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I’m so excited, I’m ready to blow! ...It’s the Free Bird Bonus Show... All right here we go, number four! The first question we’re going to look at is from episode number 29... “エイブさんから見て、発音しにくい日本人の名前ってどんなのですか？「マキ」はどうですか？”
Maki is very easy. No problem pronouncing “Maki”. I think if there are three syllables, then it becomes a little bit challenging for English speakers to do the correct intonation. For example if your name was MakiKO - the Japanese pronunciation or intonation is very even. ma-ki -ko. whereas in English it’s actually hard to get used to this. we are used to stressing one of the syllables, rather than all of them being even.
So you might find people would say MA-ki-ko or ma-KI-ko and it’s actually hard for them to get used to saying three syllables in a row all equally ma-ki-ko so yeah maybe three syllable names. As well asりゃ、りゅ、りょ、 in my first job, one of my coworkers names was りょうこ and I knew her for probably one or two months and the whole time I thought her name was ようこ and one day people were telling me that I’m seeing her name wrong. And I was like “what the fuck are you talking? Her name’s ようこ！ and they were like “No! Her name’s not ようこ、it’s りょうこ！”. And I’m like yeah, yeah, ようこ！”. And they were like, “you’re not saying it! It’s りょうこ！- りゃ、りゅ、りょ！”. And they taught me about the proper pronunciation. Those are two cases where maybe Japanese names can be a little bit challenging.
Also of course sometimes men’s names are four syllables, like “まさひろ” four syllables. that can be tough just because it’s kind of longer than most names that we are used to. if you have a four syllable name, perhaps it’s a good idea to make a nickname - cut it in half. I can only imagine how difficult my life would be if everywhere I went I insisted that everyone has to call me Abraham, not Abe. Abraham! call me Abraham!! It’s too long, of course in katakana エイブラハム how many is that? エイブラハム six syllables! oh gosh give me a break!
We‘ll do one more, there’s a question from Episode number 31. “海外のBBQでエイブさんが気に入っているメニューを教えてください。” Ohh alright! So barbecues overseas. We’ll go with a north American style, maybe Australian is also quite similar - the style of barbecuing is quite different. Japan has a unique style where the barbecue is open and many people help at the same time. usually in North America there’s “the grill master” he would be the person who’s in charge of cooking. We usually wouldn’t have a bunch of people cooking at the same time. The barbecue is also different, the barbecues have a lid and usually we use propane barbecues.
Most BBQs I’ve been to in Japan they’re using charcoal. I love charcoal BBQs. I think they give the food a nice special little smoky taste. I think charcoal tastes the best but it’s also a bit of a pain in the ass. it’s very convenient to just “kssssshhhhh”, switch on the propane and start barbecuing.
The barbecue style is different, and of course the kinds of meat is also very different. In Japan usually the meat is cut into very convenient small pieces so you can just use chopsticks and eat one piece at a time. whereas in North America usually we’re barbecuing stuff like hotdogs, hamburgers and sausages and maybe a steak or chicken and the pieces are quite large, and you need a knife and fork to eat some of the things like pieces of chicken etc.
Anyway, my favorite thing to barbecue is definitely ribs. Ooooh baby I love ribs. baby back ribs, you know, pork ribs. They are just the most delicious thing I can imagine. they’re usually cooked like a whole rack. A rack is slab of ribs. A rack of ribs and you smother it in barbecue sauce! Cook it nice and slow, cook it real slow, and the meat becomes very soft. so soft that it almost falls off of the bone. Ohhh yeah, Baby back ribs. That’s probably my favorite barbecue food - pork ribs. Oh yeah!
All right that is all for today please send me a message on Twitter, or you can use the 問い合わせ form on this website. If there is something you want me to talk about, please let me know! right now I’m just using all the old listener questions to make these bonus episodes while everyone’s quarantined and isolated during this pandemic. so if there is something new that you want me to talk about please just let me know.