Hey guys.
I have this woman friend from japan. She volunteered to do the voice of one character in my movie. And her daughter will do the voice of one girl in my story.

The daughter is studying english so she'll do the Script just as i have it.
But the Mother, will do it in japanese and since i 'm not a native...I decided to let her make up her own lines so she'll use correct language.

The problem with this.. is that many times when people are not into doing voices.. when they speak they don't put the required energy and they are just shy to act.. So it sounds robotic. 

They haven't recorded their lines yet.. But i'm just wondering, how would i direct people who are not  used to voice acting. Moreover, they're foreigners and maybe the emotions and energy that i have in my mind, is not something that they understand and maybe it doesn't even make sense to speak the way i imagine it in my mind because their culture is different.

Now, it really doesn't matter that much. I'm not selling my movie. But i just kind of want to direct something of descent quality

Send them the script. Have them record their voice in MP3 format (use headphones with mic) and email them to you. Put together the voices using Audacity, edit and remove noise and such and play the entire dialogue to hear if they sound real for you.

Dont be shy to let them know that they will need to rerecord some parts of the dialogue. Dont forget to compliment and praise them for their efforts.

Since they are not professional voice actors, expect alot of problems and have alot of patience.

 Yeah thanks Owl. We'll do it in mp3. And we chat everyday in skype so, we'll use that to send files.

Interesting.  Some stray thoughts -

Never directed a VO in a foreign language, but it seems that one should still be able to distinguish sincere acting, as opposed to mere reading, simply from the tone and pace of the speech.   (at least I think I can still tell bad acting when watching the Spanish channels here.)

If she's really shy and really never acted before, perhaps suggest that, to get into character, she do it as though telling a bedtime story to a kid?  (if appropriate)

& there does seem to be a number of creative, techno-proficient,  Japanese/English bilingual members in the community who might give a listen btw...