Ken Tanaka Meets A Japan-Raised Caucasian

Ken Tanaka’s art show, previously mentioned here on the Probe, has come to an end, but he made a special friend on the last day…
I must admit, I was a bit disappointed that we didn’t get a comparison of English accents, but what do you think of their Japanese?

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Contributor Bio: Claytonian studies the Nihongoes in Saitama and blogs about Japan, language, and news at The Hopeless Romantic.
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21 comments - What do you think? Posted by Claytonian - May 14, 2009 at 4:40 pm

Categories: General Japan Tags:

ponta

David-san’s Japanese is perfect.

pixel_bomber

Seemed like Ken’s fake accent was a little off in this clip. Sounded a little too American in a couple of parts.

Ryry

I agree. Maybe he’s getting lazy.

TofuUnion

Being myself as a Japanese, I find David-san might speak even better Japanese than I do… So Ken’s Japanese doesn’t sound as good as David-san’s one.

But Ken’s English is so weird that I hardly can imagine his accent is a fake. ( I guess my English is more accent-free.)

pixel_bomber

“But Ken’s English is so weird that I hardly can imagine his accent is a fake.”

It’s just an act, check out some early David Ury to see him before he invented the Ken Tanaka character.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kktnfg2Xs70

lmshea

Act – I hope; but either way he still sounds like a complete idiot. It’s embarrasing, and any Japanese person practicing English by listening to him is going to sound like a fool.
kanoe81

He also appears in the movie Shoot ‘Em Up at the end. Terrible movie, but it’s totally him. No accent either.

http://witzl.blogspot.com/ Mary Witzl

My kids would get a kick out of meeting these guys. Ken Tanaka strikes me as a phony, but the other guy’s mannerisms seemed like the real deal. I can’t comment on his accent — I don’t trust my judgment.
elle

Act or otherwise, the David guy seemed genuine. I was really glad to hear that he didn’t get bullied in Japan at all, despite being “different”. I have to say I wasn’t so lucky, but under very different circumstances..

Being a “half” and brought up in England, I came up against some brick walls within the Japanese community. Some nasty things were said to me. I wonder whether it was the “half” issue or being in England that made them less accepting. I’ll never know.

Bob

Ken Tanaka is a genius. It’s very important that people in the
Far East understand that, regardless of their cultural opacity,
there are some very smart people in the West who grasp asian psychology, and use that comprehension to advance their own agenda.

http://www.ieatmypigeon.wordpress.com Liv

I’m fascinated by this issue but am relieved to learn that Ken Tanaka is just a character; my accent judgment isn’t off, then! I’m also glad to hear that David wasn’t bullied. I can’t imagine what it must like to be thought of as a foreigner in your own home, though.
pixel_bomber

I dunno guys I think David has a sort of guilt by association going on. I suspect he is just a guy who can speak Japanese very well. Maybe he has not developed a great fake accent so didn’t want to speak in English. But if Ken says the guys is just like him them doesn’t that make them both actors?
ダビ

Hah that was cool. Genuine Japanese person Japanese coming out of a caucasian mouth.
weirdo

David’s Japanese is clearly much more natural than Ury’s in this video. Though, Ury could’ve probably fooled me if he never spoke japanese.
green

David Ury was in a couple of recent episodes of “Breaking Bad.” (Great tv show on AMC, btw.) He played a junkie.

http://www.victorymanual.com Alex

He also played a small role in a recent episode of Heroes as Mohinder Suresh’s ex-landlord.

Buster

I was climbing Mt. Fuji some years ago, when I came back I saw like 6 7-11 year old white children with a two Japanese teachers (or whatever), all speaking fluent and I daresay perfect Japanese.
RMilner

There are plenty of children of international marriages who have been brought up bilingually and can speak perfectly colloquially in Japanese and another native tongue.
http://colininjapan.com Colin

Now, thinking back on my potentially deleted comment, I realize how it could’ve been negatively interpreted. Maybe it wasn’t deleted and I just never commented with it in the first place. Hmm…

Well, it makes me die a little bit inside with jealousy when i see white people speak perfect Japanese.
Joe

David says he cant speak English but he can clearly understand it, i know people that can only understand English but they still no how to speak something in English. David says he cant? fake?
ed

I lived in Japan, I loved it and the people, but unfortunately, part of Japanese culture is an arrogance of that culture. There is no reason for surprise a white person raised in Japan would speak Japanese any differently than anyone else.

Ken Tanaka Meets A Japan-Raised Caucasian

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