How to speak authentic Japanese English

Any foreign accents (Japanese, Chinese, French, Spanish, or whatever) have this common feature of pronouncing any occurance of "i" in the following way. As a non-native speaker, I also get confused once in a while.

Note that in English there are two "i"s.

i as in Sheep (let's call it strong I)
i as in sip (let's call it weak I)

In Japan, we call the latter "the sound in between I and E." We are told to keep the mouth shape for "E (as in ex)" but say "I (as in sHeep)"

The black belt way to sound foreign is to ignore this difference and just use one "i." It is just one "i."

Drills:

Ignore the subtle differences between the pairs below. Say them many times in the same way until you feel numb to the differences:

Ship-Sheep
hip-heep
busy-BG (99% of Japanese people think a famous Australian band BeeGees is actually busy-s)

Drill 2:

The following i's are actually weak i's (or as we say in Japan the sound between "i" and "e"). But prounounce them all in strong i instead. (I think this is what the California governor is doing and what Jay Reno is doing to imitate him.)

California --> Ca-LI-for-NI-a
I like it --> I like "I"t.
I am ill --> I am "I"-ll
I am busy --> I am b-"I"-z-"I".
My name is Bill --> My name "I"s b"I"ll.
Mississippi --> mI-sI-SI-ppI

Now have you mastered this point?

Yes. I now hear no difference between Sheep and Ship.
No, I don't get it.

If no, click here to exit to get to a course that is more appropriate for your level.

Unless you master this point, you will forever think that we foreigners sound "strange." Rather it is you, native speakers of English, who are anomaly when the rest of the world says "i" in a uniform manner!

Trick 1: Fill in vowels even when not needed.

Japanese sounds always follow the pattern of C-V-C-V, where C stands for consotants and V stands for Vowels. This is the smallest elements in our utterances, i.e, syllabuls, consisting of a pair of a C and a V. See some famous Japanese words:

To-yo-ta
Ho-n-da
Ma-tsu-shi-ta

As in Honda, N is an exception. By the way, using this feature we have a word game called SHIRITORI, which literally mean "Butt-take." Say, the first person says a noun "Tsu-ku-e (desk)," then the next person should come up with a word that starts from "the butt (end)" of the word Tsu-ku-e, which is "e." E-n-pi-tsu (pencile) would be a good answer. We repeat this among two or more persons untill someone makes a mistake and says a noun that ends with "N." Since N is the only exception in our language in that can stand as a consonant alone, no word in our language starts with N that is a consonant alone. So whoever provides an answer that ends with N, that person is it.

This game is pretty exciting because as we do it for a while it gets harder and harder since we cannot use the same words.

I've met Chinese people whose names are Ng, but no such sound exists in Japanese.

It is crucial to master this C-V combination. Exercise 1. Mentally replace C with C-V.

a) McDonolds

b) Icecream

c) popcorn

Answer Key:

a) Ma-ku-do-na-ru-do

b) a-i-su-ku-ri-(-)-mu

c) po-ppu-ko-(-)-n

The challenge is this, though. I say, add vowels after consonant-alone sounds, but fill in with which vowel???? You got me. I am certain there is a rule.

Quiz: Translate the following Japanese English into English

a) haro, mei ai asuku watto taimu itto izu nau?

b) naisu to meeto yu-.

c) aido raiku to dorinku koka ko-ra.

d) shatto appu ando getto za heru auto obu hiya.

Answer key:

a) Hello, may I ask what time it is now?

b) Nice to meet you.

c) I'd like to drink coca-cola.

d) Shut up and get the hell out of here.

If you get at least three out of four, you can go on reading the next section.

Black belt bonus challenge:

Call a Japanese friend of yours and play shiritori (described earlier as a competitive game in Japan) to win.

Cool trick 2

Instead of L and R say something in between L and R or as a compromise use Spanish R. You have to be in the mind of Zen with high level of different kind of concentration.

Nothingness. The most serene state of mind. You would even catch a fly with chopsticks if you were this concentrated.

Then you mentally delete the differences between

L and R. If you concentrate on nothing, just like Tom Cruiz did when he was fighting with Samurai's in his movie or Karate Kid boy in his movie, you can do it. Try to hear no difference between the following pairs. Instead, hear Spanish R.

Rice versus Lice
Election versus Erection

If you try, anything is possible. Repeat them many times untill you hear no difference.

If possible, say Spanish R without your toungue touching the roof of the mouth. The serious mistake English speaking people make is that you guys move the tougue way too far into the mouth trying to say R. This creates a serious conflict with other words that come right after R. There is a Japanese name Ryoko. There is also a famous temple Ryoan-ji in Kyoto.

Ryoko
Ryoanji
Ryoko (trip)

English speaking people, especially, North Americans pull their toungue rediculously far into their mouth, so when they have to pronouce Y immediately after R, it gets too difficult. In other words, in English, R forces the toungue to go far back, while Y needs your tougue to come back immediately to the front position.

To pronounce Japanese R correctly, think of D. The toungue has to stay about the same position as D when you say Japanese R. This is why my friend tells me she would tell a taxi driver "Dyoanji" instead of "Ryoanji," and the taxi driver does not even realize she said it wrong. So seems like American D could sound even closer to Japanese R than American R.

NOW having written this... it turns out that what I just said somewhere above is not right. It is strange, when I tell it, most native speakers agree with me about this certain thing. But something I said above is very wrong and I just noticed it recently. I will write about it in my book.

It is so meaningless to ask native speakers (of any language)about their languages. Just generally speaking, we don't know about our own languages and it is almost impossible to be objective abut it when it is your own language.

Trick 4: Za cha-ren-gi

For those of you who have not yet gotten it, the title above means "The Challenge." In Japanese, we only have one A, as in toyoTA or kArAoke. In English there are three of them, which is why A in Karaoke seems different dependending on where it appears and how it is related to other parts of the word. In English, 3 As are as in:

hat
hut
hot (American way)

Again mentally erase the differences among different A-sounds in English. Instead use just one A that is somewhat close to A as in hut or hot, but not in hat. The importance is not really to get exact A, but to pick one. As a linguist Ferdinand de Saussure said, the importance is the differences or the absense of difference. In Japanese, just pick one A and stick with it. Anyways, Japanese people won't notice if you say A as in hot or A as in hut.

Imagine one day you wake up and everybody is speaking in the following way. It would make you go nuts.

This much cost me this much --> to mean "This match cost me this much."
My haat is haat when I haad the haadship in his haat --> to mean "My heart is hurt when I heard the hardship in his hut."

Exercize. Think of As in these words and mentally delete the differences.

hot-hat-hot

but-bot-bat

cut-cot-cat

heart-hurt-hot

Say them many times and be sure they all sound the same.

By the way, think of Japanese people's difficulty to listen and understand English when we hear no different between these A's. While you guys just need to mentally delete differences (undifferentiate), Japanese people have to DIFFERENTIATE when they often hear no difference. I am fluent in English, but I still cannot hear the difference between L and R.

My theory is that L and R are identical sounds. I think you all are joking when you say L and R are different. I think you are responding to peripheral sounds around L and R, such as a somewhat dark "w" like sound at the beginning of R sound (which is why some children confuse Red and Wed), while in fact L and R are the same sounds. I will stick with my theory until someone proves that L and R are different. By the way I can say L and R, but my cognitive system does not register the difference. Other sounds are fine and I can say and hear all of them--just except L and R.

Advertisement of my book on English pronounciation!

I invented rediculously easy way to teach English pronounciation. I contacted one Japanese publisher and they could not pursue my project because I was not yet ready to share my trade secrets. However, I feel they will feel like a drummer who quit the Beatles before they became famous. I plan to make a revolution based on my book. Japanese people will sound like native speakers of English when they read my book--without any practice. I taught my parents using my techniques. My mother, though she does not speak English, can pronounce L and words like world and girl. It is my point--people don't need to know English to be able to pronounce English sounds. They need to read my book.

The only phonemes that I have not invented my tricks are:

i --> as in Ship and Sheep

a as in Hat

t-sound

In fact I myself sometimes am confused with the two different "i" sounds. Especially "i" in wOmen, sit, bUsy, are a bit difficult. When I ask my colleague, "Are you busy," they sometimes say, "Excuse me?" I say it wrong often because I get confused this "i" with the other "i." I just forget (and notice how helpless spelling is in the English language). "i" in bUsy is the same as i in "sip" rather than "sheep."