If you can speak English (fluently), then you have no excuse. You should be able to pronounce everything in Japanese, and pronounce it nearly correctly (with the exception of the ‘R’ sound, but even that isn’t too bad). If you are having trouble with Japanese pronunciation it is either because of poor basics or you are being lazy. If you really work hard, think, and try, you will be able to pronounce Japanese well…maybe not perfect, but you will get darn close. This, however, is all dependent on you. If you don’t concentrate on pronunciation when you’re first learning, there’s a good chance that you’ll never have another chance to re-learn it. The longer you spend not practicing it, the harder it will be to fix it. As words and sentences get more and more complicated, your pronunciation will get more and more gai-jin. Don’t let this happen!
As a beginning student, here’s what you need to do:
- The best place to start is when you’re learning hiragana. A lot of students try to rush through this section so they can start writing things. They basically know what sound they are writing when they write/read it, but not many people go through and practice pronouncing each letter one by one. This, I think, is very important, and creates the base for literally everything else you end up doing. From hiragana you learn how words are put together, the early basics of writing, the beginnings of reading, and finally, pronunciation. Almost every aspect of Japanese learning is somehow tied to hiragana, so use that to your advantage. While you read and write each letter, make sure you can pronounce them as well. In the long run, this will help you so much.
- Repetition is key. Nothing comes easy, especially when it comes to Japanese things, so you have to sit and repeat repeat repeat repeat repeat (get it?). Think of it like the 100,000 sword swings of Musashi (or something like that). You have to go through the basic motions thousands of times in order to come out with something efficient and beautiful. If you have someone or something good that you can emulate, sit there and rewind to the same spot, copying what they say. Even if you don’t know what you are saying, you are practicing you pronunciation. Saying new things is just like learning how to throw a curveball. At first it feels awkward, but as you throw more and more you get more comfortable. Your mouth has to get used to the Japanese language. It’s not just the sounds, but it’s where you put the stresses and how you transition between words as well. All of these things take repetition, and the more you do this as a beginner, the faster you will advance in the long run.
- Be able to recognize small differences in similar sounding words. A good place to test your skills is over here; not the prettiest site, but a good way to do some very very basic practice. I’m sure most of you will find it pretty easy, but I thought it was kind of a neat site (and you can practice your hiragana skillz as well, I suppose)
- Keep things slow. Don’t try to blaze through sentences right away. That’s how you’ll make mistakes. This may seem obvious, but there really are a lot of people who do this and develop bad habits. Sometimes it’s harder to go through a sentence slowly because you lose some of that rhythm, but in the long run you’re teaching yourself to look out for certain things within a sentence. By doing this you’ll be helping yourself out.
All in all, I would say there are three main parts to Japanese pronunciation: Vowels and consonants, rhythm, and accent. Vowels are a huge part of the Japanese language (pretty much every other letter by English romaji standards). Try to get used to this quickly. Rhythm also is very important. Japanese and English rhythm is a bit different, so of course it’s something you should probably think about learning. Go ahead and try putting all the stresses in the wrong places when speaking English – it sounds kind of silly, right? That’s why it’s important to concentrate on rhythm as much as you can now, while nothing is habit yet. Lastly, check your accent. Sometimes it is hard for people to know what they sound like. Maybe try recording yourself and listening to it (cringe).
Learning pronunciation is a bit of a painful and grueling process for some people, but it will be well worth it in the end. Not enough people/teachers make pronunciation equally as important as everything else, and I think that’s a big mistake. Stressing pronunciation from the very beginning is just as important as learning hiragana or basic vocabularies, possibly more important. There aren’t any really weird sounds in the Japanese language, so everyone should be able to do it with a little practice. Just make sure you start learning (and concentrating on it) earlier rather than later, otherwise you’ll end up sounding like that idiot, John Mayer.