41 comments

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  Kurisutofa

  2 years ago

  Haha, as soon I saw John Mayer's name for that link, I already knew what video that was going to lead to. I can't tell you how "urking" (sorry, been using a lot of Hawaiian pigeon words lately) it is to here someone speak a foreign language without the correct pronunciations of the words. I had to sit through a whole semester of Spanish with my classmates butchering the language. I thought my spine would collapse from all the shivering and cringing I did...
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  Fred

  2 years ago

  First thing: I'm very happy that I was able to read the picture without anything! YES! But maybe cause it was in order. Correcting pronunciation is hard when you're self-teaching. I guess recording yourself would be the best thing to do. After getting over the fact of what your own voice sounds like, you gotta compare it to a recording of whatever you were trying to say. That's gonna be fun... As for butchering a language, I think I got used to people butchering Spanish, but I shouldn't! I suppose teachers get used to it eventually, but if they want to be Great Teachers, they must not give up on it. This is basically like choir or playing an instrument. Practice makes perfect. You gotta listen to good players, or in this case speakers, and listen to yourself. I should explain the "slow and practice" thing to this guy who basically thinks he's memorized all hiragana in a day, and is aiming for all the katakana in the weekend. He's very... "intelligent". I'll recommend this site.
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  Onimusha Nosferatu

  2 years ago

  i know people who speak like john mayer who've been taking japanese for 2 years. it's horrible. jonathan ross from japanorama is worse due to his british accent. hearing a butchered lang. is awful if the person doesn't have the excuse of just starting. what's most annoying to me (i'm probably guilty of this) is when people who are beginning and have no rhythm to their speak. too much staccato. take a bunch of 1st year student and have them read a book it'll funny at first, but u'll eventually want some pain reliever. ppl should practice long vowels since from my experience ppl drop them easily and change what they're saying. practice pronouncing glides and katakana words too. even though katakana for the most part is english, if they're pronounced wrong japanese ppl will not know what you're talking about. (i find this odd.) get used to being confused w/ some words b/c of similar sounds in english that don't exist in japanese. for example, hood and food, folk and fork are the same katakana words, respectively.
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  Goddess Carlie

  2 years ago

  It makes me wonder what my pronunciation is like. I think I might do some recording of my voice to find out. I have always thought that I have good pronunciation from watching so much drama, but watching that John Mayer video makes me worry.. I don't think I've ever really listened to myself... I will now.
  
  Oh, and I can't say McDonalds in Japanese. It's just too difficult.
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  Kurisutofa

  2 years ago

  I thought I'd add another example to Koichi's John Mayer video.
  
  Members of Westlife speaking Japanese...
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  Erin

  2 years ago

  Even though I don't know who Westlife is... this video hurts my heart, Chris. Honestly. It just hurts. Areegahtow!

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  koichi

  2 years ago

  haha, yeah, that's definitely like a tongue twister. I have trouble saying it too, sadly. Though I've gotten better through practice, I suppose.
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  Onimusha Nosferatu

  2 years ago

  HAHA! "boku mo" "totemo?...boku mo" that was too funny. i like this vid. it's a good example of how ppl use their lang. in another. notice little use of pronouns and particles.
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  Sexy Beam

  2 years ago

  Haha...there's quite a few of subtle differences in Japanese pronunciation compared to similar English sounds and romaji are just an approximation. If you don't try you won't get these right.
  
  That sentence sounded just plain weird - like I think he was saying とても but it sounds something like トッテモー for example ... but at least he tries though, right?
  
  Also, don't sing in Japanese if you know nothing about the language.
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  Amber

  2 years ago

  Hmm can you suggest how to learn to write because thats what im having trouble with.
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  Amber

  2 years ago

  in japanese of course lol
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  koichi

  2 years ago

  Repetition, repetition, repetition. It takes a while...like, a year in some cases, to get to the point where you feel confident.
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  ジャーミー

  2 years ago

  I agree that repetition in hiragana should take place before even thinking about reading random sentences. My Japanese teacher made sure of that for our class. Also, you people learning Japanese on your own sometimes don't pronounce things like おいしくない well. (As in, you don't really say oishikunai, but oishkunai.) Just remember to pay attention to were you sort of drop your certain vowel sounds. (Mostly i in shi and u)
  ~
  Yes rhythm is more important than speed.
  ~
  Wow, John Mayer sounds worse than the first day of Japanese class.
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  Amber

  2 years ago

  Okie Thanks a bunch
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  Kurisutofa

  2 years ago

  Westlife was just another one of those groups that came out during the "Boy Band" era...
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  Kurisutofa

  2 years ago

  Thank goodness it's only the chorus. Also she made other versions in Chinese and some others I can't remember right now.
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  Sexy Beam

  2 years ago

  I don't know if I'd tell someone their foods are NOT delicious though. =p But then again, there's not much I don't like.
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  Goddess Carlie

  2 years ago

  just use it all the time as much as you can. When you are writing in english but know a word in japanese, write it!
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  Koichi

  2 years ago

  test from an apple iPhone
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  Fred

  2 years ago

  You bought one?!
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  Kurisutofa

  2 years ago

  Should of seen the lines forming around Hollywood, it looked like a tailgate party.
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  koichi

  2 years ago

  nah, just playing with an iphone in the apple store here
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  Titianna

  2 years ago

  I saw the movie with Westlife and Wow, nihon-jin are really forgiving to idol's that cant speak Japanese worth beans. I have to admit that i'm guilty of the sin of learning some of my japanese from Anime. It wasnt from Naruto tho....It was, it was...sailor moon! Then I moved on to Juu ni kokki and Gokusen and GTO (live action and anime versions). T_T I'm SO sorry! lol
  I was learning the words from anime but In the mean time I had been checking out books to learn pronounciaton (Even though I already learned it from my mom whom had taken Japanese 1 in College while I was growing up)
  
  But anyhoo. I've been having a problem with trying to discern when a word is suppose to end with "Masu" or when I should use "shita" I already know that negatives for verbs I think it is is "Masen"...I think....oh gosh thinking about it now I'm confusing myself. Can anyone give me a little help to unknot my poor befuddled mind?
  Watashi wa baka...mama.
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  Kurisutofa

  2 years ago

  From what I read and understand, “masu” is present tense and “mashita” is used for past tense.
  
  Example: (Present/Past) Tabemasu/Tabemashita
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  Sexy Beam

  2 years ago

  The basic conjugations for "masu" are:
  
  ます ("masu") - present
  ません ("masen") - present negative
  ました ("mashita") - past
  ませんでした ("masen deshita") - past negative
  
  Just practice with them and you'll pick this up really fast.
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  Titianna

  2 years ago

  Thank you all. You were very helpful. And I probably SHOULD have started with Hiragana instead of Romajii :P oh well. But it was kinda funny when I got my first tattoo that the artist was SOOO insistant that I make sure I knew what the Kanjii was that I was getting. It's 'Ai' or Love. I really liked the stroke pattern that they used on Gaara in Naruto (What!? It was artfully done!) The guy said that they could do it like they had in the English to Japanese dictionary but it looked a little squished and ran together too much that I could barely recognise it. :P
  http://a499.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/1...
  This is what it looks like. I am very happy with it cause love is a driving force in my life.
  
  Watashi wa watashi. Ai wa Ai. Watashi Aishteru dantsuku wo hitorimusume.
  
  I think I said that right....I hope.
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  Titianna

  2 years ago

  http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea...
  
  Bah, it didnt post right. Here's the link again hopefully it works this time. Oh and thanks again for your help everyone.
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  Sexy Beam

  2 years ago

  When I saw that, the first thing I could think of wasHanzi Smatter ^^ Although this isn't really that bad compared to some of the stuff there, and the translation is correct.
  
  Interestingly, tattoos aren't really widely accepted in Japan. A lot of public baths don't permit people with tattoos, and people who do have them often have small ones. I've heard that they're still associated with gangs, especially with older people.
  
  That sentence on the end is um...well I don't really understand it. I've never heard this word "dantsuku" before, so I wonder - where did you hear this?
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  Titianna

  2 years ago

  Sorry it was suppose to have been "I am me, love is love. I love my husband and daughter....I couldnt remember what husband is so I found it on the english to japanese dictoinary that I know. http://rut.org/cgi-bin/j-e/fg=b/inline/pix/dict
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  Sexy Beam

  2 years ago

  夫と娘が大好きです。
  
  If you can't read Japanese, it's "otto to musume ga daisuki desu". That's what I can come up with as an equivalent of that last sentence, although there *are* other ways to say it - that's not the only right way. Just keep in mind that the verb is at the end of a sentence in correct Japanese grammar. Also, saying "I am me" just sounds weird to me personally, but it *is* a great album by Ashlee Simpson. (Sorry I just had to throw that in ^^)
  
  The fun thing about the English-Japanese dictionaries is that they generally don't tell you how common the translated word is the other language, or any of the nuances of it. Don't trust them *too* much.
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  Tiya

  1 year ago

  John Mayer is pretty clever
  ...but he needs to practice quite a bit more :/
  his pronunciation and smoothness is really bad.
  He makes it sound all choppy, and that makes you sound like a complete newbie ..and yeah,you do kinda look like an idiot :/
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  Tiya

  1 year ago

  yeah,some people end up like that because they don't really practice speaking enough...they should practice outside of class too and whenever else they get a chance.
  They can spend all day studying their reading,writing,and listen comprehension but when they don't actually practice speaking, they end up not sounding fluent and natural.
  Instead they sound like robots that are just plugging words into grammar structures.
  
  I think I'll add another example to Koichi's 'John Mayer' point because this video sums up my point and his:
  Speaking Japanese
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  Chris

  1 year ago

  hey, Urking is not hawaiian, it's regular ol' english. But it's spelled "irking". Root word is irk. =)
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  ティファー

  1 year ago

  I taught myself in high school how to read the ひらがなHiragana/Katakanaかたかな and then began learning the pronounciations of each character and the accents that change their sounds such as 'Ke'け can turn into 'Ge'げ and so on. etc. I found it fun and although I am not fluent in speaking the language I can read fluently when Furiganaふりがな is present with all Kanji. Kanji漢字 I learn a little at a time as well as writing some. People get pretty surprised when I tell em I have never had classes on Japanese. LOL. This article is cool.
  すごいね、ありがとう。
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  animerika

  1 year ago

  my gawd I already hate that song with a passion, this just gives me more of a reason to be annoyed. OTL
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  Rock Martin

  1 year ago

  What do you mean by present or past negative?
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  koichi

  1 year ago

  for example, using the verb "to go":
  present: go
  present negative: not to go
  past: went
  past negative: didn't go
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  Chimiko

  1 year ago

  I feel that if you like Japanese the language enough, you'll know exactly how to learn it. I learned Hiragana through reading Japanese lyrics and am still learning some Kanji along the way. I wish there were to ways to interact with Japanese speakers more. Anyone please tell me how?
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  Casey

  1 year ago

  Hahaha, this is exactly the reason why I hate the kids in my Japanese class. Okay, only a select few, but they are the obsessive otaku who learn everything from anime instead of actually doing their Japanese homework. Then their pronunciation is so American that they sound retarded. UGH! I hate it so much. These are also the people who watch anime during class and sing along to the high pitched theme songs.... kill me please.
  
  One thing that I find frustrating is vowel length. Not the drawn out vowels like "kawaii" and stuff, but short ones. My teacher always gets me on that. "A tree" = "ki desu." I always unconsciously draw it out. "ki-- desu." And she always brings it to my attention, "It's not keys, it's a tree!" There isn't really any difference between the length of the vowels in English.... It's hard catching yourself on stuff that comes natural. Like saying McDonalds, it's hard to do because we automatically want to say it the usual way. I had to say Indianapolis in a speech once... and "atatakakunarimashita" is a bitch.
  
  Okay, I'm done, haha
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  Peet ~

  1 year ago

  Pronunciation isn't all that bothers me. WHile in school, I took French class and I was getting really sick of everyone around me saying all these french words without a french accent. Or the ones who would ask a question, but forget that tones remain pretty much the same to english in the fact that in French, people raise their voice at the end of a sentence to ask a question (like we do in English, if you don't believe me, pay attention the next time you ask a question to someone) and that'd bother me. I was like "Dude, it's a language, we are not trying to be robots here, if you can't even remember small things like that, I do not want to see you talking in front of the class ever again." - Then I found out I didn't have the accent, so I practiced hard and managed to pull off getting somewhat of one (Which is much beter than none at all). So yeah, pronunciation is very important, not just in pronuncing a word according to rythym and whatnot, but also accents.
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  heartlessangel

  1 year ago

  I totally agree with you on that its way important and to many ppl do butcher the language by not understanding the concept or the culture itself this is another reason why i say learn with a partner because they can correct you on your pronunciation and such then you won't sound like John Myer lol though I'm not a native speaker or anything it bothers me when someone doesn't understand the true essence of the language just learning it to learn the words so you dnt have to watch sub titled anime which I get on my brother about all the time he'll go into it speaking like kakashi sensi or some ninja then i slap him on the head and he gets it right lol though i have to say it doesn't bother me when ppl butcher English because its really something of a butchered language in itself even english ppl speak def from how we do in America and we speak the same language but i also took french and a lil spanish,korean and hebrew ( I know to many at one time so I slimed it down to one at a time lol silly me) and dnt take this as bragging but as far as pronunciation goes Im fairly decent still got a long ways to go but understanding of a language first no matter which one it is is always top priority in learning to speak it.( on another note I dont think its far to look down on ppl for how they learn everyine has their own way of thinking as well as learning though I agree you shouldn't be learning frm anime we all learned and are learning different ways and its better to offer an alternative rather than just to degrade that person for the methods mainly because thats their main Japanese source so for those of you out there who are doing that if your serious in the lest go to the library and pick up the japanese for beginners and start off with the kanji hiragana first trust me it is important than you can start with the audio to help along with your pronunciation of the words well thats all im gonna type cause its alot hope it helps someone thanks!.
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