Learning Highland Scottish

Since I've arrived here in Miki, one thing has been a hindrance on my communication in the realm of Japanese more than any other. Not pronunciation, not grammatical structure, not even vocabulary so much as this one thing, which seems to work its way into almost every level of communication in the area. Dialect.


The dialect of the region is known as "Kansai-ben." Kansai-ben, I have been assured by those who know it, is not really all that difficult. However, let me make as close of a comparison for those back home to how it is different. Please try to imagine along with me as I attempt to create an English-equivalent of the dialect I am immersed in on a daily basis.

Most of the readers of my blog here are likely from somewhere in the U.S., between the areas of Spokane and Boston, of the Western, Northern, and Northeastern dialects. The differences between these can be argued all day, but needless to say, I think we could say that we all more-or-less understand eachother most of the time in spoken form, and almost all the time in written form. The dialects of Tokyo and the surrounding area, or "Kanto-ben" as a rough geographic term, has something like the variance within it as we have in across the Northern States, conveniently enough. Let's call these variations "Standard Japanese." Kansai-ben, what I am learning might be thought of as Highland Scottish. Why? Well, I refer you all to Tsuneyuki Nishi, my friend who attended EWU with me who has been a good student, model citizen, and an all-around smart, talented fellow most of his life. He's traveled widely and been exposed to a variety of language sounds in both English and Japanese. However, Tsune, who now works in Osaka, one of the 3 major cities in the Kansai Region, has a little problem in the workplace and out-and-about. "I can't understand Kansai-ben."

At least I'm not alone!

To give some examples about what words and phrases you would never hear in the English-equivalent
of Kansai-ben:

"Very"
"Goodbye"
"Bye"
"not"
"(almost any other verb-negation method you use on a daily basis)"
--and many more!

In fact, for these specific examples, if I was to say them in public, (as I often have, either through ignorance or forgetfulness), people would likely swivel around their heads at me, declare "who does he think he is??" or some equivalent, and quickly put me in the category that we might put someone with the highest and most snooty forms of British English. When I use any of these words direct equivalents that are listed above, I look snobbish, conceited, nose-in-the-air, rude, and like I am trying to hard. A quick way to get attention you don't want. I have, unfortunately, been caught a few times, but none of them have been too bad, since I am a foreigner and am expected to have Japanese, but...I have to relearn a bit more. I thought, when I arrived, that "using the Tokyo is a good idea because it is an accent that almost everyone will understand since it is the voice of the most of television, national representatives, the educated class, etc. Instead, it has likely been doing the opposite of what I want! Some people do understand me, and in those cases, are treating me like a rich tourist, rather than a person who would ever want to be a community member. Anyone who would want to live in Kansai as an equal would obviously use an entirely Kansai-ben form, so as not to make distinctions between his/herself and others. Well, for me, and even for people like Tsune, that is a rather tall order, with all the differences that exist in vocabulary, sentence form, tonal structure, and everything else, many of which I probably do not even have the slightest awareness of. So, instead of being able to be well understood by many, including tourists and fellow visitin educators or nothern students of KUIS, I instead find myself in need of learning the local dialect in order to ensure that I do not become a victim of self-inflicted exile from the community in which I live.

I'll leave you with a translated speach sample you might hear in Kansai. Please picture yourself as a student of only one year's experience in classroom English while you read it.

"I would nay be so bonnie f'weren't for you."