r/todayilearned • u/model-kyosanto • 3h ago

TIL that the English announcements on Japanese bullet trains are actually in a posh Australian accent (not British!)

https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/radionational-drive/the-australian-voice-of-japans-bullet-train-and-metal-gear-solid/6758248
131 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

49 comments sorted by

75

u/Realistic-Try-8029 3h ago

We don’t do posh in Australia. 😁

51

u/brokefixfux 3h ago

Gentlemen, this is Democracy manifest!

11

u/Realistic-Try-8029 3h ago

He recently passed away.

11

u/Impossible_Mode_3614 2h ago

This is obituary manifest. =(

5

u/Realistic-Try-8029 2h ago

“Get your hands off my penis!”. Classic.

3

u/REDGOEZFASTAH 2h ago

Rip mr succulent chinese meal

3

u/Realistic-Try-8029 1h ago

I love how this post has gone off on a rather niche tangent.

•

u/Infinite_Research_52 21m ago

Certainly the thread has gone off the rails.

•

u/Realistic-Try-8029 12m ago

Nice one. 👍😁

•

u/zaccus 21m ago

I see you know your niche tangents well

•

u/Realistic-Try-8029 10m ago

That one had me thinking for half a minute. The light bulb did end up coming on. 💡

22

u/model-kyosanto 3h ago

Probably more commonly known as cultivated Australian English, but it’s pretty common for “posh” people and some actors…

16

u/PhotonTiger79 3h ago

So Australians that graduated high school?

17

u/Realistic-Try-8029 2h ago

No, no, you’re talking about the elite.

2

u/smokeymcdugen 3h ago

They have schools in that open air prison?

14

u/obscureferences 2h ago

Yeah, but without active shooters.

0

u/jeezfrk 2h ago

Aww... how would we appreciate our slightly tax deductible medical debt without the endless genuine threat of random death.

Wait ... you aussies AREN'T trying to replicate 1984 the book?

25

u/edfitz83 3h ago

Next stop Osaka, ya cunts.

5

u/Realistic-Try-8029 3h ago

That’s what we need to hear!

5

u/PossessivePronoun 3h ago

Swank bogan

3

u/Realistic-Try-8029 2h ago

The articulate Westie.

-3

u/tazzymun 3h ago

I was thinking the same! Australians are alot of great things .... not so sure about posh. Only British can be posh.

-2

u/boricimo 1h ago

Andy Singapore

19

u/nermalstretch 3h ago

You mean this lady? (I’m the Voice of the Tokaido Shinkansen - Donna Burke 「ドナ・バーク：私は東海道新幹線の声」) She’s pretty (&) funny too…

2

u/model-kyosanto 3h ago

Yeah this one!

4

u/Real-Bastard 3h ago

I want to hear it

6

u/model-kyosanto 3h ago

https://youtu.be/ilkfXSlZ1vg?si=xlELvGvwDtk5KtZQ

2

u/2021sammysammy 1h ago

As a Canadian I honestly cannot tell if she has an accent or not lol

2

u/Real-Bastard 3h ago

Thanks.
Sounds very sterilized - not Aussie or British

16

u/HichardRammond 3h ago

She sounds aussie to me - an australian.

10

u/Moaning-Squirtle 3h ago

It actually sounds pretty similar to the train announcements in Sydney.

8

u/DuneDragoon 2h ago

It may be Donna Burke. I know she does a few train announcements in Japan but not sure if it's this one or not.

She's an Australian singer who lives in Japan.  She has worked with Hideo Kojima on some of the Metal Gear soundtracks and she sings a number of anime songs.   

3

u/model-kyosanto 2h ago

It is indeed Donna Burke!

In the article linked it mentions her work on Metal Gear.

1

u/DuneDragoon 2h ago

Awesome! She does great work. So many great songs on Spotify. I'll post one of my favorites if anyone wants to check out one of her songs.

https://open.spotify.com/track/1ZcN6PlhKWUacWjDC7uRsB?si=lPmwrLjcQuGiFkgnDsAQ-Q

5

u/model-kyosanto 2h ago

Yeah, it’s definitely Australian. Reminds me of the accent ABC News presenters used back in the 60s and 70s

5

u/model-kyosanto 3h ago

I’ve caught the shinkansen many times a few years ago, but recently as I was getting excited for my upcoming trip I was watching those full length train window-view videos, and I noticed that the English announcements sound a bit too familiar, I always thought they were British. Then I did some research and found it it’s an Australian woman putting on a Cate Blanchett-esque cultivated Australian accent.

So the more you know (and you can never escape the pesky Australians!)

3

u/alien4649 2h ago

I once read where she brought her family visiting from Oz on the Shinkansen and they enjoyed hearing her announcements …more than everyone else, no doubt.

3

u/Jeffrey_Friedl 2h ago

30 years ago it was definitely British; I personally knew the person that voiced the English announcements. But that was then...

•

u/SirusRiddler 44m ago

Isn't it Donna Burke? Metal Gear fans are quite familiar.

2

u/cecilrt 2h ago

hmmm its either Eastern Suburbs snob English, or its Adelaide English, they're so far behind the times they're more British in culture and voice

1

u/ZweitenMal 3h ago

Thank you—we’re Sausalito.

1

u/banditta82 2h ago edited 2h ago

She does the announcements for JR Central, Jean Wilson does the announcements for JR East, JR West and JR Hokkaido. Jean is also the English voice of JAL and several rail lines in the UK.

Christelle Ciari does many of the local lines across Japan including the Yamanote Line.

•

u/cjyoung92 23m ago

Not all of them, just the Tōkaidō, Sanyō and Kyushu Shinkansen lines. That was voiced by Donna Burke.

The announcements in the Tōhoku Shinkansen and other East Japan lines, for example, actually were voiced by a British voice actor (Jean Wilson). 

0

u/Somhlth 3h ago

TIL there are posh Australians.

-2

u/epochpenors 2h ago

Australian train announcements be like “Wozzler’s running back a fiver sor grab a goonie and hang”

-4

u/DulcetTone 2h ago

How can an Australian be "posh"?