Japanese accent

just out of question, i pick up accents pretty easily. I'm going to be in japan for 1 year so I am wondering if I will come back with a Japanese accent or not?

what do you guys think? do many people come back with Japanese accents? Im Australian and I have a pretty neutral accent.

well, when I'm around a place for quite some I tend to pick up their way of speech, And I like doing/speaking with accents

I think that if you speak a language that an accent is needed than you will pick up some of it. I always am told that I have a weird accent, but no one can ever put their finger on it. My bf says it is a British accent but the only british people I have ever talked to was the Queen. I dont know what kind of accent I really have though LOL

I don't think you'll come back with a Japanese accent...but you will start speaking English with Japanese patterns. My mom came to visit for my last three weeks in Japan, and we took the time to do a lot of traveling, which meant I had to serve as translator. She's got a bad habit of trying to hold a conversation with you while you're engaged in something else--it's a big aggravation when I'm on the phone--but it was especially difficult here because I'd be speaking Japanese and listening to her English while waiting for a reply in Japanese from the person I was trying to hold a conversation with. If it was something I'd have to translate for her, a lot of the times I'd have to try three times to get it out in English that she could understand...I'd reverse adjectives and nouns, start a sentence with a direct object, stuff like that. As an added bonus I became less expressive in English because my vocabulary started to drop due to my not hearing it much. I was in Japan for about the same length of time, so I imagine this will happen to you, too.

The best part of the whole thing was that it was only my English that broke down...never my Japanese (at least outside of mistakes I was working to correct). It's an interesting feeling when the skill level in your native language begins to drop....

jonny-mt said:

It's an interesting feeling when the skill level in your native language begins to drop....

Click to expand...

Me native language drop? That unpossible!

I had an experience similar to jonny-mt. After living in Japan for years, I moved back to America. I was told that I had an accent (by people who didn't know me.) The other fascinating thing was that my English grammar and vocabulary had changed! Because I had taught English for years to Japanese people, and had spoken to them in slow, clear English, I had unconsciously picked up that style for English for everyone! One friend said that he thought I had become retarded, because of the funny way I was speaking!!

Don't worry, I was back to my typical fluent English babbling in no time.

thanks for your help guys!!!!!!!! you guys (and wyteanjal because your not a guy) all rock