I've met many foreigners in Japan who insert Japanese articles of speech into their fluent, everyday English. 'Ne' is probably the most common, an emphasizer. Then there's 'yo', another emphasizer, 'hai', yes that too and 'ja', a precursor to some kind of decisive statement. I'm guilty of it myself, finding no suitable alternative to a quick 'otsukare' at the end of a day's work or a tedious job performed with someone else you went through it all with together.
Garth, the proud landlord of the Meguro Tavern London Pub for may years, is the first and only person I've met to reverse the process and insert English into fluent Japanese.
Sure, enough people try to pass off English words as Japanese, a bit like the average Englishman in France, who, having come unstuck will persist with English words pronounced in a French accent and a loud voice when all else fails. Thank the Japanese penchant of borrowing words and adopting them wholeheartedly, if differently from their original meaning in their original tongue, for this. A little cross-pollination for you.
Garth will be recounting a story (he has lots) to one or other of the Japanese regulars and just to make sure they're still with him, he'll say a quick, 'right?'. It's really quite strange to hear a stream of Japanese followed by an earnest, English 'right?', usually just before the punchline or the climax.
One Monday night recently, soon after I'd told Garth I'm going to quit my little Monday night arbeito job with him, a customer handed me a bottle of Corona with a lime wedge wedged in the bottle neck asking for it to be poked down. I duly did so, with a straw, upon which Garth turned to me and said, 'There you go, that's what you studied and went to University for!' and I heard a loud sharp bang of a nail being struck firmly on the head.
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