Their Second Language

[Leonardo]

Has anyone noticed that the whole time that Leo was in Japan (in the episode "The Ancient One"), he and everyone else were most likely speaking Japanese? The fact that Leo spoke fluently and understood everything shows that Leo most likely knows Japanese as well as he does with English.

Also, Donnie understood the Japanese word for "monkey" when Gen called Casey that. It seems to me that all four of them speak and understand Japanese very well which is not surprising since their father is a native Japanese.

Do you all think that the boys speak Japanese with Splinter and English with other people such as April and Casey?

Me, I can see them speaking English with each other, but with Splinter, I see them speaking a mix of English and Japanese, though Leo would probably most likely speak with Splinter in full Japanese.



Also, here's another interesting thing...
Do you all think that Oroku Saki/Shredder speaks to the TMNT in Japanese? I get that impression when I read the Mirage comics, also, I'm going to assume that in the new series when Leo first met Oroki Saki and Saki was trying to work a partner deal with Leo, he was probably speaking to Leo in Japanese.

[Raphael]

I've thought for a while that the guys could speak and understand japanese, was nevcer sure if it would of been fluent though. But that's certainly interesting to think about it, and now that you mentioned it, I can see the guys doing that.

Yes Gen calling Casey a monkey cracked me up. *snickers*

[zkarlette]

I've never thought of this before but now that you mention it ,I would have imagined that after all that master splinter has teached them he would have teached them some japanese too....

[KROW]

I think Japanese is indeed their second language. When they're with Splinter, I believe they learned it as part of their training, then talk to him using it. As a matter of fact, I think that Splinter disciplines them to write the language down in some cases.

As far as Saki speaking it in the new toon goes, I think he only used it if it was necessary in his ploy to pas for a Japanese businessman. After that, he just carried the accent. 'Course, that's not really important, but just a theory.

[Ra]

I think Splinter brought them up with a mixture of Japanese and English since he's a Japanese rat. After Splinter learnt more English, he taught it to them as their first language before they all turned six or something....

[GreenWillow]

Actually, I think English would be their second language. Really, the only thing Splinter would have known as an ordinary rat would have been the sound of Japanese. So just as he was able to recall Hamato Yoshi's Ninja movments and adapted them to his changing body, I would expect his first attempts at human speech would have been in Japanese.

I'm thinking both Splinter and the TMNT learned English from the television and radio. And like so many kids whose parents come to the US from other countries, they don't retain the accents while the parents do.

Yes, I've thought about this way too much...

~GW