Does Ayumi know English?
 

Just wanted to know, cause I read somewhere that she came to America to train or something, so I was wondering whether or not she was fluent in English?

If she is, I'd rather have her cross over to the American market, than Utada...

She's definately not fluent, but she does know a few random words (check out the lyrics of Real Me or Forgiveness, for example). Also, she said "thank you" during 2002's MTV awards.

yeah. she only knows a couple of phrases. but she tries!

it's hard to crossover from Japanese to English.

My friends cousin saw her in his university somewhere. She was surrounded by bodyguards.

I just learn something today. Thanks for the tipbit guys.

if utada crossed over with Ayumi's music..shed be better off. Ayutada..:-p

Ayu is definitely not fluent in English. knowing those little phrases don't count. I know phrases like that in other languages and that doesn't mean I'm fluent in them.

well... in my opinion.. i think she is not really fluent in speakin english.. but i think she can read english words... =\ just what i feel... is like u come to America for a period of time and not recognizing and understandin english is kind of weird to me .. =\

Yeah that's what I'm thinking...

pragmatically no.

I wonder... Does Ayu title her songs herself or does she use like an English Consultant or something? :think

She said in an interview that she wanted to better her English and not have to use translators anymore. I'm sure she could have a bit smaller of a conversation than BoA but not much more. I've heard her many time say things in English perfectly and many times in Engrish. I think she does the 'sank yuu' on purpose though.

sankyuu is kinda cute tho..lol

sankyuu is so cute =o

Most japanese take english throughout, some study it on the side. Its not uncommon for a japanese person to pick up something new (even at an older age). But she dropped out of highschool so if she was taking english she might not have gotten a lot of it down.

she know english though not very good....
and a little chinese

Yeah, I always wondered about her song titles, seeing a huge majority of them are all in English... weird. Guess there won't be any Ayu crossing over into America anytime soon =(

i dont think her song titles were in her vocabulary b4 the song was actually made. Someone must've made it up for her. Evolution, surreal, monochrome r very uncommon words and i dubt ayu came up wiht the words herself.

She probably used a dictionary, they arent common words but they arent uncommon. Surreal for one, if your into art--Im sure in any langauge its almost the same?

At least she tries^^
I think she really should improve her english.

her english accent is difficult to understand
anyway she will be better if she learns

Awww~ she won't be crossing over any time soon then... :(

That's not Engrish is it? I thought Arubamu is a real Japanese word.

haha... if ayu had used the dictionary then that would be great cos some of the song titles look superb to mi.. haha.. but i tink ayu remaining as ayu and utada remaining as utada would be better than merging them together as ayutada... :p

I bet she just picks random words from an english dictionary for songs lol.

We've been told that someone at avex helps Ayu choose the song titles.

the only thing that explains me utada going to a eua career before ayumi is that she knows english. ayu REALLY gotta learn it...

No sjiz. 'Here Ayu, this sounds nice.' 'Kumquat?' 'I'd do it.' 'Okay!' *runs off, cheering*

I'm sure Ayu is trying though :yes .

Well, I guess it's kinda like any language. I mean, it's almost impossible (well, at least in the States...) not to know a few phrases in Spanish. Kinda like most people studying Japanese can know a lot but be pronouncing it completely weird. :/

But c'mon, at least it's not as bad as Gackt's. >_<;; Ayu sounded like a local American compared to him when they sang "Silent Night." ^o^

However, on the Utada subject: Utada IS fluent in English. She has a CD coming out in American in October and is having a concert in New York. Unlike Ayu, Hikki was born in American (New York to be precise) so she has no problems.

yeah, hikki was born in the States. Would be ashaming if she didn't speak english properly. And I don't think it's bad to speak Engrish. An accent is given by birth and is very difficult to get rid off. as long as they speak understandable english, it's ok right? no offence, but english with pakistanian accent is often much more unclear, while grammatically perfect. Just like my english, it has a slight dutch accent, and I just can't get rid of it. even though i learned english through american sitcoms.

But Ayu speaking English, i don't think so. Basic things, of course. But I don't think she could actually have a conversation in English.

um, i dont understand...So these sites were to show that some have a hard time to speak/type english. or did ayumi have a part in making em? Cuz it brings up differ sites... :yconfused

To be honest, Ayu's accent isn't bad at all. It's much better than those who learned English the governmental textbook way (i.e. through the Japanese pronunciation of English, as opposed to the English pronunciation of English). She can pronounce sounds that most can't, for example, like the consonants which don't exist in natural Japanese. Even more awesomely, she can pick out the difference in vowel sounds (which is the most difficult part of learning a new language's accent). I don't think she knows English, per se, but I'm sure she knows more than minor greetings and phrases. I doubt school English did much for her, because she wasn't much of a student in the first place (and didn't she drop out?).

But it's great that she wants to learn more to be more independent with it. Maybe she could improve her accent well enough to sing full songs in English up to American standards and be a success much like Celine Dion was before she spoke English. Tatu had mild (albeit... very... mild) success with their limited English, too. Still, it's just a thought, and probably wouldn't happen at this late point in her career.

"Arubamu" is a Japanese word (though it obviously comes from English), and the younger generations of Japanese people would probably understand "nyuu" (or "new") in context. "Sankyuu" is also a common Japanese phrase among younger generations. It's kind of cute and quirky and playful, compared to the true Japanese word.

in Panasonic's "Eye Love Music" commercial....the slogen was sooo perfect...especially "music".....she did not say "miu-zi-ku"....she said "music".... that's awesome.... LoL

I think she's faking her Engrish. I bet she knows it fluently and is fooling all of us. Well, except me, of course.

Since Japanese language were restricted to merely not more than 100 types of vowel pronounciations, it's indeed that they have problems learning foreign languages.

Plus, they only start to learn English on grade 7 (middle school year 1), so it's quite bad.

yes she does. her english is improving so much! :O
she speaks better english than when she sings it O____O
i just saw the making of mirrorcle world..she can definitely understand english and speak conversational english. and when she had a CNN interview, i was impressed!
also, she uses english 2 communicate w/ her non japanese fans.
she went 2 france&china, and she spoke english...wow..english is totally the universal language ^___^

I think over the past few years her pronounciation & probably grammar has improved although I still have problems understanding her as her Japanese accent will tend to get in the way unlike KAT-TUN's Akanishi Jin where his Japanese accent's not there

I don't think you will be hearing Ayumi ranting stuff like Car Shrimp :rofl (classic one Akanishi :lmfao , before he went to study Eng for 6 months in LA ie. heh :bchuck)

I've always wondered that as well. Someone must have came up with them for her.

or maybe she has on hand electronic or hard covers of Japanese to Eng dictionaries or probably just ask someone to help her on it

if she tries, i dont even care if she speaks english or not

From japanese to english is very difficult. Japanese phonology (especially their parameters such as the consonant-vowel-consonant-vowel structure) is very limited, while english has a very rich phonology.
Grammar-wise it's a very large step also. Since Japanese is an isolate language, it's got no connection to English, which is an Indo-European language. So engRish is very logical and for Ayu probably not intentional.
But I'm sure that with so many years as a celebrity, she had to work in English loads of times. So yea. I'm sure she can understand a whole lot.

besides.. Ayu studied English in Las Vegas a few years ago

In Mirrorcle World making she speaks only english,
and it sounds natural english to me.. ahahaha.
And 2007 she spoke english in Asia tour, and she sounded like american..
Except her word "prayered"

Am I the only one to remember that TV interview after Secret release were she replied in english, well half, the rest of the interview has been japanese, but it was very correct and enough good for me to understand all.

Sadly I dun remember on what TV it was then ... maybe the CNN that someone named ?

HAHA I can imagine Ayu holding a small dictionary everywhere she goes, and if anyone tries to touch it she goes "RAWR, IT'S MINE, GO GET YOUR OWN" *runs away*

:roflmao

she did used 1 in the Kyo Ai movie anyway to communicate with Shawn Yue

Nobody realises that this thread is from 2004? 0_____0
Some ppl should stop diggin' up old thread, srsly :bounce

i know, that's just what I was gonna say too. :rolleyes

I should add she watches a ton of American dramas lol. If anything she can understand a lot, but not speak it as well. I know from watching so many anime and and listening to so much music over the years I can understand to an extent Japanese but speaking it is still a little difficult.

Yup CNN Talkasia. I remember many people here were impressed, me included :P

I assume her traveling did help to improve her English and I'm fairly sure she took a couple of English courses in the past.

I'd imagine she got a real expensive tutor too XD. This is kind of off topic but did anyone see BoA's interview recently? It was outstanding but she said prior, she had been taking courses and had a private tutor. I think it just goes to show that with effort and a little brainpower, any language is learnable.

wow this thread was started like 4 years ago? back than i dun think she speaks very well..but she's been gettin better and better..u see it in news videos and making-of vid of hers..i think she's pretty fluent now

Didn't she have singing lessons in New York before her avex debut? Well, it said so on Wikipedia...

If it's true she's at least known conversational English for a while.

It doesn't even have to be correct grammatical English xD. If she can speak in choppy sentences which people learning English are notorious for and I can understand her...W00t.

wow; I'm ashamed to say I didn't see this was an old thread :$

She may barely speak in conversational english... I doubt that she knows more than that. Still, after the release of Secret we have seen her speaking something at least

She was easy to understand in the TalkAsia interview. That one's my favorite <3

I think she has quite good English for someone from Japan with probably limited lessons.

She knows more than some other Singers do, that's for sure lol

her english is pretty good for fans to understand her in concerts! she probably improved! for her to respond to questions reporters were asking her

she is definatly not fluent . i think she just learn random stuff and survival sentences ( since she travel a lot its sometimes necessary even though i think she always have a translator close to her )

people keep saying she is trying , i think since she started in 1999 she had plenty of time to learn english and could have become fluent if she wanted too . she must not find english necessary .

most of japanese singers use english because it sounds more young and more fashionable . thats why in one japanese sentence you will have one english word in their lyrics . wich is pretty funny because sometimes they dont makes sence .

anyway to go back to ayu . i think its like chinese . she is not fluent but if it help her sales why not learn a few just to be able to sing by memory .

i love ayu when she sing totally in japanese and im thanksful she doesnt try to sing in english to start a us carrier like utada . ( even though utada's english is perfect her music sounds better in japanese too ).