Pronunciation Help for New Japanese Boss

kirei_na_me · 1 Aug 2006

Hey all!

My husband's company just placed a new boss and he is having a hard time conveying his thoughts, in English, to his American employees.

I think he pretty much knows English fundamentals, but he is having difficulty pronouncing the words.

Anyway, my husband was wondering if there are any websites that have a good English pronunciation chart, or something of the sort, that could possibly come in handy for his boss.

Does anyone have any advice?

I've offered to act as a tutor, but no one has taken me up on it!

nice gaijin · 1 Aug 2006

If the problem is a thick accent, perhaps you could recommend to him a speech therapist. The trouble with late learners of a language is that they try to use the same oral movements from their mother tongue to recreate the sounds of the new language. The problem isn't likely to get any better without a lot of practice and the direction of a professional.

The trouble with most pronunciation guides is that they use special characters to describe the myriad sounds in English, whereas in practical use, those sounds are produced by context and the standard alphabet.

kirei_na_me · 1 Aug 2006

Well, that's what I have tried to stress to my husband. I told him the only way he can really learn how to pronounce is by hearing it and knowing how the tongue and mouth moves when saying a certain sound.

He won't listen though...nope, not ever...

nice gaijin · 1 Aug 2006

The phoneme is the sound that the grapheme (written character) represents; his boss is not going to be able to fix his accent by looking at a chart, unless he understands the International Phonetic Alphabet. His whole life his ears have been tuned to Japanese, and he'll just continue to try to use his own phonetic vocabulary to create the sounds in English that are not present in Japanese, and continue to have difficulty recognizing the differences between such sounds.

Tell your husband that what his boss needs is a speech therapist specializing in accent reduction. Your local universities might have some grad students interested in giving free or very cheap speech therapy for their research. This is coming from a speech pathologist, and confirmed by a Japanese student who has received such treatment. I might be able to locate some worksheets to use as examples.

nice gaijin · 2 Aug 2006

Sorry for the double-post, bit of an update... I had my sister, who is a speech pathologist/audiologist, do a bit of research on the website for the American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA). A membership is required to access the article, but not all of the links contained in it. She was kind enough to copy it for me:

ASHA article said:
Accents and Dialects
Accent
An accent refers to a phonetic trait from a person's original language (L1) that is carried over a second language (L2).

Dialect
A dialect refers to sets of differences, wherever they may occur, that make one English speaker's speech different from one another's.

Social Dialects
Culturally and linguistically diverse populations, such as African-American, Hispanic Americans, Asian/Pacific Islanders/Asian Indians, American Indian and Alaskan Natives, may use an accent or a social dialect, which vary in phonological, morphological and syntactic features.

Speech-Language Pathology services may be requested by a client wishing to improve their use of Standard American English. These are not communication disorders rather differences.

Accent modification services are elective. Accents are not considered to be a language disorder. Students and professionals in communication sciences and disorders who speak with accents and/or dialects can effectively provide speech, language, and audiological services to persons with communication disorders as long as they have the expected level of knowledge in normal and disordered communication.

ASHA has a list of resources available to those seeking accent modification services. This is not a comprehensive listing of available resources. The inclusion of specific items in this listing does not represent a qualitative judgment or an endorsement of these items by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.

Additional Resources, Reading Lists
ASHA has compiled supplemental reading lists, documents, and resources for Communication Development and Disorders in Multicultural Populations. The following may include some information about accents and dialects:

Accent Modifications
African American English
American Indians and Alaskan Natives
Asian/Pacific Islanders and Asian Indians
Hispanic Americans

Related ASHA Documents
American English Dialects
Definitions of Communication Disorders and Variations
Clinical Management of Communicatively Handicapped Minority Language Populations
Social Dialects and Implications of the Position on Social Dialects
Students and Professionals Who Speak English with Accents and Nonstandard Dialects: Issues and Recomendations

kirei_na_me · 2 Aug 2006

Thank you so much! Please thank your sister for me too. I really appreciate you taking the time to do that for me. I will show this to my husband tonight, and he will pass it on to his boss.

I think the situation with the boss has become quite a dilemma. I think a lot of people are getting frustrated because of the barrier.

Oh, the way they choose to deal with things sometimes...

GodEmperorLeto · 24 Aug 2006

Pronunciation is often something that needs to be regularly practiced, and sometimes it can take months until the person gets the hang of the new phonemes.

But they WILL get the hang of it. At the institute I work at, East Asians' accents are incredibly thick and it is very difficult to make "r", "l", "th", and "v" consonants. Also, Japanese, in particular, only has 5 vowels, while American English has about 15 or 16. Vowels are actually the hardest for them to learn because of the slight nuances between tongue and jaw position that, for example, makes a long "a" different from a short "a".

If the person doesn't get professional help from tutors or teachers, then the best I can suggest is that they find some way to practice on their own, or find a partner who can work with them. All of the students at my job show remarkable improvement within four months of practice, but they are in a professional learning environment. It will undoubtedly take longer for your gentleman in question.

yamada · 24 Aug 2006

GodEmperorLeto said:
Pronunciation is often something that needs to be regularly practiced, and sometimes it can take months until the person gets the hang of the new phonemes.
But they WILL get the hang of it. At the institute I work at, East Asians' accents are incredibly thick and it is very difficult to make "r", "l", "th", and "v" consonants. Also, Japanese, in particular, only has 5 vowels, while American English has about 15 or 16. Vowels are actually the hardest for them to learn because of the slight nuances between tongue and jaw position that, for example, makes a long "a" different from a short "a".
If the person doesn't get professional help from tutors or teachers, then the best I can suggest is that they find some way to practice on their own, or find a partner who can work with them. All of the students at my job show remarkable improvement within four months of practice, but they are in a professional learning environment. It will undoubtedly take longer for your gentleman in question.

Great info. Very interesting.
my mother tongue is Japanese.
An Utah born American in a tv show said "this is fresh" pointing to fruits on a dish, and "this is flesh" pointing to his arm. I can't tell from those two words(lol).

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kirei_na_me said:
Hey all!
My husband's company just placed a new boss and he is having a hard time conveying his thoughts, in English, to his American employees.
I think he pretty much knows English fundamentals, but he is having difficulty pronouncing the words.
Anyway, my husband was wondering if there are any websites that have a good English pronunciation chart, or something of the sort, that could possibly come in handy for his boss.
Does anyone have any advice?
I've offered to act as a tutor, but no one has taken me up on it!

Pronunciation Help for New Japanese Boss

kirei_na_me

Where I'm Supposed to Be

nice gaijin

Resident Realist

kirei_na_me

Where I'm Supposed to Be

nice gaijin

Resident Realist

nice gaijin

Resident Realist

kirei_na_me

Where I'm Supposed to Be

GodEmperorLeto

先輩

yamada

先輩

doraemonface

後輩

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