Why Is Japanese Pronunciation Difficult

Once you start speaking in Japanese, you will quickly realise that the pronunciation side of things is really hard. You will want to say one thing, but it will come out sounding slightly different and some words can feel like a tongue twister at first.

This is totally normal as learner, but it is annoying, so let’s look at why this happens.

Japanese Uses A Different Sound System

Probably the biggest reason you will find pronouncing Japanese words so difficult is simply because they use a different sound system, and while that might seem insignificant, it’s not.

To make a sound you need to have your mouth and tongue in a certain position, and you do this subconsciously in English …you just open your mouth and words come out as your brain is so used to moving your mouth muscles.

The problem is that these muscles movements are all for the English sounds, so when you try and make Japanese sounds, they are not quite right. In the beginning you will be using your English muscles to make Japanese sounds …so of course it sounds weird.

You need to retain the muscles in your mouth to move ever so slightly differently to make the correct Japanese sounds and this is difficult. It does take a little practice to do this and to strengthen this skill, but it can be done and really the only way to do it is to practice a lot.

The more you can practice speaking, the better you will get at making these new sounds.

The Japanese ‘R’ Sound is Difficult

We are all taught the “R” row of hiragana as Ra, Ri, Ru, Re, Ro (ら、り、る、れ、ろ) and these all seem pretty straight forward …but if you actually listen to a Japanese speaker, it’s not quite what we think.

The R sound, isn’t the same as it is in English, it’s more like an L …but also not quite, it is sort of somewhere in the middle almost. Some teachers don’t mention this at all, but some will so you will find generally a lot of Japanese learners are not really pronouncing these letters correctly.

If you look at any English name that starts with an L and you turn it into katakana …it uses the R sounds. A name like Linda becomes Rinda (リンダ).

There is no L sound in Japanese, so you end up with some funny productions when Japanese speakers try and say a word that start with L and they use the R sound, but it kind of works as it kind of a mix of the two.

This is a perfect example of how you have to move your tongue and mouth ever so slightly differently, so you get this R/L mix if you are pronouncing it correctly in Japanese.  

Pitch Accent Makes Things Difficult

Another areas of Japanese that isn’t really mentioned to students is pitch accent, which is a form of pronunciation and is actually really important as getting it wrong can change the meaning of the word.

All Japanese words have will been assigned one of four pitches, and when you are listening you will be able to notice these. Some words kind of go down at the end, others might remain flat and all of this matters when it comes to pronunciation.

Hearing these pitches is hard for a learner, and then trying to say them yourself is even harder. This is often seen as a very advanced skill, which is why most learners are never taught it, but it is important and a lack of knowledge in this area is why your pronunciation doesn’t sound as good as the natives.

I don’t think you need to worry too much about this, but at the same time you need to be aware of it and try and look out for it where you can. Just noticing these subtle changes in pitch can really help you when it comes to your own speaking.

You will of course need to practice getting it right, but the fact you are aware does help massively.

Loan Words Can Trick You

Loan words are words that have been taken from one language and squeezed into the other …and this works both ways, and both types can cause you problems.

You will find the Japanese using English words …but sounding more Japanese. These certainly help you as it makes understanding Japanese easier, but they can be tricky to pronounce. You brain will automatically want to say these words in the form you know best, which is of course English.

You will have to kind of force yourself to make them sound more Japanese and they will slip out as English from time to time.

You then have the slightly opposite issue, where words we have taken and made English are actually Japanese in origin, such as ‘karate’ or ‘karaoke’. You should be saying these with a more Japanese pronunciation …especially when speaking Japanese, but you may find these slip out with the more English pronunciation.

This is not the biggest problem when speaking Japanese, but it is still an issue you will need to overcome with practice. 

Regional Accents Can Throw You Off

This is probably not the biggest issue, but is worth mentioning. There are regional accents across Japan, which means the same words can be pronounced slightly differently depending on where you are.

I would say the majority of things you hear will be using the Tokyo dialect, but you may end up learning a word that has a pronunciation used in a different area and then when you use it, it is just going to sound out of place.

Any one you speak to is still going to understand you, which is why it isn’t too much of a big deal. However, they are going to think you have a really weird mashed up accent.  

You Find things Difficult As You Haven’t Heard Enough Japanese

A large part of your pronunciation difficulties will come down to the fact that you just haven’t heard enough Japanese.

If you think about how kids learn, they do a lot more listening than speaking and really what they are doing is just building an internal map around how the language should be used and how it should sound, so that when they go to speak it themselves, they are not far off and really a little bit of practice is all it takes them to get good.

Really you need to be doing the same. The more you can listen to Japanese, the more your brain will understand how it should sound and this will help your speaking, so make sure you are doing plenty of immersion.

You Haven’t Spoken Enough Japanese To Be Comfortable

Really everything I have covered here can be boiled down to the fact that you do not have much experience in the language, especially speaking.

You are struggling to pronounce things correctly as you are just not comfortable with the language yet. This can be both in terms of how you are mentally processing and understanding it, as well as just being comfortable making the sounds.

The reality is that you just haven’t done enough speaking in Japanese and until you get some experience under your belt, you are always going to struggle, but with practice you will improve.

Conclusion

Hopefully now you can understand why you are not so great at pronouncing things in Japanese, or just generally finding it difficult.

This is something we all suffer form in the beginning, but the more you practice, the better your pronunciation will become. It just takes time and effort …but you will get better.  

(You can read more about – How To Improve Speaking In Japanese)