netzto comments

This is nothing but a fluff piece about a McDonald's promotion involving free coffee. Yet a few posters, just as they always seem to do, are trying make a mountain out of a molehole and turn even the most innocuous thing into an international incident. I sometimes wonder if these people ever experience anything here without trying to turn it into a "Japan vs. their home country" type of thing.

If you want the free coffee then go get one. If you don't then don't go. If you prefer Starbucks then go to Starbucks.

If you think McDonald's is really off the mark with this then give 'em a call and let them know. Tell them you want your free coffee 24/7. Tell them they're being unfair to everyone who is unable to get a free coffee because they can't go so early in the morning. They'll probably be nice about it and send you a gift card (that you can use at anytime) for your trouble.

Ivan CoughanoffalotOCT. 01, 2012 - 10:08AM JST 11) Native English speakers can never pronounce my name correctly (ex. Shingo becomes Chingo) I'm sorry, but a culture that insists the word "Cat" has a Y sound in it and an O at the end doesn't speak from a position of insuperable strength when the topic is clarity of pronunciation. Either learn a new word correctly, or use a Japanese word. Don't mangle the non-Japanese word until it sounds japanese-ish and then expect anyone who wasn't born here to keep a straight face when you try and say it out loud.

I know exactly what you mean. I hate it when many English speakers mangle Japanese words like "karaoke" and say "Carry-Oh-key", "Tokyo" and say "Toe-Key-Oh", or "Kyoto" and say "Key-Oh-Toe". One of my favorite is hearing people pronounce "Kobe Beef" an "Ko-bee Beef" just because of NBA player Kobe Bryant. It was also annoying when people pronounced "Ichiro" as "E-Cheer-rue" though most people have stopped doing that by now. At least they always pronounced "gojira" correctly. Well sort of correctly.