Is Yoshiki the only one?

[BloodofBathory]

Is Yoshiki the only one that can speak english well in the band? I always thought that Sugizo could speak english. hide as well.
I mean, it's always been one of things I just automatically 'assumed' however never really looked into.
I've never heart Pata or Heath speak english...that is...when they do talk.
Toshi I'm just not to sure about.
But does anyone know how well the members (excluding Yoshiki) speak english?

[MiscastDice]

hide could, at least well enough to work in the US. I'm pretty sure he didn't *only* work with people who spoke Japanese.

From personal experience, Pata can speak some English. He's not incredibly fluent or perfect...... but he's good enough that a non-Japanese-speaker such as myself can converse with him and can relate to him. That said, if he doesn't WANT to speak to someone he can pretend, as anyone can, not to understand or not care.

Taiji can understand some English as well, though it's like my friend said.... for Pata and Taiji their English is very much "bang bitches English".... as in it's enough to communicate with American groupies and with fans.... but not, say, enough to manage in continuous English every day in LA without help....

Sugizo can speak English and had a wife that didn't seem to speak Japanese very much so... yeah....that and he translates his own Myspace blogs from what I hear.

[denx]

if i m not mistaken, toshi speak english better than yoshiki (forget wheres the source)

[rafaelo]

which I know yoshiki,hide, toshi and sugizo talk english  in the good without problems..

[Yu~Kun]

Sugizo definitely speaks English...I think i've heard Toshi speaking in English...well Heath now...err...not sure XD

[Beauty/Broken]

Sugizo speaks fluently enough now to be able to travel without a translator, around 10 years ago when he was in London recording his first solo album he was a little bit ropey with his English so needed people around him to bridge the communication barrier.

Toshi speaks English at a conversational level, but hasn't really had the practice that Yoshiki has. There are many clips of Toshi speaking in English, such as the 2008 reunion lives when he speaks to Richard Fortus. His voice in English sounds... kinda strange XD

Hide's English was a little bit suspect at first, but he spent a lot of time in Los Angeles for X Japan and his solo project as well as owning a house therr, but his pronounciation of English words was never very strong. His English lyrics in Zilch kinda stand as testament to this.

As far as I'm aware Pata can speak very few phrases in English, Heath is a little more rounded than him and has sung in English before on several occasions for his solo project, but neither are particularly strong speakers to say the least.

As for Taiji, in interviews when he's been asked to speak in English he's always seemed either unable or reluctant, but I've seen at least one video from his live in LA last year that proves he can at least communicate with people in it.

[Tanabata]

I have thought about this too in regards to hide.  I'm under the impression (and, it is just my impression) that he was one of those sorts who could "understand" much more than he made out.  I mean, his listening skills were probably very good but I've never heard him speak English (except when singing and that can be rote learned) and when he says to a waitress in LA "that's all" (he just ordered beer...I'm sure most of you know what I'm talking about).

I LOVE when Yoshiki speaks English.  I really love it.  Pass me a fan, prrrease....

[mC]

I think that maybe Yoshiki can speak better English than Toshi. You can't really judge how good peoples grasp of a language is on how well they sing it. For example, when Toshi sang a cover of Imagine back in the 90's and when he sang Beautiful Love Song and High Flying Birds, you could say that his English was quite good. But then all you have to do is listen to Pain, and you can see that his pronunciation isn't as good as the songs mentioned.

It is one thing to practice pronouncing a set of words over and over again for a song, and another thing to practice pronouncing an enormous amount of words for conversations.

[Amethyst_Dahlia]

Sugizo speaks English very well. He has a bit of an accent, but he's basically fluent. =D

I've heard Toshi can speak English well too. Which would make sense since he sings in English often. ^^

hide also seemed to be pretty fluent. I do wonder if he felt confident speaking in English though; when I went to Necromance and met Nancy, who was working there back when hide had visited, she told me that he only spoke in Japanese to her, and that his brother Hiroshi would translate for him.

And that's the extent of what I know. XD"

[Ulquiorra]

A commentor on youtube talked about how he met Toshi once, it sounds legit, you know, he didn't come up with some bull like "oh yeah, I met Toshi, he said I could X's new singer". It sounds like a pretty legit but facepalm story.

He said he saw Toshi in a cafe or something like that, said "hi" to him in Japanese as he walked past, then he went over to his friend and said "Toshi is really short, I had no idea how short he was" Toshi turned around and said he heard him XD. He wasn't annoyed with this guy at all though apparently.

Sounds like it could be true to me, and would prove Toshi does now a lot of English.

[denx]

A commentor on youtube talked about how he met Toshi once, it sounds legit, you know, he didn't come up with some bull like "oh yeah, I met Toshi, he said I could X's new singer". It sounds like a pretty legit but facepalm story.

He said he saw Toshi in a cafe or something like that, said "hi" to him in Japanese as he walked past, then he went over to his friend and said "Toshi is really short, I had no idea how short he was" Toshi turned around and said he heard him XD. He wasn't annoyed with this guy at all though apparently.

Sounds like it could be true to me, and would prove Toshi does now a lot of English.

i think i ever read that comment on youtube as well

[roseofpain84]

I think that maybe Yoshiki can speak better English than Toshi. You can't really judge how good peoples grasp of a language is on how well they sing it. For example, when Toshi sang a cover of Imagine back in the 90's and when he sang Beautiful Love Song and High Flying Birds, you could say that his English was quite good. But then all you have to do is listen to Pain, and you can see that his pronunciation isn't as good as the songs mentioned.

It is one thing to practice pronouncing a set of words over and over again for a song, and another thing to practice pronouncing an enormous amount of words for conversations.

It's also a very different thing being able to pronounce something and being able to actually speak/understand a language.
You can get a great accent just by imitating what you hear or by being told how to say things but that doesn't mean you have the grammatical and vocabulary knowledge to converse or understand anything.

[BloodofBathory]

tHanks for the reply's...I always figured that Sugizo and hide could speak good english because of the work they did.  But was never too sure about the rest of the members...

[IronMaitallica]

Don't most Japanese people have some grasp of English by the time they are adults?

[Sander]

No.

[Faestian]

LMAO @ Ulquiorra's Toshi/Commentator/YouTube Story. That is classic!

Commentator: Konbanwa, Toshisan

Toshi: *Nod* Konbanwa

Commentator to friend: Wow, I just met Toshi and man, he's a lot shorter than I thought!

Toshi: I heard that.

Just...classic, and funny cute. Thanks for the giggle, Ulquiorra

[Macha]

Thank you for that clear answer, Hypno xD

[BloodofBathory]

lol

[Dahlia]

i think Toshi  speak English better thao yoshiki

[tank]

I'm not sure Toshi has a better grasp of English than Yoshiki, but I can understand him better than Yoshiki. He may not pronounce perfectly, but at least he speaks clearly.