[MMM]

Originally Posted by IcewindDude

The most critical person on these forums, no doubt.

IcewindDude, I must have done something to offend you, because now it feels like you are following me around and just picking apart my posts.

Originally Posted by IcewindDude

It's hard to begin with how wrong this sounded. What I pretty much heard was, "All you white people can mimic each other and your different accents, but don't mimic another races'." Because there are no other races in those countries with those accents... yeah.

That's not what I said at all, but it is clear you are not reading my posts without some agenda.

Originally Posted by IcewindDude

You consistently say that these things are offensive, but you never say why.

I did explain why a non-Japanese doing a "Japanese accent" would be offensive to Japanese.

Originally Posted by IcewindDude

Also, why would mimicking a western accent not be offensive? This is clearly a double standard with a strong bias.

I am saying there are some accents she could get away with and some she couldn't. Yes, that is a double standard. If she did a cowboy accent it would be fine, but a Japanese accent would be offensive. It's not my standard though, it's the way it is.

Originally Posted by IcewindDude

Do you believe that no other language is held with pride by other people besides the Japanese? Why would they not be offended in the same situation? Why would anyone be offended at all? This is not some bad comedy skit mocking a race, it's the recognition of the blending of sounds of separate languages.

Are you serious? Like I said before, there is no right way to do a Japanese accent that wouldn't be offensive. I said nothing about "no other language" and there are probably hundreds of cultures that would be offended if a non-native took their "accent" and imitated it on stage. What makes Japanese even worse though is there is a history of racism specifically against the Japanese in America, and a history of mocking in movies and cartoons, especially during wartime. When you choose a historically oppressed people as the target of attention (the Japanese), take an aspect of the culture that has been used to oppress (their accent) and showcase it on stage, that is offensive.

Originally Posted by IcewindDude

To the TC, you can easily find some native Japanese speaker speaking English on youtube or something. The accent is quite often very thick and hard to understand. Also, because they are "essentially homogeneous society from an island country", their accent is not very recognizable. Also, it sounds bad (stuffy, blended, completely missing some sounds) to the western ear due to the limited sounds from Japanese as well as the lack of exposure to westerners. For this reason, I'd go for a more accepted accent like German, Spanish, ect. which are far more recognizable and still have the diverse sounds of English.

Dude, if you can comfortably write those bolded sentences it's no wonder you don't understand what I am talking about.