American Sounds for Japanese Language

OK, here's the deal. When you speak no Japanese and the person you are talking to understands no English you revert to making sounds and doing hand signals and gestures so that they understand what you are saying. They strange think is that these crazy signals seem to work.

For instance, last night Mrs. McCrary was trying to call her family in the US. Her host family's phone would not work with her calling card. When she dialed her calling card customer service they said the phone she was using was a rotary. Of course, the phone itself had touchtone buttons so she would not have known that. So, when she finished her call with customer service she preceded to describe the situation to her homestay. This is where the fun begins.

No one understood the word 'rotary.' So she decided to make the sound of a rotary phone. Low and behold they understood. Then she went into asking if they had a touchtone phone. Still the family wasn't understanding so she made the sounds of a touchtone phone. They immediately understood.

So, I decided you should hear how silly that sounds when you are trying to get a point across and you have to use sounds. Enjoy this video of Mrs. McCrary teaching us the difference between a rotary phone and a touchtone phone.


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Ok, here is Hanna's sound for "this food tastes really good." Enjoy!

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