The Wuthering Heights of Aya Hirano

Actually Jurgen, I'm American and I must agree that in general, we're very bad at speaking our own language, and our education kind of reflects that. American English is very nasally, I recognized that when I had a conversation with a friend who lived in Australia and described the differences. Ever since, I've been doing my best to breathe and speak more like a singer, using my diaphragm just to speak with more power and clarity. Also, there's an aspect of our culture of 'big words' which angers me to no end. As if anything polysyllabic is somehow the mark of an arrogant person because they use words that aren't considered common. There are some who say more complex words just to sound better than everyone else, and usually those are college kids studying for their SATs where they have to learn them all. I just happened to, when I was studying, enjoy the breadth of our language and integrated many of the words.

I have a difficult time respecting my own country a lot of the time these days. A country that calls itself the 'greatest in the world' while using that as a shield to protect itself from taking on its shortcomings is nothing short of pathetic. If we aren't already no longer the 'greatest' in the world, we're well on our path to losing our status if we don't recognize and admit our weaknesses very soon. And yes, our language is actually a symptom of that.

Actually, the American pronunciations are more true to older forms of English. Today, we still talk similar to the way we talked during the Revolutionary War, even with certain dialects and word choices. This was the English in use by the British during that time as well. So, the British changed (the "a" sound to always being like f'a'ther, for example) but American stayed closer to the older form.

Look it up. If Wikipedia says it, it must be true!

@ Anon 6:32

That's not my point, although if true that's a wonderful etymology I'd like to look into. It's not the pronunciations alone, as much as the general respect for the language. Some of my friends mispronounce so many things, and when I just ask 'did you mean *insert correct pronunciation here*' they're always like 'yeah whatever."

There's just a general lack of respect for communication in general, a lack of self-respect in our capabilities of conveying our emotions and expressing what it is we wish to express, and it's leading to the proverbial clusterfuck that America is becoming. One of the things that always struck me were the Civil War letters. There were much fewer schools as we have them now, with widespread availability, but the letters from those young soldiers are exceptional. Granted many of them who fought couldn't read or write at all, but those who could were, in many cases, poets with their words.

It's a mark of someone who doesn't know or respect themselves when they don't have control over what they are saying. Most people are completely unconscious about anything they say, and it shows. People correcting them like dicks are annoying, but why do so few people just ignore the correction either way? Where is the problem of being momentarily embarrassed and saying "Is that the correct way it's said? Whoops!" and moving on. It shows consciousness and thought.

I admit though, the more I see how little people think, it makes it very difficult to not treat them like idiots, which doesn't help the problem anyway. Takes a lot of patience, and sadly it's becoming easier to wear me thin with some people I interact with.

" Their attempts at the American accent often ends in disaster."

Need to agree with this.

the English that the Japanese speak and learn is on the whole american English,and what i've heard confirms this, to me their attempts at English always lean more towards american rather than British, just my two cents,

I agree. North American's use a lot of old English sounds and words too. Garbage is one example, Brits no longer use this word, but the Japanese use British terms, e.g. bonnet and boot (US hood and trunk). They also drive on the left, just like us Brits.

I guess it just depends on who's speaking, nonetheless, I guess that me having to learn how to have a decent accent in English after speaking German my whole life makes it seem different to me. It might also be the difference in the languages, German and English are close enough ( in my opinion ) that it isn't too difficult to imitate whereas Japanese is so different ( again, my opinion ) from English that it may be harder.

colonial dialect lag

Japanese isn't difficult to imitate if you can pronounce syllables clearly (basic).
It's a very flat language, unlike German, which is probably why you're having difficulties.

tho it is kind of high at times, in pitch