Haha, OK, fascinating. 760 divided by the 5 years i've been a member is about .41 posts a day. Not even a whole post every day, not even HALF a post a day. Or was that too much math for you to figure out? Spend more time learning the English language and less time stalking me, please, for everyone's benefit.

"So you are yust Hillarious,hahaaha ,Boy get a LIFE,hahahaha :):):) "
-Says the person on the internet who I can't even understand...

"Andrew, we can't possibly be dead. We have cable." - Nothing

[–] helene-troy 15 years ago

Hahaha Reply number 766 :)

Haha, OK, fascinating. 760 divided by the 5 years i've been a member is about .41 posts a day. Not even a whole post every day, not even HALF a post a day.
now you even are Apologising to me,LOL

and less time stalking me, please, for everyone's benefit.

It's not stalking,LOL,I yust where Wondering Who is this Smartass?
And don't blame me,you got no life,Butt WTF its a free world so get nacked and post another Reply,hahaahha

I enjoy your reactions,thx again :)

[–] TheBeardedWonder 15 years ago

I think we're done here. You can't speak English that well, then make things up about what I said, then comment on what you made up. You speak English so poorly, you literally don't even know what i'm saying, but still try to comment back on it.

As I said, we're done. There's no use arguing with someone who doesn't know the language, it goes nowhere. So, good day maam...

"Andrew, we can't possibly be dead. We have cable." - Nothing

[–] AlexMorgan13 15 years ago

were the actual actors/actresses speaking English or was it dubbed??

[–] bezit 15 years ago

I agree with DDFB2UK.
My opinion is : It is understandable since its not their native language. So ridiculous to read hilarious topic.

[–] taco_of_tragedy 16 years ago

L's english wasn't too bad. F and the others, though? Ugh. But I do appreciate the actors for at least trying.

"Does it make you happy you're so strange?"

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] Tonnie21 16 years ago

Well of course their English isn't gonna be 100% perfect, because they will always maintain their foriegn accent which is really hard to break. Do you honestly believe you will speak every foreign language perfectly simply because you understand the words? HA! I'm studying Japanese and I have to work hard on getting the accent right because no matter how I say the words the understanding is twisted to sh*t due to not having a Japanese accent. So yeah they hurt your ears and I'm 100% certain that you will hurt theirs if you try to speak a foreign language, so grow up.

BTW, I thought L sounded sexy speaking all of those languages.

[–] ChineseRiverCrab 16 years ago

DDFB2UK pwned the OP lol. Good job man!

Did L get his voice dubbed while speaking French? (I think it's french) I dont know french, but it sounds real enough for me. XD

btw I speak mandarin, and not once have I heard a Western actor speak understandable mandarin even when they claim they do. Normally I'll have to read the subtitles and go "ohhh, yea I guess that kinda sounds like it". Also, in Firefly they speak crappy Mandarin all the time. In fact it so bad that even with subtitles I still dont know what they are saying.

So OP, please grow up and stop being ignorant/racist.

Animation I made: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-zjxeWKmzY

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] kasumi_arakara 14 years ago

Maybe I'm just used to the accent and hearing "engrish" but I didn't mind and could understand their English, especially L's since his actor recited all of his lines slower and more pronounced than the other characters. Whenever L spoke English, it was either to communicate to someone who spoke English or to say something that was like a quote, something that needed extra emphasis. I thought it was fitting to sound like it was read because English isn't his dominant language but he's multilingual to solve cases anyway and because he was naming Nate "Near," he used English to explain that it's because the kid will be near when someone needs him, which wouldn't make sense if he explained it in Japanese.

As for Firefly, I thought that was the point to speak that way in mandarin to show how both USA and China are the ruling countries so it's like American kids were required to learn mandarin in school but they aren't expected to sound like a native. Learning mandarin was simply a way to show the connection of countries.

-----------
"I'm assuming that's a joke. I'm ignoring you for time reasons." -Wilbur Robinson

[–] yoyodinepropulsion 13 years ago

There is a good distinction being made here by some...

Jackie Chan for example never speaks "perfect" or even completely fluent English, but I find he has always done a good job of conveying meaning, and I've always felt in his films the conviction behind his words.

A lot of the Asian actors (and not to stereotype, but it seems most often to be Japanese) have this condescending attitude in their movies as their characters casually rip off robotic and awkward-sounding English, yet act as if they are "fluent". Not only is it distracting, but time and again watching movies or shows they act like it is so perfect, when it doesn't even seem like the actors are really even trying.

Toshiro Mifune could barely speak a word of English in his life, and had to recite his lines phonetically in Western films like "Red Sun" yet he was a great actor and somehow made it work. Zhang ZiYi could barely speak English during the "crouching tiger" years, I remember her giving a barely coherent acceptance speech at the MTV movie awarrds, and I am sure struggled with "memoirs of a geisha" but regardless of her overall English speaking ability, but she is a very good actress, and she made it work.

It is like in American films, whenever a character must be another nationality and speak some lines in a different language. Sometimes it just sounds awful, you can tell the actor is bungling it and other times you can tell that they are invested in it.

It is the nature of man to confuse genius with insanity

[–] stu_pot49 16 years ago

You sure havent seen your fair share of Asian Cinema since I know tons of Actresses that speak perfect English not engrish

[–] Ramenbo 15 years ago

There's no excuse for poor English. If it's in the script that the character is fluent, then it's up to the actor to live up to that. It's called being professional.

[–] Ramenbo 15 years ago

And since when is L Japanese? He's supposed to have been raised in England, or whatever. It's just really part of the overall attitude towards English that Japan has, and the scene had subpar acting. It's strange how people are so quick to forgive things like that.

[–] imnotrussian221 15 years ago

I'm pretty sure they weren't meant to be fluent in English, ANY of them.
L is Japanese and was only attempting so that boy, who was from THAILAND, could somewhat understand him. Which I'm almost positive is why F was speaking English to the boy also. It's easier for people who speak two different Asian languages, to attempt English instead of butchering each other's languages and not getting anywhere.

Never argue with an idiot...they drag you down to their level, then beat you with experience.

[–] DevastatinglyMe 15 years ago

Omg. Obviously they won't speak perfect English, shock horror, they are in fact NOT English :]
And ooft whoever it was that said L sounded sexy speaking the other languages - I totally agree :] Yummy L <3

couper ma vie en morceaux que c'est mon dernier recours

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] BB998 15 years ago

wow arent you just the little racist..