めっちゃええやんか、方言！

If you live/have lived in Japan, have you picked up a local dialect (方言)? When I was living in Itami, Kansai-ben （関西弁）gradually became a part of how I spoke in Japanese. I never got to the point where I was splattering every sentence with localisms, but all of my *「超'」s (ちょう）were replaced with 「めっちゃ」's and 「やな」became a common sentence finisher for me.

Having returned to the States, it kind of goes without saying that my Japanese has been in decline, especially my conversational skills. Something else I've noticed, though, is that I've been losing my Kansai dialect. It's not that I don't understand it anymore, and sometimes a 「めっちゃ」or 「まじで」will slip unbidden into my speech, but for the most part when I have a chance to speak to people here, it's in standard, "Tokyo Japanese" （標準語/共通語）. My coworkers use it, and a lot of the Japanese people I've met here are from the Kanto area originally.

While there's nothing wrong with the standard dialect, there's something kind of nice about picking up a bit of an accent. I guess it kind of serves to further connect you to the place you live(d). I'm a little sad to have that slipping away.


* 「超」 is a slang-ish word these days used around Tokyo that means "very."

例: 超かわいい、この猫!
(Example: This cat is super cute!)

「めっちゃ」 is kind of the Kansai-regional counterpart.

Ninu--hey, stop hitting yourself!

One of the great things about living near Osaka is the exposure to Kansai-ben. For any of you who don't know what that is, Kansai is the south central part of Japan that includes Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe, Nara, Hyogo, Wakayama, Mie, and Shiga. It's also known as the Kinki region. So anyway, Kansai-ben is the special dialect that is spoken in these parts.

Now, you don't have to live in Kansai to hear Kansai-ben. Since there are so many comedians from Kinki (yeah, the people here are that damn funny, I guess), whenever you watch a Japanese comedy or variety show, you will probably hear Kansai-ben. Ergo, the dialect is kind of associated with being funny. But it's also just fun to use - the way a lot of the words just kind of roll of your tongue. And it's awesome to be the cool/funny foreigner who can speak Kansai-ben.

Anyway, I've heard and learned enough of the dialect to know there's a lot more for me to learn. And some of it borders on inane. Here's an example from the vlog of thatjapanesegirl. Just to be clear, I'm not criticizing her - I think this is an awesome video and I lost it when she started to...well, you'll see. It's just, how often do you get the chance to use the Kansai-ben word for "boiled egg?" 見てごらん (Please watch):