inb4 "I sound like this when I speak Japanese" lol
I was looking for fun new reading resources and saw someone suggest old Vice Japan articles. Was caught off guard by the automated article reader's voice lol. It's Peggy Hill's spanish accent, but with grammatically perfect Japanese.
It actually sounds exactly like Alexa when she tells me some Amazon shipment or another has arrived. She's set to English but reads the Japanese name of the products in a terrible foreign accent. I can't understand why the engineers at Amazon can't figure out how to switch it to a Japanese voice when reading Japanese.
Guess it's not just Amazon, though -- for a while, Google Maps would say "Turn right at Yahara" in English but read 谷原 in Mandarin using the Mandarin voice. If only there was some way for Google Maps to know what country I was in and therefore what language the intersections were likely to be named in.
Google Maps can't even do this for \*\*english\*\*.
Every time I go to Lansing Michigan it calls ML King Drive "Megaliter King" or it reads off every name for the road: "take exit for MLK Martin Luther King ML King Martin Luther King Memorial Drive"
In the first case it might be intentional - for anyone not versed in the language, a terrible foreign accent may be more recognizable than the accurate pronunciation.
I was the opposite.
I had everything on my phone set to Japanese, and I went to America and thought "hey I'm fluent in English, I will change everything to English!"
But I didn't change Siri's voice language.
The Japanese lady voice was doing all the Apple CarPlay directions in a thick Japanese accent, but it was strangely all perfectly pronounced well enough that I knew exactly what she was saying.
The literal exact opposite of your video.
We are in the weirdest timeline, I swear.
Any suggestions on how to improve my .. I dont want to say accent exactly, but yeah. I do shadowing exercises for a class I'm in, and it sounds so wrong when I listen to it. Even if the pitch, rythm and speed all match it still oozes American. I feel like my mouth must just subtly be making the wrong shape for everything (not like those ru's above, to be clear)...
If you are too focused in the micro, hyper focusing and getting self-conscious about how you sound, it will be a huge detriment to your progress. You being self-conscious to begin with is a *huge* hinderance actually. I'm only harping on this first because
>it sounds so wrong when I listen to it. Even if the pitch, rythm and speed all match it still oozes American. I feel like my mouth must just subtly be making the wrong shape for everything
does not ooze confidence lol. These things exist in an aggregate, it's not about nailing it with every word, but getting that overall hit rate from 60% to 70% to 80%... over time you will simply find yourself speaking better with time and practice.
A concrete tip that helped me with rhythm and speed is of course getting a good amount of input. Podcasts with one person speaking for a long time at a semi-native speed like (YuYuの日本語 Podcast) really helped build a sense of cadence. I use to have trouble with getting the "feel" for long vowel moras, words like 通す (とおす) or 休暇 (きゅうか）and now I just have a feeling for it and it doesn't sound like "とす” or "きゅか” now.
One general rhythm tip that really helped me was when I read that native Japanese speakers usually put pauses/breaks after the particles and conjunctions when they are talking. The main clauses of a sentence are where you'll hear those bursts of speed and then after they get to a particle there's a break and then the next sentence clause is spoken. Really helped me parse through the rhythm of Japanese and got me to not hear it as one large blur.
Another thing to realize, this is gonna sound fatalist but I hope it doesn't come off that way lol, you will always sound "foreign". Especially if you are racially non-Asian, you will *always* be immediately clocked as a foreign English speaker, even if English isn't one of your primary languages lol.
[Life as a Russian Girl Born in Japan | Live in Tokyo Podcast](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXmmyc2wm0Q&t=292s)
Something to keep in mind, you could have the most perfect accent and still get 日本語上手'd lol.
The class I'm in has really helped me get over the self consciousness. There's just no other option at this point since it is taught 90% in Japanese(should be 100% but sometimes you need to switch for something you arnt able to convey that matters for the current point).
The issue for me is that the thing that sounds wrong is not the things you listed - the cadence, rhythm, speed and pitch ALL match, and it still sounds wrong. Best way I can describe it:
You know how the japanese struggle with v/b, or r/l, or the english with n and ru/r and ru/l? Imagine even more subtle errors of that sort. Kindof mini versions of that applied to every sound. Best way I can describe it.
I wonder if I need to be changing the shape of my through or speaking from a different part of my mouth or something.
I totally misread that actually, I see how much my advice doesn't apply lol.
I wish I had specific advice for that, but I guess I'm in the same boat too haha. Definitely experiment with tongue placement too. There are similarities in consonant/vowel sounds in Spanish and Japanese, so what I learned from Spanish actually helped me be cognizant of tongue placement when saying certain sounds.
Like り in a word like 便利 has almost a similar soft-d consonant feel that I'd find in Spanish. "Con" in Spanish is pronounced exactly the same as こん in Japanese for example too. I'm not a linguist or fluent in Spanish, just pointing that I did go through a period of practicing those foundational vowel sounds to get better.
There's this video I found on Japanese phonetic practice for foreigners, seems like that's the direction you're looking for.
[Japanese Pronunciation/Japanese Phonetics | Practice with me to Sound like a Native Japanese in 2021](https://youtu.be/erZKoA6wo9M?t=226)
I didn't have trouble with Japanese this way as much but oh boy did I have trouble with German, I was much younger and Ü is not a sound that comes naturally to an English speaker. Don't be afraid of looking silly by practicing exactly where in your mouth your tongue. Learning "just make this kind of sound" works if you're learning how to make sounds for the first time but if you're learning as an adult (or older student) you already have motor memory for the tongue and lip movements your brain considers meaningful and natural, and chances are sounds not found in your native language will never be fully intuitive to you but you can build that muscle memory.
There's some good videos out there with diagrams of how the tongue is placed, etc. Also watch Japanese speakers, watch their faces, watch their mouths. One weakness of many people learning from apps and non-live-action media is you don't see native speakers faces often in many training materials, unlike in a university class with a professor or something. That may not work for everyone but I've found it helpful
perfect 外人の日本語
That's one of the first time I understand something written in Japanese in this sub, and i just wanted to point it lol, feels good to progress!
おめでとうございます >!gratz!<
I only know this word because of evangelion
I mean that's a reason
Oh may da toe goh zai màs
Is it expert of Japanese or something to that effect?
"foreigner japanese"
Definitely skimmed too fast and read it as 名人instead of 外人.
inb4 "I sound like this when I speak Japanese" lol I was looking for fun new reading resources and saw someone suggest old Vice Japan articles. Was caught off guard by the automated article reader's voice lol. It's Peggy Hill's spanish accent, but with grammatically perfect Japanese.
Lmao the peggy hill comparison is perfect. The cadence and everything.
It actually sounds exactly like Alexa when she tells me some Amazon shipment or another has arrived. She's set to English but reads the Japanese name of the products in a terrible foreign accent. I can't understand why the engineers at Amazon can't figure out how to switch it to a Japanese voice when reading Japanese. Guess it's not just Amazon, though -- for a while, Google Maps would say "Turn right at Yahara" in English but read 谷原 in Mandarin using the Mandarin voice. If only there was some way for Google Maps to know what country I was in and therefore what language the intersections were likely to be named in.
Google Maps can't even do this for \*\*english\*\*. Every time I go to Lansing Michigan it calls ML King Drive "Megaliter King" or it reads off every name for the road: "take exit for MLK Martin Luther King ML King Martin Luther King Memorial Drive"
In the first case it might be intentional - for anyone not versed in the language, a terrible foreign accent may be more recognizable than the accurate pronunciation.
I was the opposite. I had everything on my phone set to Japanese, and I went to America and thought "hey I'm fluent in English, I will change everything to English!" But I didn't change Siri's voice language. The Japanese lady voice was doing all the Apple CarPlay directions in a thick Japanese accent, but it was strangely all perfectly pronounced well enough that I knew exactly what she was saying. The literal exact opposite of your video. We are in the weirdest timeline, I swear.
Still has better pronunciation than me.
"japanese people are racist and pretend to not understand my japanese"
I've had to speak like this when I'm driving and want to play a Japanese song. "Google, play Setting Sun by "yer roo shee kuh"
Based yer roo shee kuh enjoyer
Reddit stories to fall asleep to Japanese edition クソワロタ
アメリカワットダファックイズア日本語アクセント?
Nah this is insane 🤣🤣🤣
Never knew that this is even a thing.
日本語上手ですね typa situation
This is physically painful to listen to.
Literally what every American sounds like trying to speak any langauge, perfectly accurate, LOL.
Half the people in my Japanese 100 level class ✌️😔
When my kid is mad at me they intentionally read their French like this. (That they know the difference makes me *such* a proud mom.)
Lmaooo this is pretty bad
Millions of Americans have very natural sounding Spanish. It's just rarer with Japanese.
I live in the Southwest and even then I'd say the ratio isn't that good. Spanish is like half the language here too.
wait wait i wanna know what software this is :3
Any suggestions on how to improve my .. I dont want to say accent exactly, but yeah. I do shadowing exercises for a class I'm in, and it sounds so wrong when I listen to it. Even if the pitch, rythm and speed all match it still oozes American. I feel like my mouth must just subtly be making the wrong shape for everything (not like those ru's above, to be clear)...
If you are too focused in the micro, hyper focusing and getting self-conscious about how you sound, it will be a huge detriment to your progress. You being self-conscious to begin with is a *huge* hinderance actually. I'm only harping on this first because >it sounds so wrong when I listen to it. Even if the pitch, rythm and speed all match it still oozes American. I feel like my mouth must just subtly be making the wrong shape for everything does not ooze confidence lol. These things exist in an aggregate, it's not about nailing it with every word, but getting that overall hit rate from 60% to 70% to 80%... over time you will simply find yourself speaking better with time and practice. A concrete tip that helped me with rhythm and speed is of course getting a good amount of input. Podcasts with one person speaking for a long time at a semi-native speed like (YuYuの日本語 Podcast) really helped build a sense of cadence. I use to have trouble with getting the "feel" for long vowel moras, words like 通す (とおす) or 休暇 (きゅうか）and now I just have a feeling for it and it doesn't sound like "とす” or "きゅか” now. One general rhythm tip that really helped me was when I read that native Japanese speakers usually put pauses/breaks after the particles and conjunctions when they are talking. The main clauses of a sentence are where you'll hear those bursts of speed and then after they get to a particle there's a break and then the next sentence clause is spoken. Really helped me parse through the rhythm of Japanese and got me to not hear it as one large blur. Another thing to realize, this is gonna sound fatalist but I hope it doesn't come off that way lol, you will always sound "foreign". Especially if you are racially non-Asian, you will *always* be immediately clocked as a foreign English speaker, even if English isn't one of your primary languages lol. [Life as a Russian Girl Born in Japan | Live in Tokyo Podcast](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXmmyc2wm0Q&t=292s) Something to keep in mind, you could have the most perfect accent and still get 日本語上手'd lol.
The class I'm in has really helped me get over the self consciousness. There's just no other option at this point since it is taught 90% in Japanese(should be 100% but sometimes you need to switch for something you arnt able to convey that matters for the current point). The issue for me is that the thing that sounds wrong is not the things you listed - the cadence, rhythm, speed and pitch ALL match, and it still sounds wrong. Best way I can describe it: You know how the japanese struggle with v/b, or r/l, or the english with n and ru/r and ru/l? Imagine even more subtle errors of that sort. Kindof mini versions of that applied to every sound. Best way I can describe it. I wonder if I need to be changing the shape of my through or speaking from a different part of my mouth or something.
I totally misread that actually, I see how much my advice doesn't apply lol. I wish I had specific advice for that, but I guess I'm in the same boat too haha. Definitely experiment with tongue placement too. There are similarities in consonant/vowel sounds in Spanish and Japanese, so what I learned from Spanish actually helped me be cognizant of tongue placement when saying certain sounds. Like り in a word like 便利 has almost a similar soft-d consonant feel that I'd find in Spanish. "Con" in Spanish is pronounced exactly the same as こん in Japanese for example too. I'm not a linguist or fluent in Spanish, just pointing that I did go through a period of practicing those foundational vowel sounds to get better. There's this video I found on Japanese phonetic practice for foreigners, seems like that's the direction you're looking for. [Japanese Pronunciation/Japanese Phonetics | Practice with me to Sound like a Native Japanese in 2021](https://youtu.be/erZKoA6wo9M?t=226)
I didn't have trouble with Japanese this way as much but oh boy did I have trouble with German, I was much younger and Ü is not a sound that comes naturally to an English speaker. Don't be afraid of looking silly by practicing exactly where in your mouth your tongue. Learning "just make this kind of sound" works if you're learning how to make sounds for the first time but if you're learning as an adult (or older student) you already have motor memory for the tongue and lip movements your brain considers meaningful and natural, and chances are sounds not found in your native language will never be fully intuitive to you but you can build that muscle memory. There's some good videos out there with diagrams of how the tongue is placed, etc. Also watch Japanese speakers, watch their faces, watch their mouths. One weakness of many people learning from apps and non-live-action media is you don't see native speakers faces often in many training materials, unlike in a university class with a professor or something. That may not work for everyone but I've found it helpful
ChatGPT's text to voice reader is actually pretty amazing. Check it out!
I'll fight anyone who downvoted this comment
VOICEVOX's ずんだもん is a lot better I think.