I’m going to suggest knowing that it exists, then imitating or mimicking what your heart in native content once you can recognize the words being said.
You’ve just started out?
Don’t worry about it. You have a hell of a lot to worry about before pitch accent.
I’ve said it before and I’m sure I’ll say it again. I’ve been in Japan for 20 years. Every native level speaker I have ever met has never spent time specifically working on pitch accent. It wasn’t even a topic until YouTubers started niche capitalizing off of it. Don’t worry about it. If you understand what you are saying while you are saying it, then the listener will understand it also and correct pronunciation will come with time.
You can look up a pitch accent dictionary, grind a pitch accent Anki deck, use Youtubers and their resources (Dogen has a Patreon with some good videos on it), Matt vs Japan doesn’t necessarily teach you about pitch accent but he does have strong opinions on learning it and has some videos telling you what to avoid in order to ensure yourself a native level accent, etc. Google is your friend.
Aside from pitch accent, I also recommend learning the Japanese phonetics system to get that pronounciation down.
And also, to the people telling him not to learn pitch accent. If he wants to do it and his goal is native level pronounciation which includes pitch accent, it’s part of the Japanese language whether you like it or not, then let him. Stop discouraiging people because you see no value in PA.
I too want to work on pronunciation to not have a strong accent but believe me when I say that if you only work on phonetics at the start and you focus so heavily on it you will not sound native… Because you don’t know the language
Focusing in phonetics is good but you need to be able to understand the language to be able to listen to it ; that’s the best way to learn pitch accent and pronunciation, simply listening to a lot of native speak
In any case just do a small research on the matter and learn what the most common patterns of pitch accent are, other than that I really wouldn’t do anything else. Just keep your ears peeled for it and nothing else
Later on once you know how to understand the language then you can start thinking about it more seriously, if you still think it’s a good idea (I am willing to bet that if you get to that point you won’t care as much)
First, understand that it is a thing, understand its patterns, and try to get a good ear for “hearing” the accent. When using Anki, grade yourself on pitch accent. And most importantly, listen to the language for minimum 10,000 hours without subtitles. It’s possible for a foreigner to sound native, but it requires a nearly life-long commitment to the language and the culture. You should ask yourself if that’s what you truly want.
I was able to hear pitch accent after I watched dogens pitch accent series, made flash cards, and then focused on the pitch while listening. I would say it was relatively low effort for a pretty decent increase in level but I had already passed n1 and was ok at Japanese before I started.
Dogen to start with But if you don’t know basic grammar, it’ll be harder to understand it at the writing level which will take you far more time to learn it
Imitate native speakers. Listen for patterns in the natural rhythms and pitch changes in how people speak. If you just spend a lot of time listening to Japanese speakers, you’ll probably pick it up pretty naturally (unless you struggle with hearing/perceiving/replicating pitch and rhythm in general).
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I’m going to suggest knowing that it exists, then imitating or mimicking what your heart in native content once you can recognize the words being said.
You’ve just started out?
Don’t worry about it. You have a hell of a lot to worry about before pitch accent.
I’ve said it before and I’m sure I’ll say it again. I’ve been in Japan for 20 years. Every native level speaker I have ever met has never spent time specifically working on pitch accent. It wasn’t even a topic until YouTubers started niche capitalizing off of it. Don’t worry about it. If you understand what you are saying while you are saying it, then the listener will understand it also and correct pronunciation will come with time.
You can look up a pitch accent dictionary, grind a pitch accent Anki deck, use Youtubers and their resources (Dogen has a Patreon with some good videos on it), Matt vs Japan doesn’t necessarily teach you about pitch accent but he does have strong opinions on learning it and has some videos telling you what to avoid in order to ensure yourself a native level accent, etc. Google is your friend.
Aside from pitch accent, I also recommend learning the Japanese phonetics system to get that pronounciation down.
And also, to the people telling him not to learn pitch accent. If he wants to do it and his goal is native level pronounciation which includes pitch accent, it’s part of the Japanese language whether you like it or not, then let him. Stop discouraiging people because you see no value in PA.
I too want to work on pronunciation to not have a strong accent but believe me when I say that if you only work on phonetics at the start and you focus so heavily on it you will not sound native… Because you don’t know the language
Focusing in phonetics is good but you need to be able to understand the language to be able to listen to it ; that’s the best way to learn pitch accent and pronunciation, simply listening to a lot of native speak
In any case just do a small research on the matter and learn what the most common patterns of pitch accent are, other than that I really wouldn’t do anything else. Just keep your ears peeled for it and nothing else
Later on once you know how to understand the language then you can start thinking about it more seriously, if you still think it’s a good idea (I am willing to bet that if you get to that point you won’t care as much)
First, understand that it is a thing, understand its patterns, and try to get a good ear for “hearing” the accent. When using Anki, grade yourself on pitch accent. And most importantly, listen to the language for minimum 10,000 hours without subtitles. It’s possible for a foreigner to sound native, but it requires a nearly life-long commitment to the language and the culture. You should ask yourself if that’s what you truly want.
I was able to hear pitch accent after I watched dogens pitch accent series, made flash cards, and then focused on the pitch while listening. I would say it was relatively low effort for a pretty decent increase in level but I had already passed n1 and was ok at Japanese before I started.
Dogen to start with
But if you don’t know basic grammar, it’ll be harder to understand it at the writing level which will take you far more time to learn it
Imitate native speakers. Listen for patterns in the natural rhythms and pitch changes in how people speak. If you just spend a lot of time listening to Japanese speakers, you’ll probably pick it up pretty naturally (unless you struggle with hearing/perceiving/replicating pitch and rhythm in general).