pronunciation tool
September 30th, 2005 by heatherin my language exchange with david yesterday, he gave me a compliment on my pronunciation joking that he thought it was a native speaker. i said ‘thank you’; but of course if i was a real japanese speaker i’d have demurred and said it was awful. surely, he was just being nice, but it was encouraging.
how do you really know if your pronunciation is good, if everyone’s aalways being so nice?
how about speech analysis? i haven’t tried this *yet*, but i’m going to:
Public speech analysis: PASTE. You email the sound to the server, and it spits out an analysis of your recorded audio. See pictures of the analysis here and here. I’m not sure how it works, but it looks like you compare your patterns with that of a native speaker.
September 30th, 2005 at 12:53 pm
I went out for dinner with my brother last night, in Brighton. One of the waitresses was probably Japanese (it was a Thai restaurant, so Japanese wouldn’t be the norm, I guess). Anyway, she was describing the choice of desserts, and pronounced the f of ‘fritter’ with that light, blowing-out-a-candle sound we know as ふ.
Too sweet for words. Now I need another excuse to go to Brighton.
Perhaps I could take a tape recorder and pretend it was for research?
September 30th, 2005 at 1:49 pm
I think if your pronunciation is merely okay, people will just compliment your Japanese. They’ll compliment your pronunciation if it’s very good.
If/when you go to Japan, you can judge it by how well store clerks and restaurant waitresses understand you.
September 30th, 2005 at 3:36 pm
Heather — Found this interesting looking manual today that might make learning kanji easier. http://www.thejapanshop.net/km.htm I don’t know much about it, aside from what is displayed on the page, but it certainly looks easier than diving in and memorizing frantically. Just a thought!
September 30th, 2005 at 9:51 pm
Found your postings today. Some of the weblinks you posted were very helpful. Keep up the log!!! Thanks.
I am a Japanese-American from Hawaii, but now live in Fresno. I am studying Japanese for a first time and enjoying it. But the hiragana takes a lot of effort and study. Wish I had more time.
Bye for now, Ed.
September 30th, 2005 at 9:54 pm
Regarding meeting native speakers. The class I am taking is taught at Fresno City College. And the teacher is a counselor at Fresno State University. So she has students from Japan who are studying at Fresno state help with tutoring.
And there is a small Japanese Student Association with members from Japan and the U.S. So the Japanese students can learn English and the American students can learn Japanese. They have fun events and get togethers.
Maybe you can find or start a similar club at a local college or community college.
Best of luck, Ed.
October 9th, 2005 at 8:07 am
I hope that your effort succeeds!
…From Japan.