Trouble pronouncing..

Recently ive been interested in learning a bit of japanese as i'm planning to visit next year. With this thought, I went ahead a downloaded japanese learning package (6gb in total) to get me started. This may not be as effective as get taught in a class of such, but its a start!

Forgive my lack of knowledge for the language, as a few things that im going to explain might sound a bit stupid to some of you =P

I'm up to a part where stating what somthing is (very baisic I know) - aka "Kasa ga arimasu" or "Neko ga imasu". I have no trouble reading it at all, it's just the pronounciation.. to me, both sound the same (the arimasu/imas)? Do many people have trouble telling the two apart when they're talking to someone? Maybe its just the way the people pronounce it in the video . The 'ga' part also is hard to hear when spoken, I think its pronounced somthing like nguaa, according to the teachers in the video. Would it matter if I just said 'ga' like its spelt?

Thanks in advance

- Morrow

Hello.

As with any language, the more you listen and the more you learn, the clearer it will become. It's good to watch things in Japanese, even if you don't understand, just to get used to the speed and such. As you learn new words, soon you'll notice yourself recognizing them in dialogue... they will sound very clear and distinct.

Maybe this site will help you.

Phonemes and pronunciations

Teach Yourself Japanese (click on any link within section 1 and 2 to hear the pronunciations)

Alright, note taken! Thanks for the help!

- Morrow