How to Sound More JAPANESE | Pronunciation Tips 🇯🇵

[@dylanshelby5224]

I always feel so awkward when speaking Japanese. I'm not pronouncing the words wrong, I'm just saying them with an American accent and it's honestly a turn off from continuing learning Japanese so thank you for this video! 🥰

[@nahshondevose4610]

Same

[@reinascully]

Don’t be discouraged, like I said in the video you are probably completely capable of fully communicating, which is highly impressive. Actually “sounding” Japanese is more of a bonus. Plus you’re probably pronouncing it better than you think!

[@dylanshelby5224]

@@reinascully much appreciated! I love your Japanese lesson videos! 🥰

[@susanma4899]

If anything, you have more sympathy for everyone out there struggling to pronounce English.

[@Book_on_the_brightside]

Thank you sooo much for this video!!! I was really struggling with the ra,ri,ru,re,ro and you explained it perfectly!!!!

[@archangelspence]

Ay reina smart af. shes like a legit linguist or whatever

[@reinascully]

The intellectual honor 🙇‍♀️📚 I studied language acquisition heavily for neuropsychology research during college and it stuck

[@DanteBogdan]

@@reinascully that's cool, I didn't even know that was a thing. 👍

[@jordinhocharles]

Facts ! Just because you’re a native speaker doesn’t mean you know the technicalities of the language… lmao trust me when my Brazilian friends ask me about English I just get totally lost 🤣🤣🤣 “can you help me with imperative or past imperfect ?” Me: 😶😶😶 what are those ?

[@hapwn]

@@reinascully can you teach us the engrishu language with a strong Japanese accent please :3

[@Inaeyearsago]

@@hapwn engrishu or Enlishu ana- Ei!!!!

[@もちの花]

Even though I've been studying Japanese for about three years, I wasn't aware of the thing about ふ's prununciation. Thanks for the tip.

[@Alittlebitofeverythingoffical]

Fu is more of like a hu but Duolingo is kinda…yeah…

[@ario8444]

Fu is like Chinese "hu" I think

[@low-key5512]

I've noticed that as someone with a Slavic background, I have found the pronunciations of Japanese words much easier than some of my American or British friends

[@reinascully]

That actually makes sense since a lot of Slavic languages are also spoken at the “middle” or “back” of the mouth, so your tongue probably instinctively knows how to mimic similar sounds 🙆‍♀️ Is it Russian?

[@DemanaJaire]

Polish here and it’s the same for me. Obviously I needed to adjust a few sounds like ら-column, う, し, ち, わ-column and ふ, but I pretty much have mastered it (At least when I’m speaking slowly), and I believe the secret lies in the fact that Japanese and Slavic languages have pretty simple articulation of vowels. So for example, if a Polish person sees name Naruto, they would pretty much read it almost exactly like a Japanese person (ru would be a rolled a bit more, and u pronounced more in the back of the mouth, but the difference is minor).

[@pooferss6056]

Finnish here, though Finno-ugric is a completely different language group, it's still phonetic and quite similar.

[@cyan_oxy6734]

As someone speaking Czech and German I find the vowels to be very similar to German. The way English spelling and vowels work just don't make sense.

[@ganqqwerty]

did you put yourself to a test? I am woking with phonologist teacher and he noticed a lot of issues with my Russian-influenced pronunciation. He also teaches Polish people and lists their common problems.

[@ingridfreitass3760]

As a brazilian being fluent in english and almost fluent in japanese, one of the best things was that even though my native language structure is not even similar to japanese, we pronounce vowels and consonants in the same way. So when i was trying to sound more japanese and improve my accent it was more about sentence intonation etc. Nowadays one of the things im really pround of is my japanese accent. Btw, i've been studying japanese for 6 years. Reina, i rllly luv your content

[@fauxcommander]

As a linguistics student who studies Japanese, this video was kindly appreciated 😌

[@felipecabrera511]

In my opinion the 'r' in らりるれろ is pretty much indistinguishable from the 'tt' and 'dd' in butter, letter, lettuce and ladder... or maybe it's because I'm a Spanish speaker

[@reinascully]

Yesssssss! You’re right!! Especially when you feel where your tongue is hitting the roof of your mouth, it’s VERY similar.

[@hellopurplepen]

Thanks for this! I was playing around with the tongue position on my hard palate and thought this worked perfectly.

[@naddical]

日本語

[@lol-sl6nc]

@@naddical え？

[@SpeedyGwen]

@@reinascully idk how u get to make ur tongue hit the top of ur mouth while pronouncing those words but its not the case with me

[@robertandrewww]

This is probably some of the best linguistics lessons I’ve ever seen. The way you graph the sounds and enunciations and note that different emphasis means different words is flabbergasting. Honestly, most people try to teach Japanese but it seems like it’s towards a semi fluent Japanese audience. Idk anything so these videos are very helpful. Thank you so much. I’m breaking down languages and cultures one country at a time.

[@JifromthePH]

8:19 we have to acknowledge how cute fuwafuwa sounded when Reina said it

[@agorapanologia]

I love this so much. Something that I've noticed can really help in pronunciation for Japanese learners is the learning to master the subtle drop off of the "i" and "u" sounds inbetween and at the end of words, making it softer or even leaving it out entirely.

[@spencervoth5057]

Reina: "Here's how to sound more Japanese while speaking Japanese" Those of us who don't know any Japanese: 👁👄👁

[@jessicasezer9061]

No

[@ВераИванова-р9д]

Why would you want to sound Japanese when you don’t Even speak Japanese?

[@luciandelle]

@@ВераИванова-р9д reading romanji version, well atleast that's why I'm here

[@B3lph3g0r]

yea lol

[@B3lph3g0r]

@@ВераИванова-р9д repeat lines anime people said..

[@fen_350z]

This is almost like accents with Spanish for some of the pronunciations

[@felipecabrera511]

The difference is that in Spanish we put the accent in one and only one syllable, while in Japanese the accent can take more than one syllable and, in fact, the most important thing is actually the accent drop (or lack thereof)

[@RaineAvina]

Dude, it's killer trying to learn Spanish and Japanese at the same time. I slip into Spanish so often while trying to speak Japanese.

[@mimi_j]

Agreed

[@reinascully]

Spanish & Japanese (& Portuguese) have a lot of interesting similarities, like reading words exactly the way it’s written, so glad you noticed!

[@TheMosquitto]

@@reinascully Isn't there a weird b or v sound with Spanish though (also j = h)? I studied Italian a couple years back and I had a friend studying Spanish, and it was the one thing he always picked out as me saying it wrong when I was trying to pronounce Spanish when I only knew Italian. I'm trying to study some Japanese right now and intonation is really hard, and it's one of the things that programs like Rosetta Stone and Duolingo really fall behind on 🤔

[@LadyBug-ox8bg]

Her voice sounds different when she speaks japanese😄

[@kaydencew.7976]

This happens with most people lolol. For some reason, your voice raises naturally when speaking Japanese.

[@shellys.9531]

@kaydence w. Was just talking about this. Seems true for females but guys seem to go lower in pitch when speaking Japanese. Also cool spelling of your name btw :)

[@quirkygachagxrlx311]

Yeah, it happens to a lot of multilinguals. When I speak Japanese my voice pitch goes high, but when I speak norwegian it goes lower than the lowest voice I can make in Japanese.

[@jaredf6205]

@@kaydencew.7976 Yeah, everyone gets this with Japanese. Code switching probably has a little bit to do with it. Though to me it seems that because Japanese has two pitches used for stress(English uses mostly volume and speed for stress), when a non native speaker learns it, the default pitch of their voice is used for low pitch often used at the beginning of Japanese words and the need to raise it for the high pitch in the rest of the word. For native speakers, it seems their default voice is used for the high pitch, which most of a sentence is made up of and only the low pitch parts do they lower their voice. So non natives are raising their voice for most of the sentence, while a native speaker is keeping normal pitch for most of the sentence.

[@djackson4605]

@@jaredf6205 Yus!

[@justjailibee]

So glad that as a Filipino, Japanese and Filipino language has almost the same pronunciation, especially the way we say “r”.. and is also phonetic and syllabic… the only difference is that our writing system is similar to the english alphabet, and we don’t use any other characters. And since i’m trying to learn both english and japanese, it makes it easier for me. :D

[@nateykaiwatch]

tagalog has a lot of english in it so you should be fine also great english

[@justjailibee]

@@nateykaiwatch thank you!

[@MuichiroAme]

Same, as a filipino, i also noticed it when i was learning japanese, hiragana. I have learned english, and learning it isn't that hard, i wish you good luck on learning your english

[@moniquemorris6890]

Everytime Reina sensei uploads a japanese lesson video, I want her to become my own personal teacher. Love you Reina!!

[@minervaloves]

Best explanation on how to pronunce "ふ". Arigatou!

[@brandonjackson934]

I am learning japenese and I found that your channel is the most best explained and most organized a ever saw.

[@reinascully]

Wow that means quite a lot- thank you so much! Happy my channel can help in any way 😊💛

[@morganfaye93]

Very well done! Thank you! I think my #1 takeaway was when you mentioned that your tongue basically stays at the bottom of your mouth and doesn't go past your soft palate when speaking Japanese. When I studied abroad I was always pretty good at intonation and was told that I didn't have a typical American accent when I spoke Japanese. But I did notice that Japanese people didn't open their mouth as much and was curious as to what was going on there. Love the tips!

[@drskelebone]

This is probably the most useful "here's why your pronunciation is bad" video I've ever seen. This makes a lot more sense now, and I kind of get the whole tongue/lip/teeth thing for why something is one letter in English, but making that sound isn't right in Japanese. SO COOL!

[@LadyKostrya]

I took Japanese in middle school and high school, and I had native speakers as teachers, but I never knew about intonations. As someone who has been studying Japanese for school for many years, this video was very educational.

[@mushrrafali4956]

Under only 5 minutes I can relate so much!!!! need more practice

[@IWr74]

Reina, I speak Spanish, English and now I'm studying Japanese, but I'm struggling with terms and particles 😅 and knowing two other languages makes it more difficult because I'm mixing things 😂 Thanks for your advices for pronunciation, they're very helpful! 🙏🏽

[@kiy3091]

literally same! Spanish has also helped me while learning Italian as well.

[@Hotaru-S-A-M]

Did you get good at Japanese?

[@camera415]

Thank you so much! One of the things I adore about Japanese is the fact that's it's extremely phonetic and sounds absolutely lovely when spoken. It sounds better when the intonations and inflections are used when speaking. Thanks for the tips!

[@selgeaus]

「橋の端で箸を使う」is what I often use to teach my students about different pitch (p.s. I am a high school Japanese teacher)

[@ルナ-m4s]

i been learning japanese since high school and had gotten kinda comfortable with the language over the years, yet this video made me feel just like i did when i first started learning japanese because of how many actually good pronunciation tips thank you so much for sharing this video you're an angel ❤

[@neotakehaya]

I’ve been studying Japanese for almost two years, and this helped a lot! Thanks so much!

[@iskriii]

Learning Japanese is can be difficult but your videos that point out subtle details like this one is making it a whole lot easier. More power to you! Domo!

[@davywavy1918]

I notice Japanese and spanish have similarities in their vowels

[@reinascully]

Yes!!!

[@SpeedyGwen]

same with french actually, a i u e o are basically exactly the same as the french a i u é o

[@qk5574]

OMFG this is the first time I have ever said taberu (with the L sound) the right way and I sound Japanese! 😭😭 thank you! Arigato Gozaimasu Scully Sensei 🇯🇵

[@ryaneckels5411]

This is a fantastic video! Very helpful with detailed instruction without getting boring. Awesome content.

[@Shanedin24]

I never knew learning a knew language was this deep. Great job!

[@iamwombmyn]

This was by far the dopest language vid I've ever friggin seen omg!!!!!

[@moonshiro]

I LOVE THIS! I've been learning Japanese on and off since I was 7, sometimes more seriously and when not it was usually from hearing cuz I have harder time learning the reading and writing. I knew a lot of the stuff you talked about but I never knew how to explain those stuff besides describing the tongue movement to people! also I think the emphasis on where you put higher notes, lower note or the power in the word is *great* cuz usually it's so subtle, it's really easy to miss those type of stuff and they're important! I would love to see more videos like this one! very informative, very easy to understand and follow and just overall making The Learning Experience fun which I think is most important thing! Thank you for doing this video! it was great!! hope you're doing well!!

[@alexberg7753]

I never noticed the subtleties of pronouncing the fu/hu sound. Thank you!

[@domigosan]

Thank you so much for the work that you put into teaching others, 私 really do appreciate you れいなさん。 どうもどうもどうも！

[@kyrabrown6529]

This is so helpful the examples made it so much easy to understand and pronounce better

[@reinascully]

Ah, this made my day! Thank you~ good luck in your Japanese studies! 📚🇯🇵

[@kyrabrown6529]

@@reinascully Im glad i can make your day! I love watching your videos they are so helpful and fun :)

[@Ve.rg_il]

I'm really thankful 🪂💋

[@raymondvalera1765]

Hi you're really cute for a start Reina! I did worked in Japan as a guitarist and being around the locals really help how they sound, particularly when I listen to your songs that I love so much. I miss Japan and I'm from the Philippines.

[@louieestrivo]

The way you speak and teach reminds me of my elementary teacher. HAHAHA Thank you Reina for this very informative video.

[@wwild2k]

Thank you very much, you are pleasant person to listen to!

[@Herodude60]

This is a really useful video! I was really having trouble with Fu and the R sound and this video helped a lot with those.

[@emilyrose0503]

I absolutely love your language videos. They are so informative and helpful! Thank you!!

[@fatimawei5768]

Thank you for the great video. I am studying japanese for 2 years now and my boyfriend is japanese. And he still says I sound like a foreigner. But I will give my best Lovely greets from Austria 🇦🇹

[@liftdCasserole]

I just started studying Japanese and I even moved to Tokyo. I was having such a hard time with the ら、り、る、れ、ろ pronunciations because I couldn't stop rolling or trilling the r sound. I'm grateful I found this video of yours. Helped me lots thank you sm.

[@alixcardinaud9952]

Thank you so much Reina !!!

[@cactustactics]

I was so happy when I worked out you could pretty much hit the 'R' sound by saying 'D' and finessing it. I went around saying 'tsumodi' for a week

[@OG-SQUIRTLE]

This video helped me so much! Thank you!

[@graefx]

箸 vs 橋 was always the classic example we used and to really hammer home how context sensitive Japanese was. We had a class called Japanese phonetics that started exposing us to the tonal subtleties but it was more supplementary than anything.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

Yes it's so hard to tell whether someone is telling you to turn right at the chopsticks or asking whether you want a bridge with your food from the konbini.

[@azzysnazy]

Thank you!!!Now I can sound Japanese when I speak it!YAY

[@PutitoCorner]

I just started learning Japanese and found the enunciation/pronunciation of the sounds difficult, especially the らりるれろ sounds. Then I remembered that you have this series that I watched a while back. Now, I have a new appreciation of the work you’ve put on this. ありがとうレイナ先生！

[@beezxyz]

Ur so helpful I’m learning Japanese and take notes from ur videos I’ve learned so much tyy

[@reinascully]

This means so much to me- thank you!!!! Good luck on your studies!!!!

[@MrBoDiggety]

omg thank you for the Naselkanas lesson. I have been wondering if I'm not only hearing it right but repeating it the same way. In just a few moments you answered my questions regarding 'r' and 'fu'. Your observations were spot on with what I though I was hearing/speaking. "R is half way between 'L' and 'D'." "Fu is more of an H sound." The whole vid was awesome but I was blown away by your explanations to these specific pronunciations. Well, on to more of your vids :) Thank you SO much. Bo

[@michellegraham5125]

Love tips like this when your learning something new during lockdown 2.0 here in the u.k 🥰

[@z-e-r-o-]

日本語のラ行はlとdの中間で、ハ行はfとhの中間。✍ 私はネイティブ日本語話者ですが、英語の発音を訓練しているので、こういった内容は勉強になります。分かりやすい(+聴き取りやすい)動画をありがとうございます！

[@kategerry6162]

Very clear, thank you!

[@SwatterKFP]

Thanks for all these tips and tricks, it really does help 😊

[@Thisisnotmyrealname8]

Your English and Japanese are impeccable.

[@Prime2678]

Wow you was your at 4am to upload this video! Trooper! Hehe I got Rosetta Stone thanks to you from your previous video! Thank you Reina!

[@gundambassexe31]

Hi Reina Sensei ! Thank you for the informative vid

[@Skyler-Thorson]

I'm just glad I have the bland (news anchor) American accent, so I have no problem with pronunciation, just inflection.

[@maggiem6209]

Excited to say that while I definitely don't have the tone fluctuations down, I can easily pronounce the vowel sounds correctly and often default to them when trying to visualize a new word. I met a lovely woman from Osaka a few weeks ago and she said that while my accent was very strong, she could understand me just fine. Big step on my way to fluency!!

[@Kritselisan]

Thank you for the video Reina!

[@knaz7468]

man this was so good ... really helped me!

[@17th_Colossus]

Reina you're a great teacher, thank you :)

[@AHWGEOFFCHARLES]

I am super interested in learning this language thx for your help

[@elenaekanathapetrova2282]

I can't great enough this video I watch it while ago as a complete beginner but i don't really remember about nasal sounds. now I listen to Ado-san a lot and my face muscles mirrors all those nasal sounds she makes and all this video now makes much more sensefor me

[@JustinBone]

The "fu" was really helpful. I always find that though it doesn't immediately sound the same, almost rolling an r but doing so shortly can make the r noise we're after.

[@fuyusan]

"That rain candy" あれ雨飴 are ame ame

[@mrmatz408]

oh man, this was super helpful. I knew some of these, but others not so much. thanks, Reina!

[@DanteBogdan]

It's fascinating learning about this, have a nice weekend!

[@tobih1633]

I really appreciate this video, I've been using music and other videos to help my pronunciation being a complete beginner. This does help clear up some confusion I have had within my studies. The site I study through doesn't always have a way to find the vocal pronunciation. I have found myself being able to disconnect my knowledge of English while learning Japanese a lot better than I thought I would, but I will definitely be coming back to this video for references!

[@jaddaj5881]

This video was very well organised and explained. Thank you.

[@stevierv22]

It had been like 8 years into Japanese that i hadn't noticed the pronunciation nuances until i started learning Korean two years ago. Then i started to hear many different sounds never noticed before. Not only in Japanese but also in English. I did know about pitch accent but never thoroughly studied in depth. I know the basics of pitch accent though.

[@heatherjustcreate]

I think I need to just practice these pronunciations every day to get myself used to these new mouth sounds. Thanks for the video!

[@justsimplykath]

Honestly that intonation is challenging when I'm trying to speak japanese. 🫠

[@buggy-boy]

ありがとうございますれいな先生！

[@minion_lover2343]

Thank you! The photos helped me pronounce them a lot better.

[@hidanist]

I wanted to ask, are there any rules in japanese language you can follow to know where the strong syllable is in a word? For example, in Spanish is like: There are 4 kinds of words: agudas, llanas, esdrújulas and sobreesdrújulas Agudas: The strong syllable is the last one. You can identify them because they must have the accent mark in the last vowel if the word ends with N or S or a vowel. Agudas words that doesn't end in N or S doesn't have the accent mark. Llanas: The strong syllable is the penultimate one, the one before the last one. Most of the words in Spanish, including personal names, are this kind. If they end with N or S or a vowel, the word mustn't have an accent mark. It'd have it when ending with anyother letter. Esdrújulas: The strong sound is in the antepenultimate syllable. This syllable always has an accent mark. Same with Sobreesdrújulas words. So. is there any similar system in japanese?

[@iiTzXDXDXD]

Dammmn girl, this was AMAZING! Please consider doing more of these, お願いします🤲

[@seanstults1271]

This helped me find immense success with my pronunciation. I will watch this video another 50 times to get it perfect.

[@JifromthePH]

Reina is my Sensei ❤️❤️

[@WaterbeeV]

Thanks for your clear explanation.

[@suraya_]

ありがとうございますれいな先生 (I hope I wrote this correctly)

[@ipdharwad]

OMG. In Kannada language, the consonants, vowels are same. I love you💟

[@Soulless_Sommy]

OMG ILY that was so helpful! Thank you for that :]

[@juanlimongarcia8028]

Excellent 😊

[@jamesestrella5911]

Old English did have that alveolar R. Yes it is between a light front L and a D flap.

[@Sirius91387]

This was awesome. Thank you!

[@offgriddlifestyle2544]

Thank you sensei reina 💕

[@Gigadrax]

Love the dogen callout! Such a good content creator!

[@Bigolebungus]

I start with some warmups while practicing pronunciation by saying "Mama Mia, Papa-Pia, Baby's got the diarrhea"

[@rileyreshi]

I've been learning Japanese for a few months now and this really cleared some things up! Thanks! 🔥

[@asifmuniruniverse7732]

I like to visit Japan beautiful clean country and good people and their culture as still watched and knew

[@kingofpapaya]

I've recently started to focus more on pronunciation. One thing I've been focusing on lately is not only how people are pronouncing words but trying to focus on their mouth shapes while they are speaking. I can't say for sure, but I feel like trying to imitate they way they speak, physically, has helped my pronunciation overall.

[@kingjules7604]

Great vid Reina! So glad you mentioned Dogen 😄

[@reinascully]

He’s too funny 😂

[@Dannyb0y25]

Fu is the toughest one for me. The rest are easy because I know how to speak Spanish so from Spanish to Japanese is easier than English to Japanese, IMO.

[@JTPieterse]

Awesome, thanks.

[@repHAWAIIxJPN]

When I tried saying the nasal consonant with my nose closed it was hilarious , never realized they worked like that

[@reinascully]

It’s kinda wild, right?!

[@fennerarmstrong3346]

Yay! I love these Reina-sensei episodes. They've helped me so much!!

[@KarnageGaming]

Id like a longer version of the pronounciations. As for video length purposes you raced through it. I got the gist of what u said. But difference between "chi" and "shi" or "ma" and "na" or "ki" and "ke" is something as a beginner im really struggling with.