Post
by SomeCallMeChris » Tue 03.20.2012 9:41 pm
Ah, well, now that Ranja has posted... I guess my listening skills still need work!
Now that attention has been drawn to it, I'd say the problem with ください is that it sounds like くうださい, the timing is off as you brace yourself to punch the だ. (In otherwords, you're putting time distance between consonants to emphasize the だ). If you listen closely, I think you'll find that what Japanese speakers do is retain a regular mora timing but devoice the vowel in く so that by contrast the だ is louder, in other words, they are putting volume distance between the leading vowel and the consonant.
In general, I'd say you sound like a very diligent 2nd or 3rd year student of Japanese with good form. You use the right vowel sounds and the right consonants and your timing is pretty good aside from little things like the ください. (I can't really point out the other little things very well because I'd have to listen to each phrase multiple times to figure it out, and even then, there's a good chance I'd be wrong. Heck, there's a good chance I'm wrong about the ください ... )
My pitch accent differentiation is not very good, but I feel like your pitch doesn't sound like a native pattern. I simply don't have the ability to point out -how- though, and I could be wrong, but if possible, get a native speaker to check your pitch patterns. Apparently you play guitar, so your ear should be well enough trained to pitch that you'll do just fine with it once you pay attention to it.
Last edited by
SomeCallMeChris on Thu 03.22.2012 9:19 am, edited 1 time in total.