<story><title>Ask HN: Is there an “uncanny valley” effect with startup MVPs?</title><text>I am asking because I have noticed that as I build better landing pages for my MVPs I get judged more harshly.
This got me thinking if there is a way in which having a not particularly attractive landing page might get people to approach the product in a different way.</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>SenHeng</author><text>Foreigners in Japan have the same issue. Pretend not to speak a lick of Japanese and you&amp;#x27;ll get great service. Speak just a little and suddenly they think you can read Archimedes (or the Japanese equivalent).</text></item><item><author>ChrisMarshallNY</author><text>I worked (in the US), with a French guy, who had lived in the US for many years (as an adult).&lt;p&gt;He had very little accent. He had obviously worked very hard to remove the accent (big job), but he still understood English as a secondary language, and sometimes had difficulty comprehending dialogue (especially in New York, where we talk quickly).&lt;p&gt;People didn’t cut him slack for the lack of comprehension, where I think they would have, if he had a stronger accent.&lt;p&gt;I also knew an Italian, who had a strong accent, but a better command of English than most native speakers. I think he deliberately played his accent up.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>wccrawford</author><text>My wife and I went to Tokyo, and it stayed in a hotel by Disney.  We spent like 4-5 days in Tokyo itself, and another 4-5 at the Disney parks.&lt;p&gt;My experience, everywhere in Tokyo from small restaurants to Disney, was that everyone was nervous to try to speak English with me, but willing to try.  Even the waitress at one restaurant that clearly didn&amp;#x27;t speak much English.&lt;p&gt;When I tried to speak Japanese, they were &lt;i&gt;delighted&lt;/i&gt;.  My language partners have highly praised my accent, which I understand to mean that I&amp;#x27;m not completely horrible.  And I have a decent basic vocabulary and horrible grammar.&lt;p&gt;I have had some instances (both in Tokyo and with my language partners who were &lt;i&gt;not&lt;/i&gt; in Tokyo) where they suddenly started talking way above my level, and I had to ask them to explain things, but I think that&amp;#x27;s just the weirdness of talking to a full grown adult that speaks like a child, and trying to manage that situation.</text></comment>
<story><title>Ask HN: Is there an “uncanny valley” effect with startup MVPs?</title><text>I am asking because I have noticed that as I build better landing pages for my MVPs I get judged more harshly.
This got me thinking if there is a way in which having a not particularly attractive landing page might get people to approach the product in a different way.</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>SenHeng</author><text>Foreigners in Japan have the same issue. Pretend not to speak a lick of Japanese and you&amp;#x27;ll get great service. Speak just a little and suddenly they think you can read Archimedes (or the Japanese equivalent).</text></item><item><author>ChrisMarshallNY</author><text>I worked (in the US), with a French guy, who had lived in the US for many years (as an adult).&lt;p&gt;He had very little accent. He had obviously worked very hard to remove the accent (big job), but he still understood English as a secondary language, and sometimes had difficulty comprehending dialogue (especially in New York, where we talk quickly).&lt;p&gt;People didn’t cut him slack for the lack of comprehension, where I think they would have, if he had a stronger accent.&lt;p&gt;I also knew an Italian, who had a strong accent, but a better command of English than most native speakers. I think he deliberately played his accent up.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>bitwize</author><text>My experience was the opposite. Pretend to speak no Japanese and you will get baffled looks and maybe asked to leave the store. At best you will be treated a little coldly. Speak a little and they will be most accommodating. They will help you fill in the gaps of your language knowledge and do their best to make your experience in Japan smoother.&lt;p&gt;Overall, Japanese people really are culturally and linguistically fairly isolated on their little island chain -- &lt;i&gt;and they hate it&lt;/i&gt;. One of the upshots of this is that fluent or even conversational English speakers are quite rare in Japan; and another is that anything and anyone from &amp;quot;overseas&amp;quot; is a potential source of fascination and wonder. (A little scary, too.) So when it comes particularly to the young (&amp;lt; 50 y.o. give or take), as a foreign tourist you will find yourself surrounded by people mildly to extremely intrigued in making a cross-cultural connection -- seeking a &amp;quot;borderless feeling&amp;quot; -- but they have no idea how. With a bit of conversational Japanese, you can establish lines of communication with the Japanese you meet and kick off that connection process, for which they will be quite grateful.&lt;p&gt;At the very least, learn how to ask for an English speaker if one is available. I did this once in a frozen yogurt shop, and was introduced to the manager, a 22-year-old who wanted to tell me all about her time as an exchange student in California (as well as how to buy yogurt in the shop).&lt;p&gt;Of course, this was Osaka. So maybe they were just super-accommodating to me so they would get my business. (By comparison to Tokyo, Osaka is hustle town -- matters of decorum and cultural appropriateness can be put aside if it means more business.)</text></comment>