Hi Reddit.
I’m learning Japanese for almost 3 years now but unfortunately my speaking practice always fell a bit short.
Around a few months ago I finally decided that I need/want to practice speaking a bit more even if it is just for myself.
I’m usually quite shy but today I finally took the courage and decided to record an admittingly very short self introduction and share it with you. I am aware that even after a few months my pronunciation is probably still bad af, haha.
So if the link works this is my recording:
https://voca.ro/1hZc8Ua94VBh
I wonder if my Japanese is at least somewhat understandable.
You can and hopefully will critize my Japanese all you want but please don’t be insulting. 😅
P.S. I tried to speak freely (without any notes) but I practice what I wanted to say a few times before I finally recorded it. So this is definetly not a “first take”.
by dontsaltmyfries
8 comments
There’s much to improve, but here’s two simple things. 1. The “Hoooi”s sound quite out of place. 2. Your sh-sound is wrong. You use the German sch-pronunciation, but the Japanese sh is pronounced more at the front of the mouth.
I can’t give criticisms as im also a beginner but im impressed!! i hope i can catch up to your level of fluency someday too holy macaronies
👍
First, this was an awesome idea. I hope we see more of these kinds of posts in the future, and maybe I’ll get the guts to post one myself!
Second, I’m noticing that the うsound is largely disappearing from す at the end of 話す. 話す練習 sounds like はなっす練習 to my ears. I know it’s natural to do that with です, but I don’t know if it is here as well. Could any more fluent speakers comment on this?
I’m not fluent in Japanese but I was able to understand most of that, and I think you did pretty well! I believe that the main issue is pronunciation of certain sounds. (Switching of “ch” and “j”, and vice versa, and switching of “u” and “o” a bit.) Here are some corrections (although I may have interpreted some things incorrectly).
ちくしょうかい ー＞ じこしょうかい
南のドイツ ー＞ 南ドイツ
じいさい町 ー＞ ちいさい町
さんしゅうぶんをかかります（I didn’t quite get it, but…） ー＞ さんじゅっぷんかかります (might be what you were trying to say… If not, you can specify in a reply)
聞いて通り ー＞ 聞いた通り
話すことのレベルはじょにがって ー＞ 話すレベルは（ちょう／超？）にがて (if “chou = super/über” was the word, you could probably do without that. If you meant something else, you can let me know. Also, 苦手 doesn’t have a っ.)
今までこのいっちょうです ー＞ いじょうです (The first part doesn’t seem necessary to me, and this also shows that you made “j” into “ch” and added an extra っ.)
Nice job overall! Keep it up!
that hooiii is quite funny too 😆, this inspire me to make one for myself 😂
I want to say, your post is really inspiring. Makes my proud ass realize my Japanese is completely shit lol. You definitely have a lot to improve, but right now your level is the kind I need to get to, and it’s gonna take me a damn lot of time and effort, so give yourself a clap on the shoulder for getting this far. You’re impressive.
I understood everything you said, but a couple of the sounds are a bit off. I’m not sure if it’s just your mic but the きょ in 今日 sounded like a ぎょ, and your ち’s like in 小さい and 超苦手 at the end kinda sound like じ’s to me. You’re voicing them when they shouldn’t be. Overall pretty good! Keep it up!