Quote:
Originally Posted by Crownedinterror
But while laughing? You don't laugh in English? And she studied in US. I don't think she wasn't confident about her English skill level.
|
From the flip side, I did Japanese and psychology in university and had to spend a week observing social behavior, I really noticed that people have a different 'voice' for Japanese than they do for English. They even alter their body language. Some of the blokey geezers softened their tone and evened it out, they don't square up with their shoulders as much, especially if talking to girls. A couple of guys who were normally flat-toned and dead-pan would start exaggerating stresses in sentences and use their eyes a lot more. Perhaps not direct eye-contact, but when asking answering a question they would do overt 'thinking eyes', when asking questions, they would do overt 'i'm puzzled' eyes. I don't see why these little changes couldn't also apply to laughing, although I have to say, it does sound like in your particular scenario she might have been forcing it a little. But you never know, it might have been to try and smooth the conversation; false laughter is pretty common in conversation, perhaps you just noticed it more because you were already ticked off and suspicious about her sincerity.
And finally some people deliberately change their voice. I do; I speak slightly higher pitched in Japanese; I don't think its forced, I think for girls Japanese always does generally sound slightly higher than English and if I use my rounded, deeper-pitched 'english voice' in Japanese (I have a certain accent that exacerbates the trait), well *ahem* I've been told it's kind of sexy. Amusing in the right situation, maybe, but highly embarrassing if people can't hear your words, only the tone and you're talking to the 7-11 cashier. Or someone else's man.