How do you pronounce 勉強?

1. べ↑ん↓き↓ょ↓う↓
2. べ↓ん↑き↑ょ↑う↑

I ask this because I see like, maybe 80-90% or more of not just beginners but people who’ve been learning Japanese for years say it like the 1. (high to low). I’m just wondering where they would have picked that up from cause I’ve never heard it said like that by natives… is it not obvious that it’s completely different when they hear their teacher repeat it back as 2. ?

What’s going on here cause I’m so confused lol.

Edit: fully aware of why this happens, most people can’t hear pitch accent because they don’t get enough input and output too early (that includes reading). Semi troll-post just cause I was 暇 and felt like winding up reddit again. Those downvotes sure are 懐かしい.

4 comments
  1. learners often ignore pronunciation patterns

    teachers usually don’t correct for it

    english has a tendency to stress first syllables

    and japanese has first-low-rest-high as a pattern the plurality of the time, maybe even a majority (and going back down around mora 5-6 or so if the word is long enough)

    this makes it so that english learners of japanese are often pronouncing words the opposite of how they should, a very large portion of the time

    2 is correct, just look things up in a dictionary with tone patterns in it

  2. Learners often use the language incorrectly. Avoid copying other learners in general.

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