Do Americans have a heavy accent when speaking in Japanese?

Question

I just started learning Japanese. So far I know all hiragana and katakana, now I'm working on learning vocab. I do 90% of my learning from a book so I don't hear much spoken Japanese (but the book does point out how words should be accented with pitch). I was on YouTube searching for Japanese lessons. I found some natives that were teaching Japanese to Americans. They're accents were HORRIBLE. I'm not trying to be offensive, but they sound like they are trying to imitate dog noises. For example I might hear, "Herlo e'vyone I will teach you Japernese today. Pwease used dis ward....". Native Japanese that live around English speakers have little accent, but those that live around no English speakers have accents that are hard to understand. Will my accent be thick since I have no Japanese speakers around me? Is their pronunciation off because there are less syllables in Japanese?

Answer 1

Do not think too much.

Japanese lessons in You Tube is wrong.

Japanese is almost flat, no accents.

Answer 2

"Native Japanese that live around English speakers have little accent, but those that live around no English speakers have accents that are hard to understand.."

Really???

Do you know Mashi Oka? He is in the popular TV show, Heroes. When he speaks English, he does have a heavy Japanese accent even though he moved to the US when he was 6 years old. (I'm not talking about how he speaks English on that show but in reality)

And ....well, he is not Japanese but... Arnold Schwarzenegger is obviously always around English speakers but he has a heavy Austrian accent. And Antonio Banderas has a heavy spanish accent even though he is always around English speakers.

And I know one Taiwanese lady who has lived in the states for more than 20 years and who always goes out with white Americans can't even speak English very well and has a heavy Taiwanese accent.

So I don't think it actually matters if you are always around Japanese speakers or not to be able to speak Japanese with no accent.

From what I learned, usually people who are very good at imitating sounds have a higher possibility of losing their accent as they practice their foreign language. If they don't have that kind of skill, many of them will probably end up not being able to lose their accent though they can speak their forieng language well with their heavy accent. And also people who give up improving their pronounciation have a higher possibility of not losing their heavy accent. Well,  Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of them obvisously.

And if I remember correctly, 20 to 30% of foreigners have a possibility of losing their accent as they practice their foreign language. So it's very common for many foreigners to have a heavy accent.

Well, even in America, some people from Texas, for example, have a hard time to speak the standard English language even though they try so hard to speak the language.  Learning a foreign language is the same thing. If you don't have the skill to imitate sounds, you will have a hard time to lose your accent.

Anyway, if you can speak Japanese with no accent, you will be one of the few Americans who can speak Japanese without any accent.

http://www.antimoon.com/forum/2004/5878....

ADDITION:This website explains how to lose your accent but for foreigners who want to speak English but you can at least understand how you can lose your heavy American accent by reading this: http://www.wikihow.com/Lose-Your-Accent

Or if you want to know more about how people teach Japanese language to foreigners, you can buy this book, Japanese phonetics: theory and practice by Tsutomu Akamatsu: http://www.ilab.org/db/detail.php?booknr...

By the way, I'm a Japanese female who has lived in the states for 14 years and I don't have a heavy Japanese accent. I actually sound like an American.  But if I say this before, I thought I would be considered conceited or be probably complained by other people so I didn't want to mention that.

Well...when I was in Japan, I started learning music at the age of 3 or 4 and still learned music as my minor when I was in college in the states, so I've been trained to hear different sounds, tones, picthes since I was young. And also I was trained to produce the sounds through my voice with right pitch, intonation and rhythm. Probably that's why I could finally succeed to lose my Japanese accent 14 years later( I'm 34 years old by the way). But more than 90 % of  Japanese people who I've met and who've lived in the states longer than I have have a heavy Japanese accent but they can speak English just fine. Usually as foreigners stay longer in a foreign country, their pronounciation will get better but that doesn't mean that their heavy accent will be totally gone later.  My husband's mother who is German came to the states when she was 12 years old. And today she is over 60 years old and she still has a German accent. But when she was 40 years old, she really had a heavy German accent. I was told that by my husband's cousin who told me that she was surprised to hear how I speak English with no accent.

Anyway, I actually didn't have any formal lessons to be able to lose my foreign accent. But I just listened to and produced the sounds that I heard from what American people said. But of course it took me over 10 years to do that. So don't think that you can speak Japanese language with no accent a year after you learn Japanese language. It will take a while to lose your accent and also you need to have good ears and have a good skill to imitate sounds, intonation, pitches, and rhythm by listening to  how Japanese people actually speak in casual conversations and formal conversations.

By the way, three  things that really helped me a lot was watch a lot of movies, TV shows and listen to radio if I was not around American people.

Answer 3

Did you ever see the Kill Bill movie where all these people were speaking "Japanese"?  It might've looked very authentic from the perspective of someone who doesn't speak Japanese, but in Japan that movie was really made fun of due to the obviously American accents.

You can find comedy in Japan making fun of English-speakers' use of Japanese, just like how English-speaking comedians often do accents in their routines.

What seems to be one of the walls to get past in Japanese is to be able to speak "in katakana".  A lot of learners will pronounce Japanese fairly well except for words that come from English.  Then for some reason, they forget to "katakana-ize" the word, just leaving it as is.  Also, when some people don't know the Japanese equivalent of a word, they'll just insert that word, again as-is.  It makes a huge difference to how you sound once you're able to automatically say a word from English in katakana.  Then your sentences become smooth.  You might not have a huge vocabulary, but at least you're giving people the chance of guessing at what you're saying.

Of course it's good to immerse yourself in Japanese.  If you can't go to Japan at least you can watch Japanese movies, listen to Japanese music, and possibly have some Japanese friends around.

Mental blocks seem to be a big thing too.  Some people just believe that they'll never be able to speak fluently, and it shows.

Keep going, reviewing, correcting.

Answer 4

Yes, foreigners speak Japanese with varying levels of accent.

The Japanese nationals that you have heard that speak with little or no accent can do so because they have lot's of opportunity to interact with native speakers and most importantly they put a lot of effort into mimicking the vocal patterns they hear.

This has nothing to do with the number of different sounds in the Japanese language as compared to the number of different sounds in the English language.

Most Japanese people in Japan learn English from books and from non-native speakers. You are in the same relative position.

I recommend that you locate sources on the internet that help you practice the sounds of hiragana. Practice again and again the correct pronunciation of  ÃƒÂ£Ã‚Â‚　い　う　え　お、か　き　く　け　こ　etc. They are short, sharp sounds. Establish the correct pronunciation of those sounds as the building blocks for future vocabulary.

Listen to MP3 recordings of conversation between native Japanese speakers. Pause and mimic their speech. Listen for the う in ありがとう. Hear how the small っ is used as in きって.

Distinguish between おand を.

Read and study in Japanese. Avoid textbooks, study material and dictionaries that use romaji. If you need a dictionary purchase one for Japanese children that provides the information you need in hiragana and simple kanji.

Your comparison of Japanese people's speech to dog noises shows an insensitivity to the challenge students face when learning a foreign language.

It isn't easy and you are about to learn that firsthand.

Answer 5

Hey there previous poster, Su-wan-chan's English accent has actually improved quite a lot since he became the governor of California.

I personally believe that learning a foreign language is similar to learning how to sing--some people have an ear for it, some don't. It's actually more complex than that. . .I for example have a good accent but can't remember jack bc I am both shy AND lazy. Anyway, some people definitely have an ear and a talent for language.

If you are not naturally adept it's okay, perseverance is also a great quality. Learning Japanese is 99% perspiration after all.

Answer 6

their pronunciation is off because they do have L's V's and proper F's...and probably some other things.  As you know in studying...the only thing that doesn't end in a vowel in "n"  so "running...would become "runningu~".

Actually, it is ALL syllables...I actually find that people who speak spanish have a better time with pronunciations...because the syllables are broken up...there isn't a melding of words and sounds... and more importantly...they BREATHE as they are talking....Americans don't realize it...but we actually speak really nasally compared to other languages...

Which brings me to the point of bad english accents.  I've met VERY few Americans that can do a decent Japanese accent.  They are few and far between.  Some people emphasize things as the wrong time...add weird unnecessary intonations...completely butcher a work...like "suki"...which they pronounce "sue-key"...it's cringing...really...

I mean I pride myself in having a "decent" accent....but..even when I have to speak quickly...I find myself having to add intonations...in order to keep up with the speed...

The difference between the cross cultural bad accents is that..japanese people can't physically pronounce the words...and American people don't seem to put in the time and effort into saying it properly.

Funny thing is...Japanese people can here American accented Japanese REALLY well...but any other english...be it british, australian, irish....It's near impossible for most of them...

But all in all...I think the worst accent in Japanese in French...  French itself is a beautiful language...but that accent...is Incomprehensible in Japanese...and I try REALLY hard to understand them.  

Hope I answered your question

-"Wandering ABC"

http://wanderingabc.blogspot.com/

Answer 7

Yes I think most of them... one reason is that Japanese

talk with almost closed mouth, not like in speaking english

we both use tounge and lips to pronounce, try talking more

often to them、 I like what I did, I'm not a Japanese and I

learned well.  Not all Japanese have accent, I have friends

speak good well pronounce english

Answer 8

Although you will be likely to have an obviously foreign accent when speaking Japanese, it's unlikely to be as heavy as an Asian speaking English. Japanese is a clearer and easier to pronounce for English speakers than English is for Japanese. Asians tend to struggle with English pronounciation more than most other nationalities.

Answer 9

The fact is that most Americans have accent when speaking Japanese. But you don't have to mind it so much unless you become interpreter or something.

You can communicate even with accent.

Answer 10

Generally speaking, yes, Americans (as well as other English speakers) seem to have harder time pronouncing Japanese correctly, compared to, say, Korean or Spanish speakers.  But people can communicate even with accents; Don't worry about it too much.

That said, conversation (including word usage and pronunciation) is something that you can't really learn from the book or CD/video, etc.  I hope you'll find a way to interact with Japanese speakers through language school, language exchange (with Japanese student in your country, for example) and so on.