Will having an Australian accent be difficult for basic conversational Japanese?

I’m starting to learn and the actual way to pronounce things are sounding a little odd, Is this due to my accent or just beginning?

7 comments
  1. Apparently Felix from the K-pop band Stray Kids speaks Japanese fluently with an Aussie accent…

  2. When you practice the accent keep in mind there are several things that are hard for English speakers like long vowels and the nasal n and ryo ryu. For whatever reason this sub has a total hard on for pitch accent but it’s only part of accent and arguably less important.

  3. We sound drunk to other English speakers and they can have trouble understanding, so i have made peace with the fact that I will sound drunk to japanese speakers and they will have trouble undestanding.

    At least for a while

  4. Just listen to a lot of Japanese audio and occasionally try repeating what is said and eventually you’ll get used to the pronunciation. Or, the harder but more effective way would be to look into the IPA and learn the sounds of Japanese that way. Finally, there’s also pitch accent.

    That said, even if you have an accent, as long as you’re more or less correct they’ll probably understand you (just like you can understand English speakers with accents).

  5. I’ve been doing Dogen’s course on Patreon and finding it useful. It is quite a slog though, and it would take time away from other parts of the language that aren’t pronunciation.

  6. If you’re just beginning, expect things to be rough. It will depend on a lot of factors as to whether or not your accent will be an impediment at any point.

    For Japanese who are used to dealing with non-native speakers, especially Australians, it might be very easy. For others, it might be very hard.

    If you have a thicker accent and retain English stress patterns and such, it will of course color your Japanese.

    Try to mimic what you hear on recordings (textbooks and so on). The more you listen and repeat, the closer you should become to reducing your accent and sounding more natural.

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