Kon niii chi wa

[Moonie]

When the bridge in Minnesota collapsed, FNN turned to Jerry Fisher (?) for a live report. Take it away, Jerry!
[YT]ekRmOykVMO4[/YT]
Listening to Jerry makes my ears bleed. Not only is his pronunciation and rythmn off, the script he's reading is probably in romaji.

Where did they find this guy and how did he con the Japanese media into letting him on the air? Surely the Japanese had reporters on the ground? To that question, the answer is sadly, no--they had nobody.

[Naniwan Kid]

Oh shit! My friend sent me this yesterday. My J-wife is about the start the "Freelance Journalist Jerry Fisher Fan Club". She must have watched this clip more than 10 times in the last 24 hours...

Hey, we need someone who can speak Japanese to talk about the bridge collapse.

Jerry speaks Japanese.

He was on a mine-sweeper in the Japan sea 50 years ago.

He can do it.

Bring in Jerry!

You are witnessing the beginning and end of a freelance journalist's career, all in the space of one minute and thirty-eight seconds.

[Mike Oxlong]

He's got better Japanese than many of the Roppongi crowd

[ttjereth]

[quote="Mike Oxlong"]He's got better Japanese than many of the Roppongi crowd ]

Beat me to it, I was just about to say he has better Japanese than 90% of the foreigners I know here

[American Oyaji]

OMG! I heard just a bit and then I had to stop it. His pronounciation is.....atrocious.

[Samurai_Jerk]

Holy fuck. That guy is my hero. Anyone who can get away with that is alright in my book.

[FG Lurker]

Sweet Jesus that was horrid. Okay, the guy gets full points for effort but fuuuuuuuuck, talk about stereotypical gaijin nihongo!

[Takechanpoo]

You dudes must have a feeling like watching previous pathetic yourself.

[Naniwan Kid]

About the reporters, there are freelance Japanese cameras around, but not a lot of reporters. They are mostly in DC and New York and LA. My GUESS is that they got a hold of a freelance cameraman and said "Find someone who can speak Japanese and we want to scoop all the other networks". In a word, these guys are assholes. These camera guys get paid a lot of money to scoop the other stations, and journalistic ethics are the last thing they think about. That freelance cameraman may have just shortened his career, though.

[FG Lurker]

You dudes must have a feeling like watching previous pathetic yourself.

I would say that the feeling is very similar to what a good English speaker would get from reading your posts.

[Naniwan Kid]

BAM.

[Charles]

OMG! I heard just a bit and then I had to stop it..

Me too. I always say for every one minute spent listening to a bad non-native speaker, it takes 5 minutes of listening to a native speaker to undo the mental damage. But in this case I'd say the ratio is more like 30 to 1.

[joshuaism]

Looks like the Japanese news media felt Jerry was the best they could get. I mean, Japanese is so hard, only a Japanese person can learn to speak it.

[Oradea]

I cant believe that aired on Japanese TV, yeah big Jerry deserves credit for giving it a go, but I would put money on the fact that he wasnt given a rehearsal or dry run, and for actually putting that abomination on J-tv, the producer ought to stop the chuo line tomorrow morning with a wee jump on to an oncoming train.

[prolly]

gotta wonder what his nampa sounds like

[IkemenTommy]

I guess that proves that there are no Japanese locals living in that backwards state called Minnesota.

Jeez, this was one of the funniest.. but pretty sad.. shits I have seen in a while. It's like if someone just handed over a script in Chinese, but written in Romaji, and to try to pronounce it correctly. It looked like he just got off the plane from Hawaii too. Go Jerry!

[Samurai_Jerk]

Something like this is always worse for non-native speakers to watch than for native speakers. But in Jerry's defense, I showed this to my J coworkers. They laughed and said it was bad, but they also said at least it's totally understandable.

[Naniwan Kid]

Looks like the Japanese news media felt Jerry was the best they could get. I mean, Japanese is so hard, only a Japanese person can learn to speak it.

It's all about scooping. Jerry Fisher wasn't the ONLY person they could get, but, for whatever station this is, he was the FIRST one they got. You won't find a Part 2, because Jerry Fisher got trumped by someone who could speak Japanese.

The closest Japanese media outlet was probably LA or maybe someone in Chicago. Once they landed Jerry was back yelling at college students on summer break to stay off his lawn, goddammit.

[FG Lurker]

The closest Japanese media outlet was probably LA or maybe someone in Chicago. Once they landed Jerry was back yelling at college students on summer break to stay off his lawn, goddammit.

Hopefully not in Japanese...