As for language, I had the same issue in Ireland where there are many accents. The sing-song accent Americans know well is from places like Southern Ireland (Cork and such), but accents in Dublin were entirely different and difficult for me. I really couldn’t understand well at first. Then there accents from places like Kilkenny and the North that were different still! So much variation on one language. :-p

As for incomprehensible dialects, I first went to Japan during Carter’s administration, and taught a little English to pick up cash. I found it very strange to meet Japanese English students who seemed to me to be quite familiar with English but who swore than when they saw clips of Carter speaking on news programs they couldn’t understand a word he was saying. Of course, I had no trouble at all understanding him, though I had never spent a day in Georgia. What seem like slight differences in dialect to a native speaker may baffle a non-native.

On the other hand, when I run into something like Yorkshire dialect in a British film, I’m desperate to see subtitles!

I know of other people who lived in Asia but never learned the language. It can definitely be done, but I think the experience is even better when you can see things through the other person’s language.

Best of luck!

I’ve just realised what that link on your site to Japanesepod101 is for! I’m so sorry I didn’t get there via your site Doug! I could kick myself! Grrrr. Sorry.

Marcus

LOL! I never learnt a word of Korean! I’ve lived there three different times, over three years altogether, and not a single sentence!

Same with Thai. Been living in Bangkok on and off since 2000. Thai wife. Thai kids. Can’t even count to ten! LOL!

So learning Japanese is a whole new thing for me! But I’ve watched the progress you’ve made over the past few years on your blog(s) Doug and I’m mighty impressed. There you go – you’re my language role model! Thank you!

All the best and with palms together,

Marcus

Johnl: I think Adam touched a little on the Miyazaki dialect. On my daughter’s TV show, nihongo de asobo, they have a segment where a nice old lady from Miyazaki recites a famous poem, but in the Miyazaki dialect. They have to use furigana subtitles because some words sounds radically different, while some are pretty familiar. To me, from what little I heard, it was pretty different than regular Japanese or Aomori. Another divergence.

Interestingly, my first months in Ireland when I lived there were difficult. I knew we were speaking the same language, but I struggled to get used to the different tones, slightly different vocabulary, and different way of phrasing questions, so I would understand maybe 60%, even though we were both native speakers of the same language! After a few months, I got acclimated and could understand Irish people just fine, but then on a trip to the UK, I had to start all over again! Three different English speaking countries, and yet it’s interesting to see the divergences already happening.

I bet this is how Japanese feel when they travel to various parts of their own country.

Marcus: Glad to see you studying Japanese. With your background in Korean, it should be pretty easy, but I’d appreciate your insights on how similar/different they are. Funny how women from culture X inspire us to learn language X.

Adam: Already replied in part to your comment earlier, but just wanted to add welcome to the JLR!

I’ve been told that dialects occur because a language “freezes” in a place and then continues to develop elsewhere, so what you have is a snapshot of how that language was spoken hundreds of years before. Of course, geological isolation, etc plays a part too.

Thank you Doug for your comments and support over on my blog.

And, just in case you don’t see it there, I just want to say that part of the reason my blog is slowing down now is that I’ve started (finally!) to study Japanese – and following on from your praise of it on your blog here, I’m using Japanesepod101.

I’d say ‘see you there’ but I doubt I will! You’ll be in the advanced area while I’m a newbie in the newbie classes! LOL!

But thank you again mate and all the very best,

Marcus

I wonder if your course will also introduce another infamous dialect, Satsuma-ben. I heard that the samurai of the region were encouraged to use special unintelligible language for security purposes (anti-intelligence gathering), and this influenced development of the dialect.

(1) I haven’t progressed as much beyond the initial stages as one might expect having been here more than 30 years… ;-(

JL