The Japanese Language...

[omEigaMan]

It's good to hear the stories of foreigners living in Japan who are fluent, who get English spoken back to them even though they start the conversation in Japanese. On my couple of trips there, I have had that happen to me and I had assumed it was just my Japanese pronunciation was so bad they didn't want to hassle with me. LOL. Now I'm thinking maybe it's just because I look Western and maybe it has nothing to do with my proficiency or lack thereof.

 

[nattsie]

Yeah, i'd definately reccommend it. I was in Japan around 2 years ago and i didn't even know how to say "thank you", which i felt guilty about once i got home. Just little things like that are good to know.

 

[82riceballs]

well, if u wanna learn the language, u'd better master the pronounciation, cuz once i said something in japanese in tokyo, and these people looked at me lk i was crazy.

plus, most japanese people speak english. everyone is required to learn it to be prepared for an international life in the future.

 

[Kirie_Maiden]

Yeah. Different places have different pronunciations though. Take the numbers. Some places pronounce the number 6 as "Roku" which is how it's spelt, but some pronounce it, "Rock," which confused the hell out of me.

 

[made of stone]

Yeah. Different places have different pronunciations though. Take the numbers. Some places pronounce the number 6 as "Roku" which is how it's spelt, but some pronounce it, "Rock," which confused the hell out of me.

Did you notice the same phrases pronounced slightly differently in that way, K_M chan?

I ask because (I believe that) sometimes the vowel sound at the end of a word (in our way of thinking of it in English) is half-pronounced, or kind of swallowed, so as to not be noticeable by native Engliush speakers almost, depending on the starting sound of the following word.

I mean to suggest that, it may not be entirely a regional thing, more a case of the same word being used in different sentences.

At the same time, i'm sure that regional accents also play a large part, so...

can any of our fine experts in Japanese here please offer advice?

 

[Pepe]

...
I was helping out a concert my aunt was performing in a couple days ago, when a man looked like he needed some help I went over and asked him if he needed any help, in Japanese.
He looked at me, thought for a moment, and came out with
"Uh... I... up... seat" *pointing upwards* (He wanted a seat upstairs...)
Forget the fact that I'm half Japanese so I can't look all THAT foreign, but I spoke to the guy first in Japanese! I guess when faced with something unusual, logic goes out the window, haha.

I was born and raised in Germany, but my mum is a half Samoan from NZ, so I get the same reaction from Germans. Especially when I finger them as German speakers so I speak to them in German at the cash register but they always answer in English with their hard core 'Jerman akzents'!

 

[yukio_michael]

Yeah. Different places have different pronunciations though. Take the numbers. Some places pronounce the number 6 as "Roku" which is how it's spelt, but some pronounce it, "Rock," which confused the hell out of me.

It's not really a different pronunciation, I forget what dialect it is, (the red-headed male gaijin talent who's always on tv speaks in it...), but the u at the ends of words like desu is more pronounced than less... Sometimes women will pronounce words this way as well, as is my understanding, but I could be completely wrong on that, so take it (with a grain of salt... Sorry Frank!), ...

Ps. My sig.other's pet dog's name was Rock, and was pronounced like rokuh, with the intonation of the u being very slight at the end, there is a slight bit of air released at the end of the pronunciation...

Though I have also heard roku, which is an interesting word to bring up, because it includes an r at the beginning, (which at one time in Japanese speech was considered to be harsh on the ears, and not often used), sometimes with r-words, you will hear more of a an L sound, and less of the typical explanation for it's pronunciation as the mixture of an L & a D, like in "Eddy"...

 

[Goldiegirl]

My Japanese friends pronounced almost all the "r" words as a soft "L"(or an odd mix of the two sounds), so roku was loku. The airport is "Nalita" as well. Anyway, it's not too hard to figure out that when it's in Japanese, but when they spoke it that way in English that I would get confused. I remember they were pointing and saying "lane"...we were driving so I thought it was a special road or something, but it turns out they wanted to tell my that is was going to rain.

 

[SushiShin]

Well i like japan but i think i'll never go to it.

why??

well simply i just go to my own country: Philippines.

i go to my hometown, because there is the only place were japanese people come.

Only there you say?? how come you'll ask in yourself, well that i'll tell you:

Bacolod is the only place were the atmosphere is proper and clean, so the climate isn't as bad then in the capitol Manila( Manila is maybe the capitol but its very dirty and the polution of the air isn't clean).

The schools, universes, shops,parks,hotels are much better then anywhere in my country. So that's why i like to go my hometown i always meet new people and new faces there. I'm very proud i was born there, because its the only place in my country were more nihonjin people live then Pinoy people. But the governement still denies it and they still lie about the percantage of people in Bacolod.

I like japanese people and pinoy people, but what i think the japanese people are way more fun to chat and to go out with. I like especially the ganguro girls here (you know the mode/fashion girls who paint themselves in Brown/white colours) i'm always friendly and they are also to me,

but, qua language ^^' i don't understand their english, so thats why i help the students who wants to study english here and i ask them always to do also a favour for me , they have to teach me also japanese and know i master some words but i have another great problem i forget to ask them to teach me kanji and stuff!! so that was a little bit stupid of me

but i don't think they speak l for r here, here they speak well but they say things in another direction like eg: Sun today shines well instead of today sun shines well. or another example bad cold is né? instead of the bad is cold né?

well i dont mind that, i'm here to help and people appreciate my effort.

If you are polite to people you will receive more then politeness of people.

Gambatte ne!

 

[Kirie_Maiden]

It's not really a different pronunciation, I forget what dialect it is, (the red-headed male gaijin talent who's always on tv speaks in it...), but the u at the ends of words like desu is more pronounced than less... Sometimes women will pronounce words this way as well, as is my understanding, but I could be completely wrong on that, so take it (with a grain of salt... Sorry Frank!), ...

Ps. My sig.other's pet dog's name was Rock, and was pronounced like rokuh, with the intonation of the u being very slight at the end, there is a slight bit of air released at the end of the pronunciation...

Though I have also heard roku, which is an interesting word to bring up, because it includes an r at the beginning, (which at one time in Japanese speech was considered to be harsh on the ears, and not often used), sometimes with r-words, you will hear more of a an L sound, and less of the typical explanation for it's pronunciation as the mixture of an L & a D, like in "Eddy"...

I do agree with this post. It is confusing to figure out when to pronounce U's, when not to and when to roll your R's with any language, not just the Japanese one.