Japanese are stubborn, so are their pronunciation problems
Japanese students of English struggle with their pronunciation problems. No matter how advanced the speakers are, no matter how long the learners have been learning or speaking English for, some (phonetic) mistakes are real stubborn aren’t they? They keep happening over and over and Japanese students can’t even hear them. They’re not even aware of them and even if they were, they wouldn’t have the slightest idea how to fix them. And even if they DID know how to fix them, they wouldn’t have the patience or energy to do it. So there you have it. It’s usually done in 3 steps: 1-Problem Awareness, 2-Solution awareness and 3-Solution application.
My personal challenge as a pronunciation coach has always been to get the students to help me and of course themselves with STEP 3. That is by far the most difficult step in the entire process. In other words, I can get you to hear your mistakes, I can tell you and show you how to fix them, I can even get you to miraculously fix them on the spot (95% of the times, while most teachers can only do that 10% of the time), but what I can’t force you to do is practice. You need at least 2 to 3 hours of intensive practice every day in order for you to start seeing some results especially if you are expecting that quickly, which most learners do. Unfortunately, most learners either don’t have the time or the motivation to find the time for practice.
I have heard so many incredibly stupid excuses for lack of practice which I’m not really going to mention because it would be a big waste of everybody’s time, but there is one particular excuse that I’m going to briefly discuss as it is at least valid. Some genuine learners do complain about the fact that once they walk away from their coaching session with me and then attempt to sit there and practice, they are usually not able to hear their own mistakes. That is especially true in the case of someone with not much of great listening skills.
60% of the students ARE able to hear their mistakes after their lessons with me because of all the intensive repetition and correction they get but the remaining 40% simply don’t have the ear for it. So what is the solution there? Simple. Use your phone. What for? Well, to film and record. Record the teacher’s voice and yours during the lesson so that you can compare between the two sounds. Take pictures of the mouth so you can remember the position and movements. That is how you can deal with a lousy ear.
Now, how about those stubborn Japanese mistakes? You don’t want to read about it, do you? Nah, you’d be better off watching it. Feel free to read the transcript below.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECJRMBjX4PE?list=UU4VOhRizRghGOB1RKPf0bWQ]TRANSCRIPT
Ok first of all it’s not [approsh], it’s “approach”, don’t pronouce the first [a] as /a/ , and the [oa] is not /ɔ/, it’s /oʊ/, and the [ch] is not /ʃ/ it’s /tʃ/.
“Marchants”? “Marchants”? Who are these people? What do they do? March? Is that it? “March” as in walk? Because that’s a hell of a job! It’s not /mɑːʃənts/ it’s /mɝʃənts/, don’t open your jaw too much when you say the [er].
What was that? Were you trying to say [I’m one of those]? Because that’s not what I heard, because if you were trying to say [im one of those], I should’ve heard 4 syllables, [I’m] [one] [of] [those], but I only heard 3 from you pal, you deleted [of] completely, it’s not [i’m one those], it’s [I’m one of those].
Weewee, weewee? Did you say [weewee]? You’ve got to be kidding me. “Weewee” is not something you can say in an interview. What do you mean “weewee”? Like weewee from the weenie? You naughty man you? don’t move your lips when you say the /l/.
Sings? No one’s singing, I don’t hear singing, there ain’t any singers. Do you see any singers? There are no singers, put your tongue between your teeth.
Who’s sad? No one’s sad. Especially you, you shouldn’t be sad, you’re a millionaire for god’s sake, you’re the last person who should be sad, cheer up dude, it’s not [sad], it’s [third]. Again, put your tongue between your teeth and don’t open ur jaw too much when you say [third].
Hang on a minute, there’s no such thing as [kombineshong], stop speaking katakana English, it’s [combination], not [kombineshong]
Hey! Watch your mouth.
Suck what? 5 secs ago “weewee” and now “suck”? What is this? Some sort of sex lesson for children? It’s not [suckcess], [cess] is not something you can [suck], it’s [sucCESS], don’t stress the first part, stress the second part.
Here we go again, Katakana english, we don’t have ふ (Japanese sound for “fu”), don’t produce the sound from your lips, just move your lips to the front without using them to blow the air.
(Laugh) Weewee again, can we get some censorship please?
Trudy? Who’s Trudy? Is this a person’s name? It’s not Trudy, it’s [truly]. Say the [l] right.
[Legional]? [Legional?]. That goes pretty well with [marchants]. What’s next? What are you gonna talk about? The legions of the roman empire?
Okay, I think I’ll stop here, I wish you SUCKcess, WEAWY!
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