Sounds like English!? It is SORAMIMI!!

Ah Today I am disappointed at my English speaking again. :-( Why I cant I talk like I write? Do you have any good ideas to improve my speaking?

"HOTTA IMO IJIRUNA" (= do not touch a potato that you took). Strange sentence, I know.
But this is a famous phrase as an instant English conversation. When Japanese say that sentence in Japanese naturally, it sounds like "what time is it now?" to English natives. Okay, let's try it in the Japanese speech machine. Please copy this Japanese " 掘った芋いじるな " then paste it here. . Then push S button. Perhaps natural Japanese speeech sounds more like "what time is it now?" . It will be because of its tone, rhythm, and pitch of phrase maybe.

This is a good sample that some Japanese phrases may sound like English, and also some English phrases sound like Japanese. We call this type of "sound like "SORAMIMI. Then we have a long running TV program "SORAMIMI HOUR". This is a part of a famous Japanese comedian Tamori's program. You will see him soon in "A fountain of Trivia" in spike TV. People report thier SORAMIMI about foreign music to the program by mail, and then guys there judge how fun it is. YouTube has a huge archive of exactly "SORAMIMI HOUR" (I really hope this site will not disappear).

I will introduce one. This one is from soundtrack of the movie "Moulin Rouge". Before watching it, please know we call this food Unajyu. After a bit of talking, music starts Okay? Here it is.
Why are they laughing so much? Because we can hear him singing like "Unajyu! Unajyu! Ume!! Rokusen??". This means "Unajyu! Unajyu! Delicious! 6000yen?" in Japanese. But as you know he sings Will drive you. will drive you, will drive you Mad Roxanne (even though I read this English I can not hear like that).
No? Doesn't make sense? How about this Guns'N Roses(ram) sound us Ah Nandesuka?? it means Ah what is this?

I talked about such English-Japanese fun before about Direct Translation, but unfortunately it did not make sense to most foreign people. (hmm but funny for us). How about this time? Does this make sense to you?

Comments

[ted]

Soramimi hour has been one of my favorite moments of Japanese TV not just from the segments but from the infectious laughing of Tamori's co-host (what is his name? He's a famous manga-ka, correct?).

One I still remember from years back is a Kraftwerk lyric "I need a rendezvous" being heard as "ari naranderu" (ants following each other). I still hear this when I play the song!

Anyway, I just discovered your blog and I really like it!

[secretbison]

For some Japanese-to-English Soramimi, watch Neil Cicierega's movies at www.eviltrailmix.com/animutation
The most famous is Hyakugojyuuichi, in which

Kimi-tachi to no deai wa zenbu
Chanto oboete 'ru
Kizutsukeatta koto mo atta kedo
Sore wa (e~to) wasureta

becomes

TV says, donuts are high in fat, kazoo.
Found a hobo in my room.
It's Princess Leia, the yodel of life; Give me my
sweater back or I'll play the guitar!

[ramil]

how about "no sumoking"
http://ramil.sagum.net/stuff/nosumoking.gif <-- image here

:)

[Charles]

足湯！

_____

You got it!? Yes I see you! They say, nooooo it is agaist the rule of soramimi.

[david]

Mari, I think your English is very good. In fact, you write better than some of my native-English-speaking friends!

[Huang]

I find your English is already very good and I don't mean for an Asian. But then I am an Asian myself. ^-^

[robert]

This is hilarious!! I loved this post! and it explains alot about Guns n roses..though my grasp of japanese is not developed enough to catch all of these, I really enjoyed the concept. I notice there is alot of wordplay in the culture. I think it is great because it keeps one sharp and thinking. I enjoy playing a similar game with popular songs here in the US..simply because the vapid content of most pop lyrics invites, fairly begs, revision. though I confess most of my gaffs are purely in English, with a rare foray into Spanish. :D

[Jo]

Ah ah! This one so interesting and funny too! As always.
It is interesting also the following...there are Italian words written exactly the same as the romajized Japanese word and pronunced the same (Italian and Japanese share familiar pronunciation...to a point) but with different meaning.
For example...
SAKKA(writer)->sacca->large bag
MOTTO->motto->a sentence written on a family crest
CHOTTO->ciotto->(old form for) a stone.
and more more others.