The other day I reached for some saltine crackers and found myself smirking at the name on the package: Mornin’ Cracker. This interesting name the manufacturers had chosen for their product sheds light on the unique fascination many Japanese have with speaking “natural” English. The Japanese study English for an average of six years yet know what’s being taught to them isn’t a living, breathing language, and many students who do want to learn focus on what they perceive as “natural” English, which often means going out of their way to copy the slang they see native speakers using, like the alternate spelling of the –ing suffix. I’ve had students who refused to use phrases like “want to” or “going to,” instead substituting “wanna” or “gonna” as often as they could, despite the fact that their overall language ability wasn’t at the level for that to sound natural. As a learner of Japanese, there was a lot of temptation for me to use slang I picked up reading manga or heard others using, but often I found that I lowered people’s impression of me when I did so, just as you might not know what to think if a slang-obsessed Japanese man introduced himself to you for the first time by saying, “Nice to meet you, Brutha.” When learning a foreign language, it’s best to go slowly when trying out the fun but potentially offensive slang terms you come across, and always watch the Japanese people around you to see what kind of reaction you get. If you screw something up, as I’ve done many times, you’ll know it.
