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My brother got on a scholarship to go to university in Japan, he was given a
year an half language training and then had to apply to Japanese universities.

I suggested he study in Osaka as I'd visited there and knew some people he
could hang about with but he was advised not to study too far away from Tokyo
as people would look down on him if he gained a regional accent.

Is this actually the case? I appreciate that they might make fun of locals
with a regional accent but is would this apply to foreigners too?
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2011-06-02T10:33:23.107
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dialects learning
Do people actually look down on you if you use a regional dialect as a Gaijin?
There is a lot of people from Osaka in Tokyo, so that Kansai-ben (Osaka-ben)
are not so strange here. And I don't think they will get looked down for that
case.

But many of non-Japanese's pronunciation and intonations are a bit different
with native, so some people with less international communications will
somehow look at strangely for few first times.

Only that people from Osaka are looks more friendly than from Tokyo, so may be
when you ask something to unknown people, will probably get less responsive
than that does in Osaka.

But still I don't think that is the problem, I believe he will get use to it
within few months if he comes to Tokyo.
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2011-06-02T11:00:20.527
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I have a number of gaijin friends in Tokyo who learned Japanese in Kansai.
Rather than being looked down upon, Japanese friends think it's cool
(関西人面白いでしょ？).

Yet, business is different - again, the relationships of the people involved
matter. Unless you're in a Kansai office with a bunch of Kansai-jin, sticking
to "標準語 (hyoujungo)" is never a bad idea. Also, if your Kansai-ben isn't that
good, it's probably better to forget it - it definitely takes a little bit of
moxie to get it right (admittedly I'm terrible).

_As a gaijin_ , I've been commended by more than a few older Japanese males
for speaking "proper Japanese" -- e.g. syntactically correct standard 標準語. So,
is that better? Dunno, I guess it depends whom you want to impress - but their
positive feedback was more positively comparing my speech to that of Japanese
youth, who they deemed to not speak properly, rather than of a certain
dialect.
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2011-06-02T12:46:29.073
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