# Karaoke
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karaoke/1751
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 30, 1999, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karaoke/1751 "1999-06-30T03:03:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [June 30, 1999, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karaoke/1751/1 "1999-06-30T03:03:00Z")
When did this become “kar-ee-okee”? My friend, who is moderately fluent in japanese, says it’s pronounced “kara-okay”, which also seems to be the phoenetic pronunciation to the word. Also, why would they change the pronunciation?
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I’m ready to meet Him
‘Cause where I’m livin’ ain’t right
Black hate white
White hate black
It’s right back to the same fight…
–DMX
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [June 30, 1999, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karaoke/1751/2 "1999-06-30T05:50:00Z")
When American people screwed it up? I mean, c’mon, it’s not like we call the country that borders us to our south “May-hee-ko,” even though that’s the way it’s said down there. There are plenty of foreign words and phrases that English-speaking people butcher, and that’s just the way it is, possibly because it’s just easier for us to say it one way than it is the other. I wonder if people abroad collectively torture our language as much as we mutilate their pronunciations to suit us?
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [June 30, 1999, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karaoke/1751/3 "1999-06-30T10:12:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> I wonder if people
> abroad collectively torture our language as much as we mutilate their pronunciations to suit us?
Errrr…yeah. Have you ever heard a French person speak English? And I have it on good authority that they also refuse to even attempt native pronunciation in a variety of other languages too. Mind you, it’s probably this gallic arrogance that makes them the sexiest race on earth.
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [June 30, 1999, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karaoke/1751/4 "1999-06-30T13:22:00Z")
Ever heard a Japanese person say “McDonald’s”? It’s not pretty.
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¾È ³ç, ÁÖ µ¿ ÀÏ
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [June 30, 1999, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karaoke/1751/5 "1999-06-30T16:09:00Z")
If you are ever in Tokyo and go to MacDonalds you had better order a ‘chi-zha-bah-gah’ or they will go, “Ehhh?” It’s okay to strangle them at that point.
or
A: Big Mac.
B: Eh?
A: Big Mac.
B: Eh?
A: Bee-guu Mah-ku!!
B: Ah!! Bee-guu Mah-ku desu ka?
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 1, 1999, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karaoke/1751/6 "1999-07-01T05:50:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> I wonder if people
> abroad collectively torture our language as much as we mutilate their pronunciations to suit us?
That reminds me of something that annoys me to no end: people that butcher other languages just to be irritating. In Spanish class, for instance, people would butcher words so bad much to everyone’s amusement whilst I’d be sitting there covering my ears and grinding my teeth. 🙂
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Welfy
I wonder what the king is doing tonight?
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [June 30, 1999, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karaoke/1751/7 "1999-06-30T20:06:00Z")
In my Spanish class, something that students did was add the letter “o” to the ends of English words to make them Spanish.
Instead of:
Yo necesito ir al baño.
It became:
Yo needo to go-o al baño.
## That became pretty annoying after a while.
“[He] beat his fist down upon the table and hurt his hand and became so
further enraged… that he beat his fist down upon the table even harder and
hurt his hand some more.” – Joseph Heller’s Catch-22
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [June 30, 1999, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karaoke/1751/8 "1999-06-30T21:04:00Z")
in french class we called it Franglais, in russian class,
“Ranglisski” by this pattern, the spanish equivalent would be… Espanglish? anyone?
Not to defend any annoying spanish-class jerks here, but russian does have a system whereby any foreign verb can be converted to a Russian verb by aading an ending that basically sounds like “o-vaht”
Example: “Parkovaht” – “To park” (as in, your car).
Voila! a conjugateable, regular verb.
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 2, 1999, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karaoke/1751/9 "1999-07-02T05:18:00Z")
Actually, it’s called “Spanglish.”
From what I can remember, it is usually used in California.
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“[He] beat his fist down upon the table and hurt his hand and became so
further enraged… that he beat his fist down upon the table even harder and
hurt his hand some more.” – Joseph Heller’s Catch-22
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 1, 1999, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karaoke/1751/10 "1999-07-01T18:02:00Z")
“Spanglish” is a very detailed language that is used in almost all Southern California restaurants where the dining room staff’s first language is English and that of the kitchen staff is Spanish. You also hear it spoken in other industries like landscaping, construction and agriculture that new arrivals from Latin America are drawn to.
Last I heard The California Culinary Academy offers a “Spanglish” class called “Restaurant Spanish”.
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 3, 1999, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karaoke/1751/11 "1999-07-03T04:18:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> in french class we called it Franglais, in russian class,
> “Ranglisski” by this pattern, the spanish equivalent would be… Espanglish? anyone?
IIRC, in _2010_ Arthur C. Clarke wrote of a Russian ship which had some Americans on board. I forgot what he called the combination of English & Russian.
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“Age is mind over matter; if you don’t mind, it don’t matter.” -Leroy “Satchel” Paige