289. 5 pronunciation challenges for Japanese speakers

Welcome to the Influency Podcast. I'm Hadar and this is episode number 289. And today we're going to talk about pronunciation challenges for Japanese speakers. Hey everyone, thank you so much for tuning in for another episode of the Influency Podcast.

And as you heard, today, we're going.

To map out the differences between English and Japanese. I'm first going to start with those who are not Japanese speakers. Know that this is still valuable for you because I'm going to talk about certain sounds and phonological processes and elements in English that might be relevant to you as well. So it's a good opportunity to practice your pronunciation and awareness. And if you are a Japanese speaker, then today you, you will find this helpful video that will allow you to understand better why you face some of the challenges when speaking English. And not only that, I also have a pronunciation guide that you can download for free. Today I'm going to talk about five challenges, but I actually have 10 challenges listed in the pronunciation guide and it has an audio practice that goes along with it. You can just play it and practice with it. It's completely free. Even if you're not a Japanese speaker and you want another pronunciation drill to practice with, this is a good opportunity for you to practice something new. So the link to download the free pronunciation guide is in the description. And for now, let's go ahead and listen to the main challenges pronunciation challenges for Japanese speakers when speaking in English. Foreign.

Hey everyone, it's Hadar. Thank you so much for joining me. This video is a part of a series of videos where I break down common pronunciation challenges for certain speakers. Each video is accompanied by pronunciation guide for Those speakers with 10 challenges and drills and exercises to practice these challenges and improve clarity. So if you are a Spanish speaker, Portuguese speaker, Russian speaker, Arabic speaker, Korean speaker, and I think we have more, then make sure you check out the description below the video or my website to see if you have this guide and video as well. So what we're going to do is we're going to look at the phonology and phonetics of English and Japanese and to see where there is a clash. And wherever there is a clash, usually there is a challenge, a sound that doesn't exist in Japanese or something that happens in Japanese and doesn't happen in English. So it's going to be really, really interesting because every challenge that we're going to talk about, we're also going to talk about why that happens so you have a better understanding and you'll be able to predict it and also, of course, how to practice it. Now, as I said, we actually have a workbook and the American Pronunciation Guide for Japanese Speaking Speaker. It is absolutely free. So if you are a Japanese speaker or you are a teacher working with Japanese speakers, you are going to want to have that workbook. It is very detailed. And by the way, even though we're going to talk about five challenges in the video, in the workbook, you are going to find 10 challenges with the exercises and explanations. So make sure to download the workbook. Now, let's move on to challenge number one. The first challenge is confusing or not being able to tell the difference between the R and the l. And here is why. In Japanese, there is only the R sound, the R phoneme, the R phonim that is pronounced as R in American English, in English in general has three different pronunciations. They're called allophones. An allophone is a way of pronouncing a certain sound. And sometimes there are several different ways to pronounce the same sound that is represented in the brain. So, for example, in American English, we have the T sound. The phoneme. The sound, the way it's represented in the brain is a t. But it could be an aspirated T, like at the beginning of words, like time, could be a held T. At could be a flap T. Better, right? So it's the same phoneme, same category, but different pronunciations, different allophones. Same thing with a Japanese R. The phoneme is, but it has three different allophones, which are just like the American pronunciation and la. So what is perceived in English as an l is actually perceived in Japanese as an R. And this is why the confusion, because on one hand, because they perceive it as the same sound, it feels to them the same, right? It just changes according to the position in the word. Because of that, it's hard for them to notice that there is a difference when they hear English. It's not a physical problem. They can pronounce an L, they can pronounce an R, but it's to be able to pronounce the right sound on command. That's what's challenging. But also to recognize if it's an L or an R, that is a challenge as well, right? R. L could be perceived the same. So the first thing is to be able to hear the differences. The R sound in American English could be stretched out and it has this hollow quality versus the l, where you definitely hear the contact between the tongue and the L. Let's practice A few words with the R. Now, here, the tongue pulls back. There is no tap. It doesn't touch the upper palate. And the lips, round, red, around. Result. Crazy. When pronouncing the L, the tip of the tongue has to touch the upper palate and has to touch it for a little bit. It doesn't just slightly touches it because then it's going to be the sound. No, the L has to touch it continually touch the upper palate. L. Listen, Alaska, please close. Okay, that is the main difference. So when you practice the two, make sure that for the R, the tongue doesn't touch the upper palate, or for the L, the tongue does touch the upper palate. And then you also want to practice minimal pairs, for example, rain, lane, rice, lice, prank, plank. Can you hear the difference? Good. Can you make the difference? All right, now there are more examples and more words to practice and an audio to follow, so make sure you download the workbook. The next thing is adding a vowel at the end of words. In Japanese, words generally end with a vowel, not with a consonant, unless it's a nasal consonant. Unless in Japanese, the word ends with or otherwise, you will not find words that end with a consonant like b or k. Or as a result, because of this constraint, whenever Japanese speakers will try to pronounce a word that ends with a consonant, there is going to be a conflict. And some might try to solve this conflict by just adding a vowel, which is what is very common in Japanese. So instead of saying cab, they might say cabu. Instead of saying bag, they might say bagu.

Right?

Adding a vowel, usually an U sound. So this is something that you definitely want to be mindful of. And understanding the constraint can be really helpful because it's not a problem for you to pronounce the end sound. It's just that it goes against your natural speech patterns. Now, a way to practice it is just to practice lists of words that end with a consonant and not with a vowel. For example, leaf, hope, bag, sheet, dress, absorb. Now, here's something interesting. When a word ends with an R, for example, care, Japanese speakers might just drop the r KE and not add a vowel right after. So that is what happens with the r. And when they drop the R, if you drop the R, it's not a big deal. It's like British pronunciation. But if you want to work on your American pronunciation, then focus on bringing the tongue up for the R at the end. Care, hear, store. The next one is mispronouncing the stir sound. The stir sound is an R vowel. We find it in words like term, first, learn, hurt, girl, and burger. Basically, you want to think of it as if the R takes over the vowel before, and you just transition from one consonant to another while rounding your lips and stretching out the sound. The stir always appears in a stressed syllable. Now, the stir doesn't exist in Japanese, and usually Japanese speakers would substitute the sound with just one open sound. So instead of girl, they might say something like g instead of term, t instead of first, fast. Can you hear the difference? So instead of rounding the lips, lifting the tongue up for the r, which is basically like the pronunciation of the r sound, the tongue drops, the jaw opens, lips are relaxed, and the ah, as in honest, father and stop is pronounced. So we are just going to learn how to pronounce the stir sound. I'm going to link to a relevant video as well. And here's the tricky part. The stir sound appears in various spelling patterns, usually I, R, E, A, R, U, R, O, R, E, r. Just not ar. Actually, all possibilities except for ar. And in all of these cases, the stir sound sounds the same. Okay, so you bring the tongue up, sides of the tongue, touch the sides of the teeth, just like pronouncing an R R round your lips. Urban Burger, learn her hurt. Okay, good. And not ah. The next one is the oo sound that is mispronounced in Japanese. There is no U. The U is unrounded. So think of just pronouncing the U sound without rounding the lips. Now, I know, I know I can work on my Japanese U sound. But for now, I just wanted to show you an example of what it sounds like when you unround your lips. But here's the thing, because it does sound a little bit like the oo sound every time there is supposed to be an oo sound in English, Japanese speakers might actually take it to the unrounded oo. And then a word like food might sound like food. And you, like, you want to make sure that you really round your lips for those U sounds, tense U as in food. You too, round the lips. The tongue is doing the same thing. Rumor. Shampoo. All right, good. More words in the workbook. The last challenge I'm going to talk about today is consonant clusters. In Japanese, there are no clusters. Clusters is when there is a sequence of consonant within the same syllable, either at the end of a word or at the beginning of a word, but it's one after another without vowels in between. That does not happen in Japanese. Maybe at the beginning, if the second consonant is The Y sound. But that's it. And this is why, when they come across words in English with clusters, and there are many of them, it could be very difficult because it kind of like goes against the natural tendencies of Japanese speakers. So one of the things that people might want to do to solve that challenge is to either break those consonants. So that means adding vowels in between. For example, instead of the word cabs, we might hear cab without the consonant, so that consonant might be dropped. Or in the word play, we might hear something like play adding a vowel in between. So these are the things that we can expect. Now, here's how you can practice it. First of all, you want to practice soft clusters. What are soft clusters for Japanese speakers? Clusters that have a nasal sound. Because in Japanese, like I told you, it's okay to have a nasal sound at the end of words. So, for example, mine is not posing any challenge because it ends with an n. So if we want to say the word mind, it might be an easier transition into the world of clusters, because mine is already okay. So it's just adding the d. And you want to make sure that you pronounce each sound separately, and then you connect the words together. Mind homes, bangs. All right. And then we also want to practice maybe harder clusters at the end, like text. Right. And you want to understand what your mouth does for each sound, and then to connect it together.

Right.

Just don't add vowels in between. Text list, milk. And then at the end, you might want to try some clusters at the beginning, like cry, play, street. All right, these are the five challenges. There are five more waiting for you in the workbook, so just click the link below and download the workbook, and that's it. I hope you found this helpful. If you're a Japanese speaker, let me know in the comments. What is the biggest challenge out of the five that I have listed for you, and what do you do to practice it? Thank you so much for watching this. If you have friends or family members or students or colleagues that you'd like to share this with, please do. I would be so grateful. Now, if you're not following me on social media, I'm also on Instagram, Hadar, Accentsway, and TikTok, where I publish daily content. It's a lot of fun. So come on over there. Have a beautiful, beautiful rest of the day, and I'll see you next week in the next video.

Bye.