Japanese Pronunciation: Rhythm

[@jdddyyy1]

My problem is that when listening to natives speak japanese, it sounds so lightning fast that the long vowels only sound like one mora 😅

[@ultracapitalistutopia3550]

Not to mention the silent u and i vowels which is only extensively talked by Dogen on YT.

[@Ziggy9000]

I find that it sounds less fast the more familiar I am with the word. Like my brain processes it faster.

[@BrokenSoulConfession]

I think it's the same with any language. I'm having that situation with Spanish now (the way they merge separate vowels into other words is tricky). But from my Japanese experience, this becomes natural through continuous listening/hearing. Seriously, watching anime or dorama helps. Songs, especially fast paced work too. You'll get used to it in no time.

[@briannemeth9417]

I find it's easier to understand Japanese women

[@ohkeipooh9987]

​@@briannemeth9417 especially when they sing anime

[@thefallenshelf]

This is possibly THE most informative Japanese training I've ever experienced. My mind is blown. So many of my questions about how to speak and understand Japanese language better were answered in this 4 minute video. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

[@みどり-t3d]

にほんごをべんきょうしてくれていてうれしいです！ がんばって！！

[@vanmaren962]

I never realized that this was one of the main reasons why Japanese people have trouble pronuncing English. I have met many Japanese who do not understand the meaning of syllables in English and are unable to disginguish between them.

[@ultracapitalistutopia3550]

I don't really agree on his point at 6:22. Old habit may be difficult to change, but the primary cause is insufficient exposure/inputs and too reliant on your own instinct when pronouncing word you don't truly understand (refusal to consult proper source to correct the error).

[@TheWesterlyWarlock]

@@ultracapitalistutopia3550 I think that's a good counterpoint. I taught English in Japan for three years and Japanese people make a lot of excused for why English is "too hard" all the while I was perfectly capable of understanding moras, pitch intonation, tongue placement, contractions, and a variety of other things "too hard" about Japanese to learn. Granted, my undergrad had a heavy focus on linguistics. In fact, despite my grammar and vocabulary often being rough around the edges, I received genuine compliments (not of the jou-zu-de-su-ne~ variety, but the "you sound very Japanese!" kind to the point I even surprised a cab driver in the inaka one night who turned around when I didn't understand something and said "oh! you're a foreigner!") You know who didn't have issues learning English? The students who weren't told by their teachers it was too hard and who clapped out beat patterns for syllables and taught them how to stop the vowel sounds from coming out. I met many wonderful Japanese people whose English was very good. Their secret? First and foremost, they didn't complain about how hard it was to learn. They also watched a lot of American television and practiced imitating the sound patterns, and took every chance they had to engage with people in English. If you can train your ear to understand music, you can train your ear to understand language. The musicians always seemed to do a lot better with speech contest.

[@turner.n]

@@ultracapitalistutopia3550 I’ll teach you something interesting. First things first, we live in a world where every single hiragana (except for ん): the smallest unit of sound is followed by a vowel so IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR US TO PRONOUNCE ENGLISH WHOSE WORDS INCLUDES SO MANY SYLLABLES END WITH CONSONANT IN ONE WORD. (Of course,sokuon is not counted as a consonant because for us it’s just a small tsu.) Yeah, we can change our old habits like writing letters with a hand to a foot. In the case of me, it took two decades. To be honest, it’s more like a view of the world rather than a habit. It’s as hard as trying to be able to see ultraviolet.

[@TheWesterlyWarlock]

@@turner.n I'm a linguist, and no, it isn't anywhere near as hard as doing the impossible. Your brain is hardwired to learn language. It's most definitely harder the older you get, but it's still possible. Anyone can learn to pronounce English correctly. I taught pronunciation for six years. You just have either had poor teachers or lacked motivation if you can't learn how to isolate a consonant from a vowel. I taught first year elementary students who could do it. Most foreign language teachers in Japan agree that your issue is one of cultural stigma undermining learning. There is an attitude prevalent in Japan, much like there is in America, that learning to become fluent in another language is pointless because you only need your native tongue to function, how lucky! Why learn how to isolate consonants when you don't have to in Japanese? I heard more excuses from Japanese about why it was so uniquely impossible to learn English, I could fill an encyclopedia. All the same reasons it's so uniquely impossible for a foreigner to learn Japanese, and yet, there have been many Westerners become so fluent that their problem becomes that they know Japanese better than most of the non-elites because they've had to study such academic language and kanji knowledge to achieve the highest levels of the JLPT and never focus on proper pronunciation. The main difference between English and Japanese is tongue placement, and if you learned proper tongue placement, you would find it very easy to isolate the vowels, much as I found it very easy never to miss one in Japanese, including the long ones, making the mora system a unique aspect of your language's palatalization.

[@milaycastillo5723]

It's not because of the prononciation, but rather because of the way they write. If you don't have the consonant vs vowel structure, any language that has it will seem more difficult.

[@1.4142]

If you accidentally say ha in a rude way, just finish it with mbaagaa.

[@Tan-fe4wc]

underrated comment lol

[@AbsolutelyNerdy]

Ha--tdog. 🇵🇭

[@steluste]

Yeah better be weird than rude

[@Ystijger]

You seem to be gaining a lot of traction lately, and for good reason ! Your videos are super informative, thanks for your hard work, and making learning Japanese a little bit easier for us

[@thomasmckay]

I agree! I don't recall where I found the channel but I _think_ it was reddit LearnJapanese. Either way, my thanks as well!

[@hankcohen3419]

I am someone who has lived in Japan now for a combined total of 20 years. I appreciate your explaination of something that I have learned to hear but did not have much grasp on how to explain it. I always thought that people who could listen to the rhythm of the language could pick this stuff up but you point out that it is very deeply ingrained. It is part of how we hear words. It is part of the ear/brain wiring. I wonder if studying music makes it easier to bridge the gap. I study music but at a pretty mediocre level yet I think it has helped me understand the rythm and timing of Japanese. People often complement me on my pronunciation. Not on my vocabulary :(

[@earlysda]

That's interesting, Hank. Personally, I think music has messed up my spoken Japanese, as moras are pretty much thrown out the window in many Japanese songs. 「かわのようにいいいいいいい。」など。

[@powerdude_dk]

I think he refers to just the musical notes of music without lyrics ☺️

[@TheNevarranSeeker]

​@@earlysda That's really interesting! For me, it was the reverse. I have very natural sounding Japanese pronunciation largely because I listened to (and learned) a lot of Japanese music and lyrics before I ever started studying the language properly. I think I naturally picked up what was explained about mora in this video without even realizing it, and it might be because I'm a musician, but I've never been sure!

[@earlysda]

@@TheNevarranSeeker That's cool, Seeker.

[@patrickwarren2714]

Vocab -- write down everything you hear and can't understand, then learn it. Eventually you can understand everything you need to. Write down everything you want to say, but can't. Learn the vocab (and grammar) to say it. Eventually, you will be able to say everything you want to say. No slacking.

[@cremapastelera00]

it makes sense that mora and musical rhythm are connected, since japanese is a melodical and sing-songy language (which i think is really nice)

[@earlysda]

cat, I thot so at first too, until I mastered it.

[@starlightparades]

Shinobu Sengoku

[@notafortnitegamer]

No wonder anime intros sound so good,especially the inyuyasha ones

[@missbeans]

Thank you for explaining why I've always found Japanese to be a beautifully melodic language. You're basically talking about musical notes and rythm here.

[@watertribeskye]

this is why studying the characters is so important! my pronunciation really leveled up after I started learning hiragana and katakana. Just understanding how the syllables/sounds are split up really does make a huge difference. Thanks so much for this video! I couldn't properly vocalize/underrated exactly why that is until now!

[@83hjf]

and the opposite goes for them as well. when they study western languages they'd use katakana for words and sound weird. they should be "forced" to use romaji the same way we japanese learners are "forced" to use hiragana

[@YuiraKun]

mans out here dropping the most important lessons that you can't find in any book

[@coolbrotherf127]

I actually have a harder time saying English loan words that have been "Japanese-ified" than regular Japanese words. It's very weird saying words I already know separated into moras.

[@jonathansoelle3825]

Like allergy

[@DroolRockworm]

Leave it to the Japanese to borrow a massive amount of foreign words, but then make up a bunch of rules about them as if they made them up, and are now gatekeeping the words they originally borrowed

[@rarejitter8485]

@@DroolRockworm Isn't that what the English did when developing their language over the past few hundred years?

[@intakoyaki9576]

@@DroolRockworm not that deep

[@decrepitdebauchery]

@@DroolRockwormwere you just expecting them to pick up a perfect accent to pronounce the words they borrowed from entirely different cultures? like, do you think english speakers pronounce loanwords correctly? cafe, piano, fiance, vase. none of those sound the same in english than they do when spoken in their respective native languages

[@imagamerchick]

Im autistic, and i pick up "patterns" really easily, so i pick up languages more easily than most people. When i was entering the U S. Army, they loved me lol. They wanted me to be an interpreter for immediate apprehensions, but I ended up not taking the invite to the military. I still love to use my talents. This video REALLY helped me to pick up the basics i need to really grab the language! Thank you SO much! When I would explain how patterns sound to me, this inflection on the voice, long and short vowels and such, certain inflections really change the use of the words! Thank you so much, SO much! This video was so helpful and i really appreciate you! A lot of people dont realize how u say the word really changes the meaning! I love it :) thanks so much!

[@Mayo-Lord]

I've never looked at language in this way before. When I travel or have friends who speak other languages, I enjoy listening to and conversing with native speakers and practicing the words and phrases they teach me. I spend a lot of time with them trying to get the pronunciation right, using different parts of the mouth. Its eye opening to think about pronunciation and timing in the context of Japanese mora. I hope that keeping this in mind will help better train my ear for learning languages in the future. Especially Japanese! ありがとう.

[@nemureki]

this is so incredibly helpful. no one had gone into this topic so in depth before, i thought i fully grasped the concept but this video made me REALLY get it. I'll apply this to my learning everyday from here on out. thank you!!

[@Ross_5979]

This is a video that really breaks the mental code for me behind the language!! Never have I heard this break down in any other Japanese language learning source.

[@americanmeowth3336]

Bruh, thanks for the vid. This was so much more of a practical breakdown than I was expecting, and the on-screen guides are super helpful in illustrating the explanations.

[@HTMLguruLady2]

This is one of the best videos I have ever seen explaining mora's!!! THANK YOU!

[@JackMyersPhotography]

Your ability to communicate these concepts is incredibly valuable and helpful. Thank you.

[@mlcmercurialluxecat3018]

I love that I found your channel. I've only been learning on duolingo, but this is opening up a whole other level. Now I know that there is a whole other aspect I need to be studying! It's fascinating. Thank you!

[@Hotislandoffshore]

This is exactly what my biggest problem seem to be with learning Japanese. Just didn't know this was a thing so I didn't know how to pot words to it.

[@LynKora]

The way you explained the "mora" system reminds me of when we were learning about sylables in my Elementary School. We would say the words slowly and clap for each sylable. The teacher said each sylable is a beat. My real name is two sylables. Many of the other kids did three for it. I think some of them learned a different language's song first.

[@ViiZedek]

and weirdly enough, I am a Brasilian Portuguese native speaker, this mora system was not hard at all to learn. When I went to Japan, people said i had a beautiful(kirei) accent. but then again, it could be people being polite to me.

[@cofyrights]

Brazilian Portuguese has the similar concept not of timing but of syllabic stress such as knowing the difference between côco vs cocô, cai vs caí, etc.

[@itoibo4208]

@@cofyrights it seems similar to which vowels are stressed in English. not inTEResting but INteresting. not HEllo but heLLO.

[@juanitotucupei]

I had this same experience as native Spanish speaker learning Russian. My teachers always praised my pronunciation in comparison my American classmates. It’s quite a privilege to have been born bilingual house and having learned more than one sound/word reference system when attempting to learn a new language.

[@FlatlandMando]

Isn't it true that there is no nicer compliment than to have native speakers say you have a good accent learning their language... I would love to hear that!!

[@o.ot.t_5076]

Japanese really like being complimented. And they also like to compliment other people. And they tend not to show their truely desire to other people. So, you better know yourself whether you're great or not.

[@user-keterMeow]

Your video content is so amazing. No teacher ever explain me mora and syllable so clearly. Thank you for your sharing.

[@Yue_yunn]

As someone who had many linguistic related subjects at university and genuinely enjoyed all of them, this is such a great video!! Very clear and helpful, your work is great!

[@alemirdikson]

I've understood this concept in practice for a while, but not until now have I known the actual mechanics of it. Thank you for the informative video, I think you've earned a sub.

[@kylestyle5693]

You’re channel is one of the most helpful and insightful Japanese learning resources on the internet. Thank you. ありがとうございました！

[@dammika5909]

これめちゃくちゃ役に立ちました

[@thomaskolb8785]

This is something that was never explained to me this clearly before. Kanama-sensei, thank you very much!

[@kroantai8863]

That's very interesting, I didn't really pay attention to moras while learning. From now on I'll try to also put them in my focus of learning. 便利だけではなくて、とても面白いトピックです。(I learned this grammar not so long ago, so I hope I used it right) ありがとうございました！

[@kanamenaito]

ありがとうございます！ It is better using 「実用的（じつようてき/practical）」or「有用（ゆうよう・useful）」instead of 「便利」 here. It is unnatural in Japanese to describe 「トピック」using 「便利」. これからも日本語の学習頑張ってください！

[@kroantai8863]

@@kanamenaito thank you very much for your answer! 🐝

[@AM-xo7lr]

Thank you for this insight. I studied articulatory phonetics for two years, and there are so many ways we can trip up when trying to learn the sounds, rhythm and intonation of different languages because we literally do not have mental representations of these sounds and therefore find it difficult to know what to attend to when learning. This kind of explicit instruction is so useful for beginning to 'get your ear in' to a different language.

[@CW-xf1li]

I wasn't looking up Japanese, and don't know why this popped up on my feed, but you broke this down so well I was able to say the English words, how it would be said by a Japanese person, exactly like you, before you explained them in the end. Bravo! I'm shocked. You are an excellent teacher 👏🏽 I now understand why the accent is like it is and I'm subbing. I guess I'm gonna learn some Japanese now😊

[@Brocollipy]

I've gotta say, of all the various videos I've watched, this has been the most enlightening. It changed the way I speak and hopefully makes me better understood.

[@astropgn]

This was extremely interesting to watch. I think that even for people who are not trying to learn japanese, it was great! Languages are so beautiful.

[@billythenarwhal1579]

I really feel like understanding musical timing has been a great help for me to understand the mora system.

[@alexander-kirk]

I absolutely love how Kaname-san teaches the underlying linguistics in a simple and relatable manner! Plus... he's just so adorable with his acting and facial expressions ❤

[@concernedcitizen6313]

Very valuable information. I already knew a lot of this, but it's always good to be reminded to be cognizant of mora-length. I know this video is about a year old, so you may have already learned this, but while referring to a "glottal stop" when describing the Japanese concept of a "sokuon," especially for people who are new to second-language acquisition or who may not know linguistic terminology very well, it's more properly defined as consonant gemination. "Gemination" is essentially duplication or twinning (and for those who like astrology, the "Gemini" is related to this). For people more familiar with European languages, gemination happens a lot in Italian ("Vittorio," for instance) and other languages (Icelandic, for instance). I'm by no means trying to "correct" or anything. I just thought this would be useful for describing these concepts later on.

[@Moon_Child_Mari]

I’m not very far along into learning Japanese, but this kind of answers a question I had about how English sounds when spoken by native Japanese speakers. I always wondered why it was that Japanese speakers wouldn’t de voice English vowels the way they do when they speak Japanese, but the mora system makes a lot of sense! I’m trying to be mindful of pitch accent and mora when I speak Japanese, so learning this helps a lot! :)

[@Wkaelx]

Best thing on being portuguese native is that we(me atleast) can have almost any sounds so its not really that hard to indentify or learn another language atleast on my experience so far, spanish is pretty similar, english is not that hard the system is the same just the intonation is different, now that im trying japanese im super excited and loving it! Thanks for the hints.

[@candychan3106]

I totally agree with Kaname Naito, this is extremely important. When I reached N3 grammar/reading, I still could not understand N4 listening. Then I started with a private Japanese tutor who is very strict and since day 1, he corrected every single Japanese Rhythm/pronunciation mistakes I made. Once I understand and be able to differentiate the different sounds/Japanese Rhythm (1.regular vowel/long vowel, 2.ん, and 3.the extension sound　ー like in ハンバーガー), my Japanese listening comprehesion improved in 6 months (through intensive dictation practice).

[@ethonen]

You have a great way of explaining things. Keep up the great work. You repeating the same word clearly so I can say it to myself and with you is great. There are so few good Japanese language resources out there that are easy to understand and also deep. Keep up the great work.

[@razzledazzle2332]

I was literally thinking today how native japanese speakers have this very rhythmic way of talking that is hard to replicate on my own, thank you so much for this!!

[@mazingworldofmegan8906]

This is a great way to explain this to beginners. I know when I was learning Japanese, this concept was hard at first.

[@chrisschmitt4060]

Wow, this was an incredibly helpful video. This is the first time I've come across the concept of mora. I've always found the borrowed words to be more difficult but I think this will help with that too.

[@Name-pj1oy]

For me japanese sounds really similar and sincere ı guess because im Turkish . Because the structure of sentences are very similar . And also pronouncing is very easy . Like there is no harsh sounds as English . My mouth doesn’t get tired just like in Turkish.Only i need to paractice more . I really like that language hope i can be at level of speaking it one day !

[@Phoenix-ej2sh]

Thank you so much for this. These are the sorts of insights you don't get out of a phrase book, and bring out the beauty in the differences between languages.

[@Cyred_Akaao]

The connection of spoken Mora and Musical Beats makes me wonder how a musical background affects one's experience when speaking Japanese, vocalists especially so. After all, Internalizing rhythm is something musicians should have a good capability of doing in order to be successful in performing, composing, transcribing, etc., and it seems the same holds true for speaking Japanese. It'd be an interesting thing to look further into.

[@colinjames2469]

I can tell you that being a musician most definitely helps. Not only rhythm but also the intonation/music of the language is much easier to hear and replicate in one's speech, ね。🙇🏻‍♂😉

[@mwright80]

Being a musician makes language easier to hear. You still have to learn vocabulary and how to think in another language. But this explanation of mora makes Japanese that much easier to conceptualize.

[@arnoldbr8418]

It helps if the person is a spiritual lyrical individual

[@halutena736]

not really. correlation doesn't equal causation. there's nothing there. and the other comments are false, being a musician doesn't help; it's moreso those that have the capability of understanding music also have the capability of understanding spoken tempo...life isn't whimsical like that man. just learn the language or don't like everybody else

[@mwright80]

@@halutena736 Both language and music have the characteristic of accelerating and decelerating over time, going up and down in pitch, and going in and out in volume. Imagining this type of relationship between language and music is intuitive. And wondering how this relationship is experienced by musicians especially vocalists isn't whimsical, but totally reasonable. To expand... I'll assume, from your response that you're a musician. And I'll also assume from your response that you understand music propagates along three axes. Tempo accelerates and decelerates on the X axis. Pitch rises and falls on the Y axis. Volume goes in and out on the Z axis. Attack and timbre, whether something is hard and bright like a trap snare, or soft and dark like an 808, result from the interaction of harmonics of the fundamental pitch relative to that pitch along the X, Y, and Z axes. Being the type of musician who thinks of music this way makes music easier to hear. It's the same with language. Except we exchange attack and timbre for consonants, vowels and tone. Being the type of musician who thinks of language this way makes language easier to hear. There's certainly no guarantee that this particular correlation between music and language is going to cause a musician to be better at learning languages than anyone else. But considering this correlation makes language easier to hear, which is what I said, which isn't false. Maybe you're just not that kind of musician.

[@NatManzano]

Your videos are so clear and well done. It helps me understanding the sounds, the concept, learning new vocabulary from the examples and also getting used to reading all at the same time. It is the closest to real life immersion some of us can get at the moment. Brilliant. Hoping for new videos. You are a fantastic teacher. I am going to tell my Japanese lessons classmates about you. ありがとうございます　　 Also, 犬かわいいです

[@KuldipSingha-do9uj]

Japanese language follows the meter rule like vedic chanting, though various types of meter are used in vedic chanting. And i loved that last cuddling part ❤❤

[@snicoll]

Thanks

[@lyeji1632]

I love this video! I started learning Japanese because I thought it sounded musical and therefore, very beautiful. I had studied Italian years earlier, and I loved the sound of Italian, so I started looking for an Asian language which sounded like 'music' too 😅 I'm not a musician so I didn't know the right terminology, so this is a real eye opener for me. It will definitely improve my pronunciation.

[@shhs1227]

the musical aspect you're looking for is "syllable timed languages" japanese and Italian are syllable timed other languages in this category are Spanish and Greek

[@jeff__w]

Linguist Mario Pei in his _Language for Everybody_ (1956) noted that, while Italian and Japanese are unrelated, their sound schemes “show striking similarities,” something that, somehow, stayed with me in the half century since I read the book.

[@AM-xo7lr]

You would almost certainly like Finnish, too. It has a very melodic intonation pattern and lots of long consonants.

[@rzadigi]

To me Thai is the most sing song of the Asian languages, but any language with tones will be difficult for the non musical tone deaf like myself. I’ve often heard that Spanish is the easiest language for a Japanese to learn because the main sounds are so similar to those of Japanese. Unfortunately my knowing Spanish does nothing to reduce the difficulty of learning Japanese 😢

[@danielself5560]

I studied Japanese very, very briefly on my own when I was 11 years old. This is a great video! This helps get a feel for Japanese's inflection and emphasis which, honestly, sounded a bit strange before viewing this video. This makes listening to Japanese in real time sound much less intimidating to new learners.

[@chauchau4740]

An interesting note for sakuon - Stein's Gate featured a few different times where Daru would correct Okabe's pronunciation of ハカー instead of ハッカー so the difference is quite noticeable.

[@m3tam0rf75]

Supa hakka

[@lovewillwinnn]

You are an EXCELLENT language teacher. I really look forward to the time when all humans speak one language once and for all. It will likely get changed back and we can all be united globally once again. Genesis 11: 9. And the world will then be at peace once and for all. Isaiah 14: 7

[@nicolemunozcure]

Learning this as a child when I was studying Japanese helped me tremendously when I learnt Swedish as an adult, the concept of long vs short vowels and how native speakers perceive them wasn't something that I was aware of being a Spanish speaker. It made me put a lot more effort into it and become more aware of it.

[@giofilms9099]

For real no manches

[@nicolemunozcure]

@@giofilms9099 En serio, veía a muchos compañeros sin poder percibir la diferencia entre vocales cortas o largas porque en otros idiomas no es común que cambie el significado de la palabra por ello. Pero por ejemplo, sabiendo que en japonés ojiisan y ojisan son dos palabras distintas y que hay que hacer un énfasis en la duración de las vocales para que te entiendan, me ayudó a entender que aunque väggen o vägen suenen similares, un sueco no te entiende si la pronuncias mal, aunque el contexto sea súper evidente. Hay mucho que uno puede aprender teóricamente, pero el ejercicio constante de enfatizar detalles de un idioma que no son comunes en tu idioma propio te hace más consciente de dónde tienes que gastar tu energía para hablar bien el idioma.

[@Itscarl99]

日本語の勉強の初めてから、このような面白い発音の説明ビデオを見た事がない、ありがとう！

[@colinjames2469]

Please trust me when I say your channel is THE Best for learning the nuances of the Japanese language on youtube! Your presentation is mind-bogglingly great!, ありがとうございました。Subbed. 🙇🏻‍♂

[@powerdude_dk]

Same here! He really knows what Japanese is like for an English speaker!! Very unbiased! どもありがとう。

[@maryam-pk4py]

i agree!!

[@ahoj6614]

Ikr!! The most straightforward sensei. All of his content are helpful for learners

[@marshill88]

fantastic teacher of japanese. he is my favorite ive seen so far. very instructive video.

[@palomab.r.7921]

I am not learning Japanese and it’s not one of my plans for the future but I’m still watching this video 😂 pronouncing aloud the words and learning about the difference between a syllable and a mora. Love it!

[@tebo-lee]

This was really fascinating, I like the analogy you used about the sound recognition system. You cannot simply unplug the system you’ve used your whole life and plug in a new one. It’s imbedded in your central nerve system, it takes time to tune into the frequency of the new system. That’s why students need to focus on pronunciation from the very beginning, it takes a while to absorb the rhythm of your target language.

[@rendemihui]

This is only the second video of yours that I've watched. You give such clear explanations❤ I just realized that I am inconsistent with my moras, and that will improve my speaking (and confidence) a lot! ありがとうございます。

[@mungbean345]

This was a beautifully clear explanation of the difference in rythms that I've noticed between Japanese and English. It feels like a much more poetic way of approaching words. Very intriguing; thank you. And what better way to end a thought-provoking lesson than with a happy dog face! 😄

[@anna8282]

Very easy for me as a native Finnish/Swedish speaker. We have the same rhythm, long vowels, and sokuon (double consonants).

[@stinkyboy]

Same! I'm Finnish too and the fact that the pronunciation of Finnish and Japanese is so similar (to an extent of course) has been super helpful. The only thing I kind of struggle with pronouncing is らりるれろ and their compound kana like りゅ and りょ

[@anna8282]

@@stinkyboy Haha yes, the "sort of R" can be a bit tricky. I'm already used to it myself since living in Japan. The combo Finnish/Swedish has definitely been helpful with overall pronunciation. As a Swedish speaker it's convenient that the Swedish and Japanese "u" is the same, a sound that Finnish speakers often pronounce differently since it doesn't exist in Finnish. Nice to hear from a fellow Finn, living abroad I miss Finland and hearing Finnish, it's the best language in the world if you ask me (ja miksipä ei kysyttäisi 😁) and Finns have the best humor. I hope to visit again soon. 💜

[@stinkyboy]

@@anna8282 Haha yes, it definitely gets easier the more you speak. Hope you get the chance to visit again soon! 🙏 (Miksiköhän puhun englantia suomalaiselle 😂)

[@anna8282]

@@stinkyboy 😂 Lol I thought the same. But I just felt it would be a bit rude to switch to Finnish on a Japanese channel since it could be an inconvenience to others, the translate option only exists on mobile so far, not on laptops/computers.

[@Kirithキリス]

I don't know much about linguistics, but I think this similarity is because Finnish and Japanese are both come from totally different language families (Uralic & Japonic) which are "Agglutinative languages" in contrast to the Indo-European languages like English. Like how in Japanese, the core sounds (phonemes, Japanese has around 20 or so) don't change as much as English (44 or so phonemes), but rather more of the same sounds are added to a word. English can code more meaning in a single syllable because of all the additional consonant/vowel sounds. Which makes a slower rhythm, but the greater complexity in each word length means more meaning can be coded into smaller words. I'm guessing that's similar to how Finnish works?

[@jhsrt985]

I'm glad you explained this, I've been wondering why Japanese make english words longer than they have to be. Everything makes sense now. Thank you alot.

[@LoveandLucy2022]

mora is actually pretty easy for me to grasp because I'm a musician, but this video was really interesting to watch because my understanding of it was completely subconscious

[@Roescoe]

Same I've just picked this up from talking to students and listening to songs, and other Japanese sources. I can subconsciously convert any English word into the mora system.

[@espinaca27]

Dude, I loved this. I was smiling throughout this video. I think it’s because he explained some very basic but very fundamental that I had not seen covered elsewhere, and immediately recognized what he was explaining as a key problem in my attempt to learn japanese. It’s like the Leo DiCaprio meme pointing at the TV

[@サリミさん]

It's close enough of how i learn arabic pronunciation and reading, it has short and long vowel, more so its vowel length has its meaning, if changed, so the meaning. Anyway thank you Kaname-san. Your channel is really helpful. かなめさんのチャネルも登録しました!🙌

[@KeyaoMeng]

I never realized when learning Japanese that I don’t extend the vowel long enough until this video. Thanks, it’s been very helpful.

[@bonboniya_]

I'm learning Korean, not Japanese. BUT I massively appreciated watching this video. I come for a musical background & have always thought that when learning any language you have to really atune your ear to the distinct musicality of the language you're learning. It takes a lot of time and can be a pain to nail down, particularly if it's something that doesn't come as naturally, but this is literally such a beautiful part of learning different languages!...So, If I decide to learn Japanese one day then I'll definitely be coming back to this video/channel ☺

[@MagnusMoerkoereJohannesen]

It's a constant source of frustration for me, as a teacher, that prosody takes up so little, if any at all, time and effort in foreign language acquisition! Great to see someone picking up the slack :D Fantastic video!

[@ninjakittysuperstar]

This is stuff I already knew, but I kept watching anyway because this fellow explains the concepts so neatly. Thanks for the refresher, friend!

[@MrDancingGODZILLA]

Your videos for pronunciation are extremely helpful! I’ve learned Japanese on and off for years. I always get to the same spot, start hearing how American I sound, get discouraged, and then stop. I pronounce vowels and everything correctly, but the rhythm was my issue! I feel like I will be able to go beyond what I could do in the past now that I have found your videos, so thank you

[@RhizanthellaSlateri]

This reminds me of Finnish! They pronounce long vowels and kind of glottal stops too. You hold the eh a little longer in "Anteeksi". And kissa and kisa are two different words. Rikki--you kind of stop and wait before the "kk".

[@user-b3i2q]

6:00 that was an excellent pronunciation of the word "interesting," by the way. It was perfect and spot-on! You even got the "ch" sound in the middle. A lot of foreigners would say "in-ter-es-ting" but it's better to say it just as you said it: "in-chres-ting" so it becomes 3 syllables instead of 4.

[@Direblade11]

PLEASE make a playlist for your language videos. This one is so informative that I want to hear them all and practice, please and thank you

[@experimetalfan8851]

I just started learning Japanese and I quickly found out you need to hear the "how and why" from native speakers. This video was very helpful! You got a new subscriber.

[@purittamaneki7221]

Mora is really important. For some reason, a few Japanese language learners have appeared recently who preach the importance of pitch accent in Japanese, but for Japanese people, pitch accent is not really important. What is more important is this mora. Pitch accents are totally different from region to region, era to era, and more importantly, from person to person, but it doesn't matter at all when you are speaking.

[@earlysda]

Very true words, purit.

[@rzadigi]

Thank you for saying this. I’d never noticed pitch before in Japanese and became discouraged when Dogen started stressing it. Good to know that I’m not wrong in ignoring him 😂

[@arielp7582]

"But for Japanese people, pitch accent doesn't really matter". You couldn't be any more wrong so take this dislike.

[@Bippy55]

Domo domo arigatou gozaimasune… for teaching us about how important it is to listen, and produce rhythm with Japanese words and listen for it. I honestly had no idea of this concept, even though I’ve been to Japan 16 times! More power to you! Keep going!

[@J7Handle]

Reminds me of the English rhythm video about the Pink Panther. Very interesting contrast.

[@jshoover2199]

This was incredible! Thank you so much!!! I have been studying Japanese for years and no one ever explained this. Fantastic!!!

[@keytur3]

ドラえもんのイントネーションみたいなの笑うw

[@dsmith6868]

Great video! I kind of felt like I was having this problem and that I needed to work on something like this when I started learning katakana/hiragana because you can see these sounds in those characters, but I couldn't figure out exactly how I should enunciate this properly and I didn't know about mora. This video hit it on the nail and puts it all together for me. Now I know better what I need to work on and how to do it. Thanks so much! 🙏

[@sogeking935]

This channel is great ! Thank you so much. P.S. Cute dog

[@phycov1217]

I'd just like to say, you explained this extremely well. For whatever reasons, one thing I struggle intensely with, is the learning and contextualization of languages other than my mother tongue. I have tried and failed before to understand this, in one video I had multiple 'eureka' moments. Thank you, sincerely.

[@JessyRaquel06]

Ah... Sou apaixonada pela língua japonesa, o ritmo, a prosódia... tudo é absolutamente encantador. Meu objetivo de vida é dominar o nihongo, mas é tão difícil, né? Rs. Enfim, fiquei muito feliz em me deparar com vídeos tão legais quanto esses do seu canal que nos ajudam nesse processo :). Obrigado pelo vídeo. Abraços do Brasil.

[@antia1982]

Se para voçê é un sonho, eu tenho a certeza que voçê o conseguera ! Eu começei a estudalo recentemente.. e acho que o ideal seria poder ir ao Xapon algun dia para poder realmente praticar em imersâo. Por exemplo façer Woofing em uma fazenda ou asim.. Eu desejo-lhe o melhor e muito animo 💪 !! (E perdoe meu "portugues", eu não o sei escrever, so falar un pouquinho porque son da Galicia, onde falamos uma linguagem muito similar ao portugues, e porque minha mama foi migrante no Brasil nos 60-70s).

[@LydellAaron]

This is fantastic. Learning new mother tongues is very important in having authentic sound. Thank you for teaching mora.

[@thefamilymealgaming]

is there a good rule of thumb for it ? im not sure if its because we dont have moras in english, it allways sounds like im extenting the mora a bit to long. but i can tell when i dont do it for long enough

[@NO1xANIMExFAN]

Get a metronome and say the word and see if what is said lines up with the beat

[@wrennspencer6070]

Thank you for this wonderful lesson. I've been trying to learn Japanese for 19 years! I have a JP dil & 2 half JP-US grandsons. This is maming better sense than all the 19 years combined! 🫶

[@athoughtortwo]

Thank you for bringing up the concept of mora. Teaching rhythm is an aspect of learning language that is often overlooked. I think mora is also helpful in explaining short and long vowels and 1.5 consonants found in other languages like Hindi. Thank you again for this insight.

[@joebroadinjapan]

I think it is much easier for an English speaker to understand the mora system than it is for a Japanese person to understand the English pronunciation system.

[@AliceinJapanaland]

Most native English speakers don't really understand English pronunciation in depth, either. Though, I have to say that while it's more difficult for Japanese to speak English than English speakers to speak Japanese, it's far easier for Japanese to read English than for English speakers to learn to read Japanese. This makes it especially tough to advance from intermediate level Japanese to advanced while it is easier for Japanese to ultimately gain advanced English abilities via reading. In my experience, once you reach intermediate level, the BEST way to progress your abilities is through reading native texts. Japanese makes that so much harder to do than English.

[@joebroadinjapan]

@@AliceinJapanaland There are no Japanese people who are good at English. There are only those who manage to communicate in English.

[@AliceinJapanaland]

@Joseph Williams 😆 are you trolling? you must not have interacted with many Japanese to say something like that. I've met many who are very capable in English. One of my best friends has moved abroad and passed her nursing exam in English. Another studied at Yale but has returned to Japan after graduating.

[@egg_2705]

​@@AliceinJapanalandbros never left the village it's ok

[@rebecareyes2522]

this video actually help me for my pronunciation www, i've been practicing my japanese for almost 2 years and never realize about the moras or the rhythm the native japanese speakers has www. i found your channel and all of your videos are reaaaally hepful and teach about things that for my level i have to know but i really don't know in a way that is easy to me when i've to speak in japanese hahaha tx again

[@sakuraikeizo]

日本人はそのような音節基盤の発音の練習をしておりません。日本人は日本語のネイティブを真似てフィードバックで修正するディープラーニングで習得をしています。だから日本人は自然な発音が習得できるんです。音声は連続的に変化する動的な音です。

[@geegee6630]

Loved this video! Suddenly things make a lot more sense! I can't wait to watch your other videos. I love Japan and I have visited 6 times, often for 4+ weeks but I have never really been able to learn more than a very few basic words and phrases (thanks to the helpful Japanese people and excellent signage in English, I have managed to survive in Japan with very little trouble. Now I feel like I can learn and understand more Japanese! Thank you!!!

[@chriszekableyat9886]

Yamete kodasai

[@dakotac2775]

kudasai* for future reference HAHA

[@seisveintiocho-x9e]

やめて こださい

[@JariDawnchild]

I didn't understand before why Japanese pronounced incorrectly sounded so jarring, and it's driven me nuts for quite some time. Tyvm for explaining it, and for teaching me that incorrect pronounciation for educational purposes is a necessary evil to get the point across lol. ❤

[@Lyverfive]

I have only heard bits of this before. I wish they would teach this more fully in language classes, textbooks and programs. Thanks for the video!

[@gregalee]

Thank you very much for creating this video! You have provided a very clear explanation of a topic which is rarely shared with us in the West. This level of detail is very helpful to English speakers studying Japanese. Please continue producing excellent videos!

[@Algorithm75]

Thank you! A very informative and interesting (pronouncing 'interesting' with mora) video. I look forward to more.

[@dohee6322]

I think I just found my favourite channel for learning about the japanese language. I'm only at N4 level, I have a long way to go. Self-study is difficult but I find that using various online resources have really made me improve more than with the tutor I previously had. And your videos have helped me a lot! Thank you for creating such useful content!! Your way of teaching is excellent

[@boomshakarlaka7237]

Interesting breakdown. I’m always trying to learn ways to teach my students English, so this was really helpful! The other day they were doing a listening activity and wrote down “hamburger” instead of “handbag.” It’s exactly how you explained it. That “nd” sound translated to the mora “m” sound usually used in ハンバーグ. They can hear me say it, but couldn’t recognize where the issue was, so they were just confused 😅.

[@iampingthepenguin]

I started learning japanese some weeks ago using an app (I'm from Germany) and your videos help me out alot, thank you!