Foreigners want you to buy a Honda
July 13th, 2009 by James
And they’re using awkward English to tell you so:
(Note: “ECOCAR GENZEI” = a tax reduction for buying an environmentally friendly car.)
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Awkward English doesn’t matter to the domestic market, any more than awkward French, or Yoruba, or Laotian.
The actors were probably chosen primarily on looks. Their accents sound a bit strange, I don’t think they are native English speakers.
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“Wow! This is the new Stream”
“Looks cool!”
“And it’s EcoCar Genzei!”
Uhm, where’s the “awkward English” in that? They just have accents, is all, but RMilner was 100% correct. No one here really listens, anyway.
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Odds are the blonde is a Russian model…they have flooded the market
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looks like the chick from That 70’s Show
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I want to buy a Honda!
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Uhm, where’s the “awkward English” in that?
“And it’s EcoCar Genzei!” = “And it’s tax reduction!”
jmadsen, have you been in Japan so look you’re forgetting natural English? Let’s Engrish with me!
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DC,
that’s not awkward English, that’s what you get when you blend the two languages together into Japanese-English Marketing Speak.
To be awkward English, it has to be English in the first place.
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Why cant they ever use people who speak English with a proper accent.
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Perhaps it was intentional.
Maybe they wanted to use models that looked European rather than American or British.
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If there was even a .5% chance that Honda’s ad department could tell the difference between proper English and garbled crap, then maybe I would believe they intentionally hired Eastern Europeans to be their foreigners.
But they have no idea.
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It’s not garbled crap. It’s well-pronounced English with a European accent.
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i dont really care, but she makes it sound like “newstream” rather than “new stream”
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because native English speakers cost more than some other foreigner having a hard time make end meet as an “English teacher” or otherwise.
BTW, she aint even cute.
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There’s no such thing as a “proper” English accent. If there was, all the Australians, Americans and Canadians, etc. would all be speaking it wrong.
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ok, a Native sounding english accent
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But they are!
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“There’s no such thing as a “proper” English accent. If there was, all the Australians, Americans and Canadians, etc. would all be speaking it wrong.”
And if there were, others might be writing it wrongly.
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It’s not the accent, it’s the delivery. That woman sounds like she has no idea what she’s saying.
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I’m a foreigner and I approve this car commercial. Buy a car. I want you to.
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Why would Japanese people want a Mini Van? With a ever shrinking birthrate it’s not like they have a bus load of kids to haul around. You’d think the Mini Cooper would be a better sale.
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Yeah of course Vonskippy. An experienced company like Honda has decided to spend a lot of money on manufacturing / advertising a new range of vehicles that nobody wants to buy.
Have you always been so stupid?
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It’S not so awkward, and the accent is not so bad. I’Ve seen and heard much worse.
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