Practicing speech online

J44xm · 19 Jan 2005

Okay, since I don't yet have anyone to practice my very limited speech skills on, I thought I'd try posting some small sound files here and getting some feedback. I really just started studying nihongo and I've never spoken to anyone else (outside of a word or phrase here and there with my non-Japanese-speaking friends--itadakimasu!) so don't expect anything awesome. (And it's okay to laugh politely.) I'm just wondering how I sound for a beginner from the southern US. (Note: The ZIP file contains three Ogg Vorbis files.) I got the idea from viewing Nihongo Everyday, and the "Hazuki" lines come from that page.

Emoni · 19 Jan 2005

Not a bad idea. I'll take a listen.

Edit Post Listen:

Not bad at all for a beginner. Your speech is quite good, but there are some beginner type inflection problems. Konnichiwa isn't quite right. Mainly it is just the way the Konni part is said. I'm not sure how to explain how to "say" it correctly really... maybe someone with more experience with these sort of things can comment. Although, I did like the way you said it It had kind of a "Hey baby, Konnichiwa...*wink* *wink*" american-in-a-bar-pick-up-line sound to it.

The proper speech comes in time, but I'm extremely impressed. I've got a long way to go myself, and can still barely get through a serious sentence without halting every 2 seconds. Keep up the practice, you're doing good.

J44xm · 20 Jan 2005

Emoni said:
Although, I did like the way you said it It had kind of a "Hey baby, Konnichiwa...*wink* *wink*" american-in-a-bar-pick-up-line sound to it.

Thanks very much for your comments. I must say that I find it most humorous and ironic that my English speech has no "pick-up mojo" to be found, yet my basic Japanese (at least my "hello") naturally does.

Emoni said:
The proper speech comes in time, but I'm extremely impressed. I've got a long way to go myself, and can still barely get through a serious sentence without halting every 2 seconds. Keep up the practice, you're doing good.

Thank you. Of course, to be fair, it took a few takes to get things right.

:singing:

Glenn · 20 Jan 2005

One thing that's very important in Japanese pronunciation is to keep all mora the same length. This is difficult for most English speakers, because English emphasizes syllables by lengthening them to about 1.5 times the length of the unaccented syllables. In Japanese, one kana equals one morae. This is different from syllables, which don't matter too much in Japanese. Take the word 最近 (saikin) for example. This word has two syllables: sai and kin, but it has four mora: sa, i, ki, and n. In order to get the rhythm right, get a beat going in your head and place all of the mora on one of them, trying to keep them all equal. Then work on speeding them up, and making them sound more natural (getting the accent right also helps, but one thing at a time). I actually do this to make my Japanese sound more "native," and I find that it helps a lot. If you have a metronome I believe that would tremendously help you as well.

J44xm · 20 Jan 2005

Glenn said:
In order to get the rhythm right, get a beat going in your head and place all of the mora on one of them, trying to keep them all equal.

The wording here confuses me some. You're saying "one mora per beat," right? Yeah, I can see where that will be a bit difficult.

Thanks much for the short lesson. I've found it most helpful. I've tried working on it in short order, but it will take time to incorporate fully, of course. If you don't mind, are these any better? These examples all come from Japanese Grammar (2nd ed.) by Carol and Nobuo Akiyama, which I'm falling in love with.

Glenn · 20 Jan 2005

J44xm said:
The wording here confuses me some. You're saying "one mora per beat," right? Yeah, I can see where that will be a bit difficult.

Sorry about that; the wording was sloppy. Yes, that's what I'm saying.

J44xm said:
Thanks much for the short lesson. I've found it most helpful. I've tried working on it in short order, but it will take time to incorporate fully, of course. If you don't mind, are these any better? These examples all come from Japanese Grammar (2nd ed.) by Carol and Nobuo Akiyama, which I'm falling in love with.

It sounds about the same to me. I guess what I told you should just be kept in mind when trying to sound "more Japanese" than should be used from the outset. Also, the accents are a bit off, but that's another thing that perhaps is best picked up through a lot of listening to native speakers. Of course, it wouldn't hurt to understand how they work.

J44xm · 20 Jan 2005

D'oh! ^_^ I appreciate it, Glenn. I'll keep working on it and keep trying to listen to nihongo as much as I can.

bentenmusume · 20 Jan 2005

I would highly recommend getting yourself a textbook that comes with integrated audio materials. There's a lot to learn about various aspects of Japanese pronunciation and pitch accent and the way they work, but the most important thing (especially when you're just beginning your studies) is to listen to native speakers and model your speech as much as possible after theirs.

Your attempts to practice your pronunciation are admirable, but (and please don't take offense at this) from listening to your clips, I would have to assume that you've never heard how the sentences you're reading are actually pronounced by native speakers.

If you don't know what they _should_ sound like, you could "practice" saying them a thousand times over without it helping you in the slightest.

J44xm · 20 Jan 2005

Fair enough, jt. Indeed, I haven't heard them spoken. I see your point. I'll try to see what speech samples or CDs I can find. Thanks for the constructive criticism.

Practicing speech online

J44xm

経験値が足りない

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Emoni

先輩

J44xm

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Glenn

一切皆苦

J44xm

経験値が足りない

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Glenn

一切皆苦

J44xm

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bentenmusume

原点回帰

J44xm

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