Here's a Video of PlayStation Boss Jim Ryan Speaking Japanese

Ok, I don't really agree with some of the decisions he's making on the company.... but this is pretty cool.

Not bad Jim..I heard PS doesn't care about Japan anymore on ResetEra...The boss is learning Japanese though? lol...

I don’t like to criticise people for things I can’t do any better, but I get the feeling this is one of those times where people who actually speak Japanese will be cringing! I’m sure I’ll be corrected now, but it did sound like he was haltingly and hesitantly reading a script he didn’t quite understand.
Then again, maybe the inflections were perfect and that’s how Japanese is meant to sound.

Dude sounds like the only Japanese words he knows are the lyrics to his favourite Miku songs.

At least he tried lol.

It does look like he's reading this, and he does start and stop in some interesting places, but overall not a bad attempt at all. If he's reading romaji then he's going a pretty good job of the pronunciation regardless of the overall flow.

Wwwwwww, let's all point and laugh at Jim-san! Baka! Kekekeke!

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a very important date with my favourite body pillow. That is, if my mom has finished washing it.

@thefourfoldroot I have been learning Japanese for almost 6 years. Jim was most def reading off a script . His pronunciations were very beginner level but overall he didnt do that bad of a job to get his message out to the Japanese Audience.
No one should ever feel cringe towards someone trying to speak another persons native tongue thats not theirs . =)

He probably learned it from playing Yakuza

Without any subtitles.

@thefourfoldroot I'm sure you meant to say "people who are Japanese" rather than "people who speak Japanese"! If you've learnt to speak Japanese or another language, you should never cringe at someone learning/beginning as you would have sounded like a fool when you first started. (Native speakers shouldn't cringe either to be fair).

Atleast he trys. Deffo reading from a script. No where near as fluent as Andrew House.

@thefourfoldroot cringing that someone took the time to learn a language is harsh, not easy!

Definitely reading off a script going off the pronunciation but also definitely better than most people that try. I cringe every time I hear some American say "Bondai Nomco" and when people weirdly pronounce "Sekiro" as "Securo". How are they reading "kiro" as "curo"? 😂

His pronunciation ain’t bad. But his obvious reading makes it seem like he doesn’t know what he’s saying, which goes against his not bad pronunciation. I would assume he would need at least to be able to speak and understand Japanese at a business level for him to operate the company.

Cool. Sounds like a good effort to me.
People should stop hating and insulting the man for no other reason than clickbait they saw in the media and then play virtue signalling about platitudes from others.
Just saying what I think as usual. 🤷‍♂️

@ArcadeHeroes
Spot on!

Lots of respect for Jim for trying a tough language!! 👌👍
It's easy to mock someone for doing something he's not good at. This world defo needs more folks who mock others. 🤦‍♂️

I understand a joke is a joke, but we should admit that he's doing a better job than most of us ever will!

I wish we would spend more time criticizing bad business practises. The greedy bigwigs have been conning us for way too long now. 😉

@ShogunRok Okay Robert, I must admit this is the single funniest post I've read here. You really caught me off-guard with the second half lmao

It's not the best attempt, but I won't knock him for it. He did a decent job for someone who's not fluent in a foreign language. I once tried to learn a bit of Japanese a few years back, and I can say my speaking attempts were no better. It's a nice gesture on his part, regardless.

I don't think there's any evidence from this video that he's actually studying Japanese as he is clearly just reading it. In saying that, he is not mangling the pronunciation too badly and that's a win for sure. As a somewhat fluent speaker, Japanese is relatively easy to pick up but very very very hard to master.

Satouru Iwata delivered entire Nintendo Directs and E3 presentations entirely in English. And he more or less didn't understand a word of English. He memorized all the sounds for weeks of rehearsal, but he felt it was important for it to truly be direct. I'm pretty sure Jim could get a brief speech out with some practice without fluency.

Shaun Layden on the other hand was wholly fluent in Japanese and spent years as the right hand of the old ceo in Tokyo HQ before going to the PlayStation division.

Let's see if we can find video of Spreadsheet Jimmy actually playing a PlayStation, though.....

It's funny when he make a space between words Watashi..wa ...des.. sore ... wa ... demo...

but's it's ok i give him a decent 7.5 at least for trying LOL

Fair play ! He should book lessons with mark cerny tho or Andrew house

Sounds just like every single example of stereotyped gaijin speech in anime, except even less fluent - but good effort nonetheless. Most execs would just give their full message in English or add "konnichiwa" at the beginning to pretend they care.

This guy is such a tool.