Ohayoo gozaimasu

Hi everyone, Im new to this forum (and japanese).

Anyways, I just had a question. My friend and I were debating how midori is pronounced. How do you prounounce it... they say that "r" is more like a "d"
so would it be something like "me-doh-dee" or is it just "midori". My sister had a friend from japan and her name was midori, but if Im talking about the color green do you say it like "me-doh-dee"? It sounds weird.

The R sound in English uses quite a bit more lip-motion than in Japanese. To many, the Japanese R sounds similar to the English D, but they are distinct phonemes. Don't worry about trying too hard to reproduce Japanese pronunciations unless you are speaking in Japanese. When I am talking with English speakers I still say things like "karaoke" and "karate" like an American is expected to; if I use the Japanese pronunciations all I get are blank stares and the feeling that I'm being condescending.

so "mee-doh-ree" is fine.

okay, thanks alot

nice gaijin said:

When I am talking with English speakers I still say things like "karaoke" and "karate" like an American is expected to; if I use the Japanese pronunciations all I get are blank stares and the feeling that I'm being condescending.

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Ah, yes. Actually one can find those words in an English language dictionary and the pronunciation given is the one English speakers use. Same deal with all loanwords I guess, like my native language word sauna in English ("soona" as opposed to "sauna").