“How now brown cow?” is a phrase I heard from my mother at a very early age, most probably because of our surname. It was also spoken by Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Dolittle in the film, My Fair Lady. This phrase was used in an elocution class to improve her pronunciation and enunciation. Little did I know back then, that I would be helping people with their English pronunciation.
In this phrase, I can see one sound that doesn’t exist in Japanese and several similar or approximate ones. The R sound is the sound, or phoneme, which does not exist in Japanese.
It doesn’t sound light/right
The L and R sounds are the most often requested pronunciation practice in my lessons. However, thirteen more phonemes do not exist in Japanese! Masami and I help Japanese people with their English communication, and pronunciation does play a part in that.
Easy for you to say
Every student who practices pronunciation with me has different capabilities; what is easy for one is very difficult for another. I always advise to listen to the sounds of the word, not the word. Split the word into single sounds and, think of them as a “new” sound.
That sounds good to me
The next step for improved pronunciation is to use a reliable source, I hate to say it, but a native English speaker would be better. There ARE Japanese people with excellent English pronunciation, but how would you know? Native English speakers all sound different so choose what sounds nice to you; American, Filipino, Canadian, Jamaican, British (That’s mine), etc.
See how you say
Finally, focus on one phoneme and practice in front of a mirror. Listen carefully to the sound and try to copy it looking at the shape of your mouth and face. Use words with that phoneme to practice more until it sounds the same.
Ow, ow, ow it’s good
“_ow _ow __ow_ _ow.”
“How _ow __ow_ _ow?”
“How now __ow_ _ow?”
“How now brown _ow?”
“How now brown cow?”
How about…?
I do offer separate pronunciation seminars to help Japanese people with their pronunciation. How about contacting Mr Brown now?
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