shiina's english
 

While I was in japan and singing karaoke, I realized the sheer number of english songs shiina has. And they are kinda deep too. So I think she has a good grip on the english language, or a damn good dictionary. So my question is have you ever heard shiina speak english, like conversation. Like has she ever spoke english with... let's say utada, a native speaker of english? I know she uses kanji out of the yin-yang, but is her english as proficent?

Now if she speaks in english all the time or this has been discussed to death, please feel free to charge it to my NOOB card. I don't know, so I am just asking...

You may want to check this topic out, though it's more controversial in nature than your latest post.

And don't worry about the "NOOB card". As someone who actively posts (or makes 'payments'), you qualify for platinum status.

Wow read all 10 pages, man electric mole is teaching me so much. Not only did I learn about shiina's english (and other's opinions of it) I learned a bit of language and geography. I should study electric mole for my gre test...

Well in my personal opinion I think that shiina is one of the best artists ever. The more I learn, the more I like. Plus I feel embarrassed, some people were commenting that her english did not make sense sometimes (I think they were talking about la salle de bain), but it still seems better than the stuff I come up with...

Off-subject, but you may want to check this little-known feature out as well:

User CP > Edit Options > Thread Display Options > Number of Posts to Show Per Page

I listened to La Salle de Bain for the first time in months (or probably closer to a year) to hear what all the hubbub's about and I had forgotten how well it's written. I like how the brazen sexuality of its lyrics (bon appétit; a scent so sweet that it got me dirty) contrasts with that Disney princess music.

I can understand why people might have a problem with it, given that the lyrics can be bizarre and our Ringo stresses the "wrong" syllable sometimes. (But how do we know she's wrong? Maybe she's right and we're the wrong ones! :wakka: "I DONE MADE A FUNNY!")

Shiina's english confuses me...not because I can't understand...it's just that it's so inconsistent....for example Sigma....the lyrics are pretty straight forward except for the "I am not you position" which I think was just an error in what word she wanted to use (possession) I mean when you think about how it correlates with the lyrics it would make sense that that would be the correct word to use...In "17" and "Akane sasu..." it's another "so close but no cigar" moment....but some other songs like kuki (despite the fact it doesn't make a lot of sense), la salle de bain, and Sakuran she makes way more sense at least grammatically....I guess what I'm saying that as long it's grammatically correct, her english is pretty good and obviously it's getting better...I mean sure sometimes her lyrics are a little awkward but even Utada has awkward phrasing in her songs (ex. Easy Breezy)...so I think it's pretty good...what I would like to hear Shiina do though is speak in english....I once found a vid. of Yoko Kanno speaking like one sentence of english and I "O.O ZOMG'ed"....so just to hear Shiina speak english would be awesome....after all she did speak french once...

That's interesting....I've never heard her actually SPEAK in English.

I went to karaoke last night in Koreatown here in L.A., and Ringo songs, including her English ones, were all over the catalog.

Do karaoke establishments have some super sacred circle of trust? Not only can't fans find Shiina Ringo karaoke tracks available for download anywhere, but I never seem them on Yahoo! Japan Auctions either, even though I've seen industry insider nonkaraoke CDs for Karisome Otome (DEATH JAZZ ver.) and Senkou Shoujo.

Why do I have to live in stupid florida? We do not have that stuff here, to my knowledge. But yea in japan it was the same, shiina had at least 10 pages of songs, that is not including HF which was on its own seperate 2 pages.

@Glathannus
I had no idea that was there, I changed stuff, but I do not if it worked, I will check it again later.

@Cosmo!
But seriously about the we are wrong.. maybe its true. Perhaps we view her english as wrong because we look at it the wrong way. perhaps it does not make sense because we do not understand her "theme" of the song. Until shiina herself states this was the theme of la salle, then all we can do is guess what her theme was. The song could be about a coversation between two fishes in a fishbowl. If it was, we would be forced to look at what she wrote differently. And mostly, the mistakes might be intional, it might fit with her theme.

@RollOverHobo
You heard yoko kanno speak in english? I f-ing love her and her songs in english are awesome. I really would assassinate a george dubbya offspring just to hear her speak in english. yoko... man you have given me too much. How did she sound? Come to think of it, the only japanese stars I heard speak in english were at the native level for both languages.

Making a list (short list)
utada
emyli
crystal kay

Anyways if you could find a link for the yoko it would be stupendous.

To be honest, I do not really know how karaoke machines work, but I know its a machine hooked up to a tv. Plus in karaoke machines, the music is "faithly" re-created. It is no where near the level of a karaoke on a single. But it is my guess that whoever owns the karaoke companies are into the music business. Because finished tracks of utada's heart station came out the same day as the album (I mean non-single songs like celebrate). No way they recorded the song and got it out to the different stores within a day. So I assume it is a deal with the record company. And I guess that different karaoke companies get whatever music they like, because not all karaoke places have the same song selection. But anyways maybe the karaoke places are under contract not to realease karaokes of the songs. But I have no idea what format they are in, I do not know if they could even be sold (or aquired) to/by someone without having the machine. Perhaps someone knows more about this, and they can correct me.