Quote:
Originally Posted by capt_noonie  I CANNOT roll my R's. No matter how often I try to speak the little spanish I know. Just can't do it.
Japanese people have a really difficult time with R's also. It' comes out like an L. Like they cannot say refrigerator. |
Yes...lol I studied Spanish thru high school and we had to practice all that stuff...the exact sounds...in front of the class...lol...but I had no use for it for many, many years. I think I mentioned in an earlier post that due to backgrounds, some sounds can be very difficult for some people. It's funny that you mentioned the pronunciation of "L" which comes out like for a lot of Japanese people. I used to deal with many Japanese people and frequently. Other countries, too...we had overseas branches. They would come to the USA with presentations for our company...we worked closely with many Japanese companies. I have a photocopy of an overhead transparency where they spelled "electronics" on the slide as "erectronics"...we were good friends with them so got to tease them friendly-like over that one...lol
I don't know if anyone remembers it but there was a plane shot down supposedly over 'the wrong' air space in about '85. One of our Japanese friends was on that plane...we rushed things to make sure he would not miss his flight. We were horrified when we heard the news that his plane was shot down. I treasure the gifts he and the others brought me.