George Takei to Wed
A recent California Supreme Court ruling paved the way for gay marriage in the state. Many news outlets, including the BBC, are covering perhaps the most famous person to take advantage of the opportunity, Japanese-American actor George Takei, best known as Sulu from Star Trek. He obtained a marriage certificate and plans to wed his partner of 20-years, Brad Altman, in September. His official and unofficial biographies show a strong connection to his Japanese roots including speaking Japanese, studying at (Edward’s alma mater) Sophia University in Tokyo, and being involved in many Japanese organizations. He was also one of the many Japanese and Japanese-Americans interned in the U.S. during WWII.
George is former president of Friends of Little Tokyo Arts, an organization that encourages and supports artists. In the international arena, George was appointed by President Clinton to the board of the Japan-United States Friendship Commission, where he served two terms. He is a member of the board of directors of the U.S.-Japan Bridging Foundation. The Government of Japan recognized George’s contribution to the Japan-United States relationship by giving him the Order of the Rising Sun, gold Rays with Rosette. The decoration was conferred by His Majesty, Emperor Akihito, at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo in November, 2004.
He may be able to speak Japanese. However, when he was a character on Heroes, my wife said his Japanese was terrible. Though I am far from fluent, I could even tell that his Japanese didn’t sound very authentic.
Did anybody else see him on Heroes? What did you think of his Japanese?
June 20th, 2008 at 2:42 amI watched him in Heroes too. I am too am nowhere near fluent, but with the amount of Japanese I have heard Mr. Takei’s seemed forced. Masi Oka’s Japanese sounded more authentic, and James Kyson Lee’s sounded a little better than George’s. I heard that each of them approached their Japanese lines differently. Masi Oka approached his lines trying to understand them semantically, while Lee and Takei only learned them phonetically.
June 20th, 2008 at 4:47 amGoing by memory, the actress who played Hiro’s sister and the other actress who played his love interest were the only ones who spoke like native speakers (probably because they were from Japan). Also going by memory, the lines delivered by the love interest seemed at odds with the medieval setting. (Haven’t seen the show, but the Korean couple in Lost is - as I understand it - similar, in that the woman is a native speaker of Korean while the man has an American accent - again, due to the respective origins of the actors in question.)
June 20th, 2008 at 4:57 amIn Japan the chance of the way to gay marriage seems very small for the time being. Even the cases as de facto marriage or informal marriage between the same sex couples wouldn’t easily be accepted in law. Some people use the adoption as substitution.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage
June 20th, 2008 at 10:06 amLike a friend of mine said: “Why shouldn’t gay people have the right to be as miserable as straight folks in marriage?” heh.
And about Japanese pronunciation….watch the movie WAR | Rogue Assassin with Jet li, you will laugh your ass off.
June 20th, 2008 at 1:55 pm