Hi all,
After years of learning very slowly with Duolingo, I've invested in a tutor and it's been very exciting. It's definitely feeling more productive.
My question is this: should I just be saying English loanwords in my American accent or should I be adopting Japanese pronunciations in these cases? Obviously, if I were writing them I would do it in katakana, but when I'm saying a word I know that's from English (my first language) I feel like I'm kind of problematically putting on a costume if I pronounce it how it's been transliterated into Japanese, especially in specific cases.
For example: I live in Philadelphia, and–in my first lesson–when my tutor asked me where I live… I was slightly non-committal and said something between "Philadelphia" and フィラデルフィア (which I've seen it written as multiple times; I wasn't just winging it). I leaned more towards the latter, but… I felt self-conscious about it afterwards and there have been a small handful of similar situations since then.
In other words: which is weirder to a Japanese speaker's ear? Me going full-on USA in how I would say something like "Philadelphia" or me going full-on Japanese transliteration as faithfully as I can?
Do you think there's a difference in what I should do between proper nouns like Philadelphia and something like fork/フォーク?
From my own perspective as an English speaker, I will say that–for example–when a Spanish-speaking person says–in an English sentence–some term that's from Spanish in some way (say, a food or place), I'm not thrown when their Spanish accent takes over. That sounds normal to me.
So, yeah: I'm just wondering what's most normal/expected! (And I'm asking reddit rather than my tutor because I think it's a slightly embarrassing question!)
Thanks!
by devwil