How good is my Japanese Pronounciation?

[kentaku_sama]

Here is a clip of me testing my speaking pronunciation. There are probably grammar and naturalness mistakes but the point of this was to test how well I actually pronounce Japanese.

http://soundcloud.com/kentaku_sama/hats ... ar/s-iC0B1

So how did I do?

[Ongakuka]

上手いですね。細かいことはあるかもしれないが、そんなことはネイティブにしか分からないでしょう。Nice

[kentaku_sama]

ありがとう！　＾＾　

[Shiroisan]

That sounded really good... The only thing that stuck out as weird was the ください at around 13/14 seconds. I've never really heard a Japanese person ever emphasize the "da", which you sort of did.

Hardly worth mentioning though..

[kentaku_sama]

Glad to hear it Yeah, I try to emphasize the Da because I've heard some do that but may'be I shouldn't, it's alot easier to say without the emphasis.

[SomeCallMeChris]

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.

[Ranja]

The ください part is no problem. But I can't catch some other words.

きょうは、こ？？？のギターは、げんこう（？）をせっとするについで（？）

What are you saying?

[kentaku_sama]

Code: Select all

今日は、アコースティクのキターは弦高をセットするについて話して日本語の発音をテストしているぜ。
テクストを添削するだけでなく、または発音について意見を言ってください。

アコースティクのギターは２，３年にセットされるのはずだが、今僕のギターはセットされるのと新しい弦を買うことも必要。その古い弦は、もはやトンがあることでないんだけど、数年に変更されなかった残念だよ。
最近、うまくはないしについて文句を言ってるけど、取り替えると思わなかった　XD　

じゃ、発音力をテストしていた短いかつ意味はないエントリーを楽しんだといいよ。　
よんで、聴いてありがとう！！　：）　　またね！

The word 「アコースティック」, I just learned from a dictionary and have never heard a native speak it. I don't get it, a native Japanese guy I know said my speech was perfectly understandable
Oh, it's probably because the naturalness mistakes are hard even for a native to understand.
The above text is wrong in alot of ways which were corrected on lang-8.

[Ongakuka]

This explains a lot The words that Ranja-san couldn't understand were Katakana words, so maybe you should practice pronouncing 外来語. (When you said セット I heard something more like 生徒 ) there are some general rules but intonation can vary, for example アーケード raises the け sound whereas アーチェリー falls down from a raised ああ. What I mean to say is, you can't underestimate katakana. In any case, you have absolutely no reason to be worrying about your pronunciation, as far as I can tell. I'm not native but I think it's really good

[Ranja]

At first, your speech sounded like this to me:

今日は、コスクゥのキターは弦高をセェトするについで話して日本語の発音をテストしているぜ。
テストを添削するだけでなく、または発音について意見を言ってください。

アコスクゥのギターは２，３年にセットされるのはずだが、今僕のギターはセットされるのと新しい弦を買うことも必要。その古い弦は、もはやトーンがあることでないんだけど、数年に変更されるなかった残念だよ。
最近、うまくはないしついで文句を言ってるけど、取り替えると思わなかった　XD　

じゃ、発音力をテストしていた短いかつみはないエントリーを楽しんだといいよ。　
よんで、聴いてありがとう！！　：）　　またね！

A Japanese who is fluent in English might be able to catch the "acoustic" part, but since I am not, I couldn't.
My advice is to pronounce each vowel more clearly.

>The above text is wrong in alot of ways which were corrected on lang-8.

Your pronunciation is good enough, but there are so many errors in the text that I wasn't able to guess what you were saying.

By the way, I've never heard of the word 弦高.
げんこう reminded me of 原稿. Yes, the word does exist, but I think it's not a commonly-used word. What is the corresponding English word you had in mind?

[kentaku_sama]

I meant to say "Set up" as in how high the strings are off the fretboard on a guitar.