Introduction
The Japanese language is an East Asian language spoken by about 128 million people, primarily in Japan, where it is the national language. It is a member of the Japonic (or Japanese-Ryukyuan) language family, and its relation to other languages, such as Korean, is debated. Japonic languages have been grouped with other language families such as Ainu, Austroasiatic, and the now-discredited Altaic, but none of these proposals has gained widespread acceptance.
Japanese is an agglutinative, mora-timed language with simple phonotactics, a pure vowel system, phonemic vowel and consonant length, and a lexically significant pitch-accent. Word order is normally subject–object–verb with particles marking the grammatical function of words, and sentence structure is topic–comment. Sentence-final particles are used to add emotional or emphatic impact, or make questions.
Japanese pronunciation
Pronunciation is a big part of speaking Japanese. Suppose if you can speak Japanese but if you don’t know a clear accent then native peoples might find it difficult to understand you. Sometimes they understand you but sometimes they don’t understand what you want to say.
Japanese pronunciation is fairly simple and with a little concentration, hard work and practice, you’ll be able to speak like a native in no time.
So, now we will look at some of the tips to improve your Japanese pronunciation.
Tips to Improve Japanese Pronunciation
1)Practice conversation daily
Speak Japanese as much as possible with any native speaker. Also listen to them the way their voice goes up and down when they speak, how they pronounce the difficult sounds mentioned earlier and repeat them as best you can.
If you don’t have any native Japanese friends then don’t worry. You can use social media to make new friends. Also you can use language exchange sites for conversation. This will help you alot.
2) Pay close attention to difficult sounds
There aren’t that many difficult sounds in Japanese, but there are a few you have to look for.
One is the R sound (in” ら, り, る, れ and ろ). It’s somewhere between an L and an R sound. The Japanese often struggle to differentiate between the English L and R sounds. You can Check out a youtube video on how to correctly pronounce the Japanese R sound.
You must also master the vowels, as every letter in Japanese except one (N) contains a vowel. The five vowels are:
あ A (as in father)
い I (as in eat)
う U (as in you)
え E (as in elephant)
お O (as in oar)
3) Ask any Japanese speaker for help
If you’re having a normal conversation with any Japanese speaker, they don’t usually correct your accent at that time.
Suppose you’re speaking with someone whose native language is not English. They’ll also have some kind of accent. So you correct them instantly? Of course not!
Japanese people are the same; they usually won’t correct your poor pronunciation, and will just care about understanding you. However, in my experience, if you actually ask for help on specific words and phrases, they’re only too happy to help you out. Simply ask your Japanese friends whether your pronunciation is all right, and ask for their help to practice.
4) Practice, practice, practice
This is one of the best ways anyone can do it. You only have dedication towards learning. You can practice in such a way that you can repeat everything you hear, paying special attention to all the ups and downs on the music of language and also the tricky sound.
Also , one best idea is to record yourself speaking Japanese and compare it with native speakers’ voices. This will help you to pronounce well.
There is no better tip than doing regular practice. One who really wants to learn Japanese and become professional in Japanese pronunciation will do practice on a regular basis.
Above are some of the tips that you can use to improve your Japanese pronunciation. You can follow them on a regular basis to get your result. You can also join Multibhashi, an online language learning platform, for learning Japanese.
Enroll today click here
