Hi everyone, surprisingly, the type of words I have the hardest time remembering are actually katakana words borrowed from English, a lot of the time, I easily get the meaning but I tend to struggle to recall the correct writing.
So for people who live or have lived in Japan do you know if it’s really mandatory to have a “perfect” pronunciation or is it ok if you sometimes miss a space or something like that? Btw I’m obviously not referring to very short words like ビル or ビール whose meaning can change just by adding a ー.
16 comments
It is as important (take that as you will) as it is with any word in Japanese; katakana words are just words. There were various instances when I was in Japan where I accidentally said such words in a pronounciation more similar to English, and this confused people; I had to make sure to say it as it is supposed to be pronounced. It gets easier with practice. I can certainly sympathise with them being tricky though.
If you’re vocally pronouncing it, usually you can get around not pronouncing it perfectly but it definitely helps to say it the same way as the katakana spelling.
If you’re spelling it, it can matter. E.g. The spelling of strike, as in a union strike, and strike, as in a strike in baseball, have different katakana spellings despite having the same spelling in English (sorry, not able to write it out in katakana at the moment).
It depends on the word and how you’re actually saying it.
アパトー rather than アパート is probably fine in context. エポート or “apart” (with English pronunciation) may cause problems.
Had I walked into family mart and requested an Amurican dawg in Aomori I would have been met with blank stares. The pronunciation is vital the further you are from big cities 🤣❤️
Not hard at all…
Some are pronounced differently, like you dont say personal computer. Instead you say pasocon
But some borrowed words actually changed over time because of how english is being a little more wide spread. Words like like “chiketto” is pronounced “ticketto” amongst younger generations
If you pronounce it like the English word many people will not understand you. It’s important.
All I can say is that, most of the time, people wouldn’t understand loanwords when I said them back in Japan. I’m pretty sure I had them good because I wasn’t trying to say aircon[ditioning] (for example) with an American accent, but really like エアコン.
I’d say at least 1 time out of 2 people would be like: ????? and then they’d proceed to say the exact same thing as I did 3 seconds before.
Maybe it has to do with lack of context sometimes, or Japanese People not expecting some “japanese” from me. idk
you should try to adhere to japanese syllabaries at least i.e. don’t use sounds that don’t exist in japanese.
you may stress the wrong parts and as per your example beru vs beeru one means building whilst the other means beer but I’d hope that in context there’d be minimal confusion.
if in doubt, say the word with a heavy japanese accent, like you’re doing a racist impression basically… yeah, but I’m not kidding
I have a fun story about this.
One time after I had been living in Japan for around 2 years I thought I’d try out just how important it was to say things with kana pronunciation; it’s important to note that I was out in the countryside, where exposure to English is very minimal.
So, I went into a convenience store and said 「cinnamon roll１つおねがいします」。The cashier just stared at me with a confused look on her face. I then said 「シナモンロール１つおねがいします」、and her face lit up in understanding immediately.
I also know someone who had a similar experience trying to explain to someone not to drink the orange juice at a place in America to some Japanese guys who didn’t speak much if any English, but they didn’t understand until he said オレンジジュース。
Drastically important. You have no idea how troublesome it is because I just can’t pronounce the マネー in 電子マネー. I always end up pronouncing 電子 money.
It is crazy important to pronounce all the vowels in katakana.
A few examples I can think of: I heard Yoshinoya had a new dish of beef on salad, so I went to try it but couldn’t find it on the menu. I asked the staff if they had 牛salad and they served me beef on a plate 牛皿 (gyusara) instead of 牛サラダ (gyusarada).
At Starbucks, I asked for a hot コーヒー and the staff asked me アイスコーヒーですか？
Without the 2nd “o” in hotto, they couldn’t understand what I wanted.
Try reading a [menu](https://book.saizeriya.co.jp/menu2307_j/book/#target/page_no=3) for practice
Flashback to a 15 minute conversation of me trying to tell my host family I had an allergy.
It’s pretty important.
It’s not like saying to-mae-to or to- maa-to.
The pronunciation of katakana words can sound jarringly different from their original English counterparts, but I’ve never met a Japanese person, other than a teacher, who can interpret what you’re trying to say without the correct pronunciation.
Even something as simple as mispronouncing ハンバーガーwill get you a confused look at Mc Donald’s in Japan.
A lot. When I first moved to Tokyo I asked for hot sauce. I swear I said it clearly but the waitress looked at me completely confused. My girlfriend (now wife) is Japanese and said it ever so slightly different and boom the waitress immediately knew. Even a simple foreign word needs the correct emphasis for Japanese to understand you
“How important is it to pronounce words in a language correctly”. Rephrase your question, the answer is blindingly obvious. You *can* understand people mispronouncing English words, but it takes a whole lot more work from the listener’s end to work out what the speaker’s talking about