On Fri, 8 Nov 1996, bridget ellen engman wrote:

Principal Kuno speaks in basic Japanese, using a lot of English phrases 
(in and of themselves) and words (inserted in Japanese sentences.)  An 
example from his song on the Uta Karuta album:

Ranma no ALBUM  kiiteiru YOU tachi ni BIG na PRESENT arima---su
Sore wa ME no WONDERFUL na GOOD SONG de---su.

   (His song isn't that wonderful, either. :) )
   Notice he dra---ws his co---nsonants out like Ame---ricans do to 
indicate stress. There is very little stress of any syllables in 
Japanese words, you see, and when a Japanese comedian wants to make fun of 
_gaijin_ he will imitate them by putting in the stresses of syllables 
that should not be there but we silly outlanders put in anyway. Our 
comedian will get great laughs by having his _gaijin_ jabber about how 
Ame---rican ota---ku just lo---ve Ra---nma 1/2, espe---cially Aka---ne 
and that gi---rl with the spa---tula, but why--- are their ey---es so 
go---ddamn big?
   Basically it's a play on American speech patterns, the principal 
himself being not so much a stereotypical Hawaiian as a stereotypical 
American. (Does he actually use many Hawaiian phrases? I don't think so...)

Rendering this in English is... scary.  Probably the easiest way is to 
have him pepper his speech with Hawaiian phrases, as his strange speech 
habits were picked up on his trip to Hawaii.  Go listen to some Don HO, 
have him sing Tiny Bubbles, whatever.  Favorite pet English phrases 
(which you can use by themselves) are "Goddamn," Hello, My students..." 
and "Oh my God!" -- he also calls Ranma and the other students "boy" or 
"girl," (depending) and tends to be very cheerful, even when saying 
something tremendously vicious or stupid.

   Another possibility: Bear in mind that this is in fact Kuno's father. 
Kuno and Kodachi seem to be aristocrats of some sort, given their 
palatial house (in the manga _and_ the anime) and certailny their speech 
patterns. Given that in the popular imagination of the English-speaking 
world all noblemen are English, I fancy the Kunos speaking in 
middle-class southern English accents normally. (Well, Kuno is the 
Shakespearean, right? :) )
   The principal for his part would then be an Englishman trying to 
impersonate American speech patterns, which invariably sounds awful; 
watch any British sci-fi show (say _Red Dwarf_) that features ostensibly 
American characters and you'll know what I mean. ("Oh my god!" would 
become, for instance, "O---h mah gaw---d!") Basically this is somebody 
trying to make out that he's an American and failing miserably in 
everything but making a fool of himself.

Strength to you.  You'll need it.

   Heh.

Paul Corrigan
budgie@insomnia3.dorms.utoledo.edu
Who prefers Irish accents himself...:)