Japanese Accent?

[Kumani]

Hi guys, quick question. And I hope some understand what I'm trying to say.

For any kind of speaker trying to learn Japanese, I understand it must be hard to capture the exact tone of speaking of the language, also known as, the "accent"?

I've been told, and I can clearly hear at times because when speaking it sounds very nasal (like holding your nose)

I'm asking this because I want to know how I can capture the exact way they sound. Is there anything to it? Anything I should know?

Thanks!

[Duality]

I'd like to know more about this too. I feel like my accent is lacking greatly. I have a fairly deep voice but I don't think I can do the... I don't know... 'Typical' Japanese male voice? Well, the accent they tend to have in anything on TV anyway. I hope that makes sense and doesn't sound racist or anything.

[Sairana]

You will establish your own voice in the language. There's no getting around it, really.

Everyone has their own preference and style, typically influenced by what you hear the most (your family, peers, etc). Just like what happened to you in English, and why you speak in whatever accent you speak in (southern, midwestern, british, australian, and on and on...).

I don't think it's possible to FORCE yourself to sound native from the outset.

However, if you're -actually- asking about the pitch accents (highs and lows), there are dictionaries that include where the accent fall is in each word. I don't remember what they are offhand, but I'm sure that someone will come along and link them.

[furrykef]

There's the NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 (NHK Nihongo Hatsuon Akusento Jiten), but it's a paper dictionary and you'll have to order it either from amazon.co.jp (and pay expensive shipping) or from an import site (and pay a high price that'll be about the same). The way I did it was buy several things at once from amazon.co.jp to reduce the relative price of shipping, since the extra handling fee for each item is small compared to the shipping for the whole package, which doesn't change no matter how much stuff you order.

It's also entirely in Japanese, though the dictionary entries are easy enough to use and understand.

- Kef

[Kumani]

Thanks for trying guys

and duality, good luck as well!

[Duality]

Thanks for trying guys

and duality, good luck as well!

Thanks! ^_^

[sugarlevi]

Trying to speak any language well, requires a lot of listening and a lot practice of speaking out loud.
I've had enormous problems when I started to study English, but listening to the language, trying to speak, and the extra lessons of speaking my teacher had me go through have nullified those problems.

[Kumani]

Congratulations on achieving that!