For a native English speaker learning Japanese, there are few new sounds to learn and practice; ら (ra)、り (ri)、る (ru) 、れ (re)、ろ (ro)、and, つ (tsu). If you are familiar with English and Japanese you will know the romaji (ra, ri, ru, re, ro), does not sound exactly like the Japanese (ら、り、る、れ、ろ); the sound is somewhere between an English L and R. つ (tsu) on the other hand, can sound soft when said by an English speaker.
More Japanese sounds
I shouldn’t forget the nasal が (ga)、ぎ (gi)、ぐ (gu)、げ (ge)、ご (go), when those sounds are not the first in a word. This is tricky to pronounce but it is unnecessary in every day Japanese. I rarely hear those sounds in real life and, as I don’t want to be an NHK newsreader it’s not important to me.
Sounds like jargon
For Japanese learning English, there are many more new sounds to learn and practice; vowels, unstressed vowels, consonants, consonant clusters, monophthongs, diphthongs; some voiced or unvoiced… This is some of the jargon used to describe different sounds, however, hearing and knowing the sound is more important.
Listening
Good listening skills help when learning a new sound; I think if you can hear the word, you can say the word. Hearing the subtle differences to mimic a sound and then to absorb it into how you speak is a skill.
Reading
Understanding phonemes is a learned skill that can help too; a phoneme is a symbol for pronunciation, it shows you how to read (/ri:d/, not /red/) a word with the correct pronunciation.
Drilling
Finally for pronunciation, moving your mouth to make the sound “close enough” takes concentration. Move your lips, tongue, and jaw in different ways to make the “new” sound. Repeating and repeating (drilling) the new sound until it’s not new anymore takes effort.
What did you say?
Is it very important to sound exactly like your English teacher? No, although there is importance in your words, to what you want to communicate. For example, using a loaned word in Japanese look at the sentence: “I take a バス every evening.” How do you pronounce バス in English? Bath? Bus? There are at least two “new” sounds to learn from one loaned word.
Good enough
Masami and I help English learners where they need help; pronunciation is one of the ways. We don’t expect people to speak like newsreaders, we want our students to be understood and feel confident in speaking English. We guide students to be good enough to reach their goals.
ー オンライン英語コミュニケーションプログラム ー
【あなたの心が伝わるあなただけの英語】
英語でのコミュニケーションをあなたらしい英語で。一人一人のレベル、能力、
興味に合った教材や方法を用いたテイラーメイドの英語コミュニケーションプログラムです。
”あなたの英語”でコミュニケートしたい方は、まずは無料カウンセリングをご予約ください。
