Speaking Japanese - Sounding Japanese ???

[barok 0]

When I speak Japanese, I make little effort, to actually sound like a Japanese person, granted I am still a beginner, but . . .

 

I don`t really use the ever present expressions - "soo desu ne, soo desu ka, sumimasen (between every other sentence) etc. etc." and I don`t give affirmations between every stated fact in a conversation, the way I often hear folks doing, also

 

Most Japanese men, I find, tighten their chests and throats and use a deeper than natural voice when they are speaking, maybe it`s just in certain situations, I don`t know.

 

I like using the language, but I would like it less, if I actually had to force this kind of language behavior thing. The result is of course that I get funny looks, or Japanese folks need a short period of time to figure out why certain things are missing (I get alot of "moshi moshi" on the phone), but I really don`t want to change how I use the language, and seeing as I am not really selling anything at work, I don`t have to.

 

So yeah, do you make an effort to sound Japanese when you speak Japanese, er uh no ?

[kintaro 0]

It's been my experience that if you stay here long enough it just starts to flow naturally. In my case it's even hard to turn OFF the "a sooka's, soo ne's, etc" when speaking to someone who speaks no Japanese at all. When I first got here I didn't use all of those words either. I even fealt silly trying. But it eventually just starts coming out....at least in my case.

[nzlegend 1]

I do it naturally, I am surrounded by it, just like a kiwi living in the States or UK will after a few years adapt and acquire the local accent I have picked up the Osaka accent. I can mock and mimic Japanese people quite well, in fact the pron' is the only strong part of my Japanese, my grammar and vocab are decicedly mediocre.

I have got my "ohayou gozaimasu" done pat, when I arrived it was OH HIGH OH GAA ZAI MAA SUU now itsa smooth "ohaiogzaimaz" and after saying afew in a row just " gzaimz" it cracks some Japanese people up as they say its sound almost too good.

 

I think one key point is to get the Japanese sounds mastered. tsu and ra ri ru re ro (thats the sure sign of gaijin, the harsh R sound) Ryu ryo pyo pyu kyo kyo etc. Work on it, think about it

[enderzero 0]

I have noticed there are two mindsets to people learning Japanese, Barok. One is like you where you want to communicate, but don't care about trying to sound like an actual Japanese person. It seems that that kind of person also has a real problem with the way Japanese people pronounce katakana words.

 

I tend to be the other way. I am more concerned with sounding like a Japanese person (I also don't care if a katakana word sounds Japanese). I don't really study too much grammar - just pick up speech patterns.

 

I love when a native Japanese speaker tells me that my "majide" sounds so natural.

[danz 0]

yah...it just seems to come with time...before you know it you will be "anoooo, etooo, soo da ne" without even realizing it...

 

danz

[frannyo 2]

Same as above. My Japanese is far from great, but I my accent seems to be improving quite a bit. (The Japanese around me might have something else to say about the matter)

[proudtobegay 0]

I try, but I think it comes over are really terrible and very un-Japanese. I need to work on my accent.

 

How DO you work on an accent? Just practice? Any tips anyone?

[zwelgen 0]

I reckon for accents dont think that る=ru because it doesnt. Thats just a way that it is represented. Forget all about English and just try and say it how Japanese are. forget your accent and listen listen listen!

 

Im getting that horrible Japanese woman thing where my voice changes when Im speaking on the phone or to groups of people. No noo nononono

[mikazooki 0]

on a related key issue... any guys with j-partners find that u speak a more female style of japanese?

i have kept my level safely low, and am occassionally told if i sound too girly, but many of the j folk i know like to have a little chortle at the girly sounding gaijin blokes.

[Ocean11 0]

I can't quite ever bring myself to use 'ore'...

 

Sometimes it's nice to use completely vague and essentially meaningless Japanese phrases like 'aru imi deha', and 'to iu fuu ni omowareru' and 'maa, so desune...', just to get your own back sometimes, when the geta is on the other foot.

[mikazooki 0]

for gob exercise practice try:

 

あ　え　い　う　え　お　あ　お　あ　い　う　 360;　お

か　け　き　く　け　こ　か　こ　か　き　く　 369;　こ　

 

and so on...

it has a tune too.

the airline students use it for j-go pronunciation practice.

[echineko 1]

Hi!

Accent is very difficult isnt it? But I think very important, sometimes more than knowing all about the word and grammar so much

 

Good luck!

[woywoy 0]

Mikazoo, I have a few friends going for jobs as stewardesses at the moment ... I wonder if they get tested on their pronunciation as well.

 

I agree with Zwelgen in that 「る」is not equivalent at all to the English "ru", which is how it is represented in the so-called "Romaji". I find that it is in between a "lu" sound and an "ru" sound and that the best way to get it down pat is to listen listen and listen some more. Then just try saying it over and over until you think it sounds authentic.

 

I got coaxed into appearing in a Japanese speech contest for Exchange students at my uni in Japan in 2000 and was complimented on my pronunciation more so than any of the other, most Chinese and Korean, speakers. I was pretty happy with that and came out of it a few "man" richer as well!

 

Ocean, why dont you use "Ore"?

[Ocean11 0]

Partly it comes from the fact that the Japanese men I've like and admired generally use 'boku'. 'Ore' is kinda gruff and gritty, which I'm not, whereas 'boku' seems more easy-going and self-deprecating. My boy uses 'ore' at every opportunity which suggests (by a rather large leap of inference ) that it's grounded in a sort of playground machismo lacking real self-confidence.

 

Speech contests eh? I used to coach some luvly girlies in the art of winning speech contests, and had to sit through a few. The semaphore artists always made me laugh - they had devised a gesture for everything.

[woywoy 0]

I can understand that Ocean. However, you do not see many guys in their 20s using "boku" really. Not that I can remember anyway. Maybe it is a bit more distinguished. I can't remember little tuckers using "ore" much though either ...

 

Like I said, I got coaxed into doing the speech contest thing and ended up winning the thing. Was a laugh and it was a good exercise in the end. I had one of the strangest suit combinations you could imagine with borrowed shirts, ties, shoes and jackets from various exchange students of various heights and builds. Funny stuff.

 

I find sometimes that if you do not pronounce things as the Japanese do then they will not understand you at all. I mean, even if you do get out a perfect sentence in Japanese with perfect pronunciation people are going to be shocked at first and ask you to say it again anyway but I have seen lots of people saying something perfectly correct but just with really ordinary pronunciation and it doesn't compute with lots of Japanese. Its like taking your Japanese to the next level to get it to sound "Japanese".

[NoFakie 45]

I think if you ask Japanese women, you'll find quite a few of them don't like men using "ore" for the reasons Ocean describes.

 

Maybe its just my personality, but the thing that sounds worst to me from reasonably good speakers of English (including native speakers) is even just slightly incorrect use of slang or trendy words. This can occur to any person outside a particular group, such as foreigners, older people, politicians, etc. As one example, during Madonna's stay in London, there were reports of her saying words like "dodgy" and "tosser" with an American accent. As a foreigner here, I think its good to keep a certain distance from non-standard speech. It seems more dignified and ultimately more "kakkou-ii" than trying too hard to be cool.

 

If you develop a regional Japanese accent, be warned that people in the rest of Japan will not react to it as well, and may not even understand it. This happens to Japanese people too. My Japanese ex-girlfriend worked for several years in a Japanese restaurant in New York, and she got sick of Japanese customers saying "Osaka?" every time she opened her mouth. Students of the Osaka tongue should note that this can happen when you say absolutely anything, not just when you're showing off the well-paraded "sunmahen" type inflections.

 

If you want to be a gaijin clown on TV, learn the most OTT regionalism you can. Mind you, with such an accent, its going to be one of the few Japanese-speaking jobs that will be available to you

[indosnm 0]

I always focused to pronunciation and sound ( in all lingo's)

I find that you are more likely to be understood than if speaking with a foriegn accent. Some people can do it & others can't. like others have said , it happens pretty naturally to pick up all the little annoying stuff over time.

My J wife was always hard on me when learning " hey you sound like a F#$%ing chick!" that helped me from going down the " I talk like a chick road"

I don't like alot of things about the language and things that are said, but if you want to understood by japanese people its really not that difficult to do!