Making Japanese Music Sound Like English
Recently I introduced you guys to some non-Japanese videos that sound like Japanese when you add Japanese subtitles to them. I realized a slight issue with everyone appreciating them in that they only sound Japanese if you are really fluent and you can truly associate the nearness of certain sounds with other languages. So I think some of the hilarity may have gotten lost.
But how about the opposite?
What about a Japanese music group that is purposely trying to make a song in Japanese sound like English. I’m not talking about just forcefully sticking in a bunch of katakana English loan words. That would be too easy. I’m talking about a song that uses only pure Japanese words yet still sounds like English.
Can’t be done? Or can it?
Hear and judge for yourself:
風鈴買いに行こう (Let’s go buy wind chimes)
– Song starts at 5:16
Convinced? Sounds like English?
幅(はば)ないっすね!
Founder of Jalup. iOS Software Engineer. Former attorney, translator, and interpreter. Still watching 月曜から夜ふかし weekly since 2013.
I can’t hear what English phrases it’s supposed to sound like at all. Maybe the listening immersion is doing its job?
You kind of have to go out of your way to try to figure out what it is trying to sound like in English.
はばないっすね = Have a nice day…I feel stupid.
Don’t feel bad. It actually takes some time for some of these phrases to click as to why they sound like English.