Forums » General Gaming

Best (or worst) usage of your native language and/or accents

  • February 22, 2018 1:31 AM EST

    Remember this charming fellow?

     

    Because I most certainly do. This man was the highlight of my entire Fallout 3 experience. Those who've played the game might know that there are multiple occasions where you face the ghoulified remnants of the Chinese communist forces left in the Capital Wasteland, who are all automatically hostile. I have an uncle in the People's Liberation Army, so that made slaughtering the lot of them all the more fun.

    He wasn't my favourite uncle.

    Anyways, these Chinese Remnant ghouls do speak Chinese in the game. Putonghua, to be exact... or Mandarin to ya Western capitalist pigs. Most of the time, they sounded exactly as I would've expected from a game produced by primarily English-speaking developers - absolutely hilarious. Whoever wrote the voicelines probably wasn't Chinese.

    'Scheennkhhaiii wharmen wa hallelujah'

    'Hsscheeng chuu whu wa schway'

    Oh my god now that I take a listen to them again they sound like Rieklings.

    At least the ghouls had the excuse of being stuck in America for two centuries. But then, along comes General Jingwei! The player only directly interacts with him for about a minute, but it's one full minute of comedy gold. He belts out lines that sound like they came directly from Google Translate:

    '你們這些笨蛋 你們將會被中國軍隊給徹底消滅'

    was about as silly a translation as possible of 'You fool, you will be crushed by the might of the Chinese Army', with none of the impact of the original English line, but it doesn't end there. Ohhh no. Of all the words Jingwei could've used for 'fool', he went with '笨蛋', pronounced 'Bun Dan'.

    It literally means 'stupid egg' and is an insult most often heard in school playgrounds, uttered by children under ten years of age.

    Imagine if General Eisenhower, the Kansas Cyclone himself, walked up to you, brazen as can be, right in the middle of a bomb-scarred WWII battefield, and called you a poopy-face.

    The best part? The voice actor was really, really into it. He sounded like a Chinese person who was pretending to an American pretending to be a Chinese person. I was giggling so hard I didn't even catch the ending of the mission after I lopped the good general's head off.

    I don't blame the voice actors for messing up. After all, on the flip side, my spoken English isn't that great either. Putonghua can be quite difficult to pronounce, especially for people who aren't that familiar with East Asian hanzi-based languages. Bethesda probably wasn't big enough to bring in native speakers back then, which is why Captain Zao of the Yangtze in Fallout 4 was such a welcome surprise.

    This Chinese ghoul's enunciation was very proper, as he was voiced by Ping Wu, a Chinese American. His portrayal of an old sailor longing to return home was spot-on, and since I was roleplaying a former PLA sniper, things got quite emotional.

     

    But enough about me, what about you? This site is home to people who hail from all across the globe. I'm sure some of you have had your native languages or accents pop up in the games you've played. After all, video games take you all over the world. Share your experiences! Be they absolutely hilarious like Jinwei Jiangjun, or unexpectedly moving like Zao Chuanzhang, I'm sure you have interesting stories to tell.

     

     


    This post was edited by The Sunflower Manual at February 22, 2018 1:35 AM EST
    • 1441 posts
    February 22, 2018 1:36 AM EST
    I mean, considering General Chase apparently bastardized thr simulation, it's possible he heavily altered Jingwei's data like one big playable propaganda piece
    • 1467 posts
    February 22, 2018 2:10 AM EST

    I'm having a tough time with this one. Mostly it's because Australia has a pretty diverse range of accents and all of them are boring except the 'stereotypical one'. You know, 'that one', the one in the movies that I've honestly only ever heard about 4 people actually use in real life. I dunno it's also hard because my accent (according to other people) contains traces of an American accent since my dad's American, it means I've got a strange blend of the two, and so I don't really identify the 'Australian Accent' as anything I'm really used to.

    But honestly, Australian accents in any movie are always exaggerated to the extreme. Just my experience, the opposite end is that you can't even tell that they're putting on an accent so...

    I didn't answer the question, did I? I suppose in the end my answer is 'just about anytime someone not-Australian tries an Australian accent'. But I haven't watched everything ever so :P

    • 649 posts
    February 22, 2018 2:30 AM EST
    As of yet, I haven't encountered a single Czech line or accent in the gaming, because why should I? Our accent isn't actually something very distinctive, like Russian or Italian accents speaking english. We mostly sound like retarded kids when we speak english :D The only Czech thing I ever encountered was in old TV show Stargate: Atlantis where certain Dr. Zelenka kept saying "do prdele" which in direct translation means "to ass" but english equivalent would be "oh shit". Funnily enough, Zelenka was supposed to be Czech but since he was played by a Russian actor (at least I think) he was taken as a Russian character by people. :)
    This post was edited by Karver the Lorc at February 22, 2018 2:51 AM EST
    • 278 posts
    February 22, 2018 4:01 AM EST

    In terms of movies, Crocodile Dundee anyone?

    • 321 posts
    February 22, 2018 4:09 AM EST

    I think the only time I heard my native language was in Far Cry 3. It was... okay, I guess.

    • 585 posts
    February 22, 2018 4:24 AM EST

    The Dunmer in Skyrim use a Yorkshire accent at least sometimes (can't remember if there are any exceptions). Captain Veleth in particular sounds like he coul be found down my local pub, it's still a bit dodgy but I'm alright with the representation. Yorkshire accents are awesome (pretty sure it was voted beest accent in the world, and if it weren't it should've been).

    If we're talking about British accents in general, apparently Orcs are always cocknet. I've been watching some gameplay of Shadow of War and it's like being down the bloody East End, core blimey guvna! I think this is because of how Tolkien wrote Orc dialogue in LOTR and it's just a trope that stuck. Like how Dwarves are all Scottish.

    • 284 posts
    February 22, 2018 10:55 AM EST

    Don't see any Croatian in gaming or movies, but like Karver said, they mostly always use those strong and stereotypical Russian accents when using characters of Slavic descent. You can best hear it in the original CoD: Black Ops in that mountain mission. One of the characters uses the accent when pointing out an enemy: "RPG on the ridge!"

    But seriously, my fav accents in movies are the German ones where they try to put a Z in every pronounce: "Zi fuck is that?"


    This post was edited by DeltaFox at February 22, 2018 10:56 AM EST
    • 104 posts
    February 22, 2018 1:55 PM EST

    There are loads of accents and dialects where I am from, Scotland, to the perfect Queens English spoken in the Highlands to  the almost impossible Aberdeen twang, not only that but accents differ tremendously from village to village, I originate in New Cumnock and to a local my accent is unmistakable, however just 7 miles or so north where my mother was born and raised we have Drongon,  a small mining village which again has  an accent and dialect all its own, folk just know your local by the way you sound its really quite strange.

  • Mr.
    • 763 posts
    February 22, 2018 9:30 PM EST

    I think the only games I've ever played that had Brazilian characters were Max Payne 3 and Assasin's Creed 3, and honestly, I don't remember it very well. But I really don't give a rat's ass about how well or how bad their accents are, heh.

    • 585 posts
    February 25, 2018 5:03 AM EST

    Bonelord said:

    There are loads of accents and dialects where I am from, Scotland, to the perfect Queens English spoken in the Highlands to  the almost impossible Aberdeen twang, not only that but accents differ tremendously from village to village, I originate in New Cumnock and to a local my accent is unmistakable, however just 7 miles or so north where my mother was born and raised we have Drongon,  a small mining village which again has  an accent and dialect all its own, folk just know your local by the way you sound its really quite strange.

    I think this is a very British Isles thing, and it's one of the things I love about the place. As a Yorkshireman I can tell apart Leeds and Sheffield no issue (well maybe some issue to my RP speaking self), but ask me to tell the difference between Portsmouth and Brighton? No chance. I think it gets more pronounced the smaller and more remote a location is, like with your mining village example.

    • 168 posts
    February 26, 2018 4:32 PM EST

    Well I'm from Wisconsin so I've never expierienced best or worst usage of the accent in games or movies that i can recall. Except for like, one example where they used a thick Chicago accent to represent a Wisconsinite, which is just wrong because nobody I've met IRL talks like that.

    Actually, it's more accurate to say we lack an accent, the English is spoken so clearly. (maybe its different further north or in the residential areas of the larger cities I wouldn't know as I haven't been there). Maybe it had something to do with the predominant mix of German/Polish/Native-American heritage? I know german as a language tends to be formal and to-the-point.

    (on the other hand, I'm pretty good at imitating accents, with enough effort. But it haven't done that in a while...)


    This post was edited by Chris H. at February 26, 2018 4:36 PM EST
    • 275 posts
    February 26, 2018 8:56 PM EST

    Where I live (Northeastern United States) people don't really have an accent. However, in ESO there's this NPC named Tanek in the Dark Brotherhood DLC. I recognized his voice actor, Robin Atkin Downes, from a game likely nobody here has heard of called Bound By Flame where he voices the main protagonist: Vulcan. Tanek sounds a lot like Vulcan but his voice is noticably lower and it sounds really forced, at least to me.

    • 197 posts
    February 28, 2018 6:30 PM EST

    I‘ve never played games that do this, so I can’t put my finger on them right now, but I’ve watched people play games - typically military/combat-centered games - that use the male American southern accent to denote someone who is stupid or completely reckless. And the female American southern accent to denote someone who’s extremely sexy and also stupid. 

     

    Yeah, we have our share of the stupid and reckless and definitely our share of the sexy (uh huh), but come on. 

    • 69 posts
    March 1, 2018 1:57 AM EST

    The only real accent I can think of in Eastern US is the redneck/ hilibilly type. While I've not really encountered anyone myself that uses that sort of dialect and a specific game/movie doesn't come to mind I have noticed that some movies will portray that accent when they're referring to someone that is either mentally impaired or really stupid. 

    How I feel about it is well... It's funny to hear the people talk like that, and why on Earth it gets sterotyped like that I've no clue, but on the offhand it can be a bit annoying. Like how most documentaries or things pertaining to West Virginia are absolutely horrific content to generalize our population's behavior. Kinda disgraceful how some of those things show us.

    Neat topic though Shadow :D

    • 122 posts
    March 2, 2018 9:40 PM EST

    I am from Nashville, Tennessee. I was born there. I was raised there. If I’m lucky then one day I’ll die in this valley. It is my home, and the sight of mist-covered mountains on the horizon will always put my heart at peace.

    Y’all non-Nashvillians do AWFUL impersonations of us, though! You know Foghorn Leghorn? He was actually an INCREDIBLE example of the old antebellum Dixiecrats. More modern Middle Tennesseans (as opposed to East and West Tennesseans, of course) live in a more affluent area, with a people from a good portion of the world community moving in either for work or to make it as a songwriter/musician, which has had the affect of softening our accent a bit from the strong, sissy drawl or rascally twang people typically associate with the area.

    The SHOW “Nashville” makes me absolutely cringe. Absolutely everyone on the show affects a terrible impersonation of my folk, and most of them end up sounding like they’re doing an impersonation of TEXANS to boot!

    • 62 posts
    March 3, 2018 11:30 PM EST
    Do I just have the dirtiest mind ever or did anyone else see this on the front page and think that "ass...ass...in" was just the answer to the question "what's the worst use of your tongue"?
    • 197 posts
    March 3, 2018 11:34 PM EST

    Tysoyaha said: Do I just have the dirtiest mind ever or did anyone else see this on the front page and think that "ass...ass...in" was just the answer to the question "what's the worst use of your tongue"?

    oh god, i didn’t see it on the home page. But now that i do, you’re right. and no, you’re not the only one. 

    • 1595 posts
    March 3, 2018 11:37 PM EST
    xD There were a few ways of presenting this subject as a feature. I'm glad the one chosen resonated with a few others.
    • 321 posts
    March 3, 2018 11:44 PM EST

    I think the ass-asin joke had exist for a long time in the internet. That said, it's not really far off...

    And yeah, leave it to Phil to make an innuendo out of anything. :P


    This post was edited by A-Pocky-Hah! at March 3, 2018 11:45 PM EST
    • 275 posts
    March 4, 2018 12:01 AM EST

    Tysoyaha said: Do I just have the dirtiest mind ever or did anyone else see this on the front page and think that "ass...ass...in" was just the answer to the question "what's the worst use of your tongue"?

    That's where my mind first went too.

    • 1595 posts
    March 5, 2018 9:57 PM EST
    I remember I watched one of those "making of" documentaries for Star Wars, years back. They talked about how they thought English accents in received pronunciation made a good accent for vilians to have. So, like, Peter Cushing as that admiral. The heroes would be American while the Villains were all Brits. I frowned over my tea and spotted dick at that. I mean, come on. That's just not cricket.
    • 197 posts
    March 5, 2018 10:41 PM EST
    Paws said:
    I remember I watched one of those "making of" documentaries for Star Wars, years back. They talked about how they thought English accents in received pronunciation made a good accent for vilians to have. So, like, Peter Cushing as that admiral. The heroes would be American while the Villains were all Brits. I frowned over my tea and spotted dick at that. I mean, come on. That's just not cricket.


    Tom Hiddleston and Mark Strong and Ben Kingsley did a Jaguar commercial years ago about the best villains having a British accent. It was...adorable.
    • 284 posts
    March 6, 2018 2:31 AM EST

    British does sound a bit evil. When I speak english, I normally use the US English with a touch of south-eastern european accent. My english teacher had that deep British accent, my god how I didn't like that. Sorry Phil.

    • 1595 posts
    March 8, 2018 3:42 AM EST

    ilanisilver said:
    Paws said: I remember I watched one of those "making of" documentaries for Star Wars, years back. They talked about how they thought English accents in received pronunciation made a good accent for vilians to have. So, like, Peter Cushing as that admiral. The heroes would be American while the Villains were all Brits. I frowned over my tea and spotted dick at that. I mean, come on. That's just not cricket.
    Tom Hiddleston and Mark Strong and Ben Kingsley did a Jaguar commercial years ago about the best villains having a British accent. It was...adorable.

    Ha! :D I had to go look that up on Youtube. Awesomeness is awesome!

    DeltaFox said:

    British does sound a bit evil. When I speak english, I normally use the US English with a touch of south-eastern european accent. My english teacher had that deep British accent, my god how I didn't like that. Sorry Phil.

    No worries Foxy, everyone hates the Brits :D