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Have you ever heard of Kansai-ben? Kansai-ben is the name for the dialect used in Osaka and other Kansai areas. If you know, “Nandeyanen” (なんでやねん) or “Bochi bochi denna” (ぼちぼちでんな), that is Kansai-ben! You might know the dialect from TV comedians or Anime such as Detective Conan (名探偵コナン). To introduce this unique dialect, we at Guidable Inc. held an event for those who want to learn Kansai-ben!
Seminar Info
We opened a Kansai-ben Seminar at Akamonkai Japanese Language School (赤門会日本語学校) in Nippori on Aug 29th. This seminar was held for students whose Japanese is over business level, and over 20 students came to see us and enjoyed learning Kansai-ben together!
Seminar Contents
In order for the participants to learn Kansai-ben, the most unique and funniest dialect in Japan, we organized a 3-part seminar. Those three parts were a lecture, practice and Kansai-ben Contest.
Kansai-ben Lecture
In this part, a native Kansai-ben speaker explains
- Where Kansai-ben came from
- Basic Kansai-ben grammar
- 10 useful Kansai-ben phrases
When you learn Kansai-ben, you really need native Kansai-ben speakers since the accent is totally different from normal Japanese(標準語). Repeating Kansai-ben after a native teacher, you will find out how different and interesting Kansai-ben is. In this part, students were struggling with the differences between Hyojun-go and Kansai-ben at first, however, they enjoyed learning phrases and the occasion where the phrases are used.
Practice
The second part is practicing. In this part, making a pair of two, you can practice using Kansai-ben phrases you have learned in the lecture part. Students role-played short dialogue and practiced Kansai-ben phrases. Students were very active asking questions such as trying to learn real Kansai-ben accents and usage of phrases.
Students practicing Kansai-ben
Contest
After practicing Kansai-ben, it is time to use it! We formed groups of 4 to 6, each group made a short script using Kansai-ben. If you feel it’s too hard, don’t worry! Bilingual staff from Guidable can help you.
Students making scripts
After you are done with making a script, you can give a presentation in front of the class! In this part, you can share your scripts with your classmates. Scripts presented by each group were really good and funny. I thought it was like hearing skits by a a comedian!
Students presenting scripts in front of the class
Overall
We really enjoyed this Kansai-ben seminar with Akamonkai Japanese Language School Students! Students told us they also enjoyed the class. We hope students find it out that Kansai-ben is an amazing dialect and fall in love with it.
Thank you for reading this article, and see you soon!
