Do you know Japanese can&#39;t pronounce R?

@swirlz (3136)

• Philippines

18 Oct 11

Yeah, I was.

Sorry. Fry me! Now that's some good lyrics.

1 person likes this

K31

@keihimekawa (2009)

• Philippines

19 Oct 11

LOLZ! The lyrics was like: Come on and Fry Me (Fly Me) Do wanna with me XD Go figure~ Looolz!!! But then, it's fun when you listen to them speak in English. LOL!

2 people like this

Timeout

@Timeout (419)

•

16 Oct 11

Are you sure? As far as I know japanese can pronunce R and better than other countries. They don't pronunce L though. I remember they pronunced "Dumbledore" as "Dumberudoru", so they would convert all L's to R's. I think it is Chinese people who cannot pronunce R. I used to go to a chinese restaurant, and when I leave they said "Glacias" instead of "Gracias" and "Tlece Eulos" instead of "Trece Euros" (Gracias means Thank you in my language, and trece euros thirteen euros).

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@swirlz (3136)

• Philippines

18 Oct 11

Yes, you're right, it's L they don't have in their alphabet, not R. I got myself confused there.

I do know about their alphabet that is syllabical. A consonant (or two) and a vowel together. Except for N as Jacruz mentioned.

@Jacruz25 (1124)

• Philippines

18 Oct 11

I'm no japanese but I learn some few basic language, since I always watch anime (usually sub) and keep on hearing their accent and do some search of the word. I think the only consonant that they can read is N. Like in Kenshin, Sanin, Genin etc. The letter N has a symbol in hiragana and I think that's the only consonant that they can read without a vowel.

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Timeout

@Timeout (419)

•

16 Oct 11

After watching the video you postead I can tell where is the problem. It's not the R itself, it's the combination of two consonants. Japanese language doesn't work with single letters, they have syllabes to form words, most of them are a combination of vowel+consonant, except a few some (for example tsu). It's hard for them to pronunce two vowels or two consonants together. That is why sometimes, they add other letters to "japanize" occidental words. It would be easier to se woruku instead of work. But yea, I think that is the main problem there. Maybe a Japanese can come and confirm?

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secretbear

@secretbear (19448)

• Philippines

18 Oct 11

I think there's a mistake here. Japanese has the letter R in their alphabet. They have the word Ramen, ringo, karate, waratte, tiramisu, and all others. I think it should have been Siri versus Chinese because it's the Chinese who do not have the letter R in their alphabet so the iPhone user could not pronounce WORK properly but could only pronounce it as WALK, WALL, etc.

Anyway, what I think about this is that, if you are not very fluent in English, or you are not very good in pronunciation, you should not use application that requires voice recognition. It will only get difficult to use the application like what's happening in the video.

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chinese

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secretbear

@secretbear (19448)

• Philippines

19 Oct 11

Yes, I really think it's Chinese. Chinese do not have the R in their alphabet. So if a foreign word has the letter R, they pronounce it as L or they do not pronounce it at all. I'm sure the British has the letter R in their alphabet. Their alphabet is just the same like American English. It just that, sometimes, there are words that they do not pronounce the R because of their accent. But they have the R. Harry pronounces Hagrid's name with the perfect sound of R.

I think Siri can be for any type of people as long as they can speak English clearly.

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@swirlz (3136)

• Philippines

26 Oct 11

Yes, they should pronounce their commands properly, or they could just not use Siri instead.

@swirlz (3136)

• Philippines

18 Oct 11

Yes, Siri also mistook "work" for the F word.

They do have R in their alphabet. I've forgotten about Sakura. My bad. I think I got confused due to the video, do you really think it's Chinese? I haven't watched many Chinese shows so I couldn't verify. Some British also tested out Siri, their accent is getting in the way too. They also don't have R. (This time I'm hopefully right

Harry Potter is pronounced Hawy Potta)I think Siri is only for Americans, but then there are also differences in accents even with them.

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emptydb

@emptydb (80)

•

17 Oct 11

Well, i understand it too cause not only Japanese has difficulty in pronouncing "R" but also Koreans cause they don't have R...well, it can be funny at first but then again they need help to pronounce the letter properly cause they are open to that...they are just being nationalistic that they use their own language everyday and that is what they are used to that is why when it comes to English, they totally have a difficulty in pronouncing the letter that they are not used to using...

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@katcarneo (1433)

• Philippines

17 Oct 11

I teach English to Koreans and R and L are sor of interchangeable for them. So, someone with the family name Lee can also be Rhee, and it's strange because it can also be Yi oe just Ee. Anyway, as a teacher I most of the time hear students pronounce the R sound as L, but in some cases it's the other way around. It's just that some languages do not have certain English sounds. I am Filipino and we do not have F or V of TH in our alphabet, so many Filipinos who speak English may make errors with these.

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japan

emptydb

@emptydb (80)

•

18 Oct 11

i agree with you on that too...yes that Lee to Rhee...as well with Ryan Bang's "really" to Lily...and even Filipinos mispronounced the letters from e to i or a to e...most specially from the southern part of the Philippines....I think PRACTICE is the key here to improve the pronunciation...it may have a funny moment but then again it should be corrected so everybody can learn...

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@Jacruz25 (1124)

• Philippines

18 Oct 11

Correct me if i'm wrong but even filipinos doesn't have F or V, etc. we are very adaptive and most of us can easily learn other language that's what I have noticed.

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surfer222

@surfer222 (1714)

• Indonesia

16 Oct 11

when i was in high school one of my teacher who can speak japanese explain it to me that japanese people can't pronounce R, several example that he demonstrate was helicopter to helicoputa and computer to comp(y)uta..

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Timeout

@Timeout (419)

•

16 Oct 11

"Heruricoputa" in fact. Japanese do have R and they can pronunce R, "Sakura" has R and it's one of the most emblematic Japanese words. What you said is not a good example, because most of the people don't pronunce R's at the end of the word (I am talking about English natives), they say "sista". I believe it's Chinese people who cannot pronunce R, and not Japanese. What they don't have is L.

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@Jacruz25 (1124)

• Philippines

18 Oct 11

timeout is right. japanese cannot pronounce R only if the word ends with letter R. They don't have L as well. Same thing if a word ends with letter D (correct me if I'm wrong).

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@secretbear (19448)

• Philippines

18 Oct 11

Japanese do have R in their alphabet. What I know is that, all their words do not end with consonants except for letter N. Which means, all their words end either with a, e, i, o, u and n. So if a word ends with an R, like helicopter, they will either pronounce it as He-ri-ko-pu-ta or he-ri-ko-pu-te-ru.

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evanfred0219

@evanfred0219 (209)

• Philippines

17 Oct 11

i thought japanese people do talk with a lot of Rs. cause when i watched an anime,the characters were dabbed and their words really have lots of R. is he really a japanese?.

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@katcarneo (1433)

• Philippines

17 Oct 11

Yep I think the same way. Whenever a Japanese is being imitated in a gag show here in the Philippines, the actor playing the part usually replaces all Ls with Rs and enunciates words loudly and clearly. So I got to thinking the Japanese pronounce their Rs rather strongly. We Filipinos speak with a lot of Ks. Some Middle Easter fellow said we Filipinos sound like ducks because of the too many Ks.

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@Jacruz25 (1124)

• Philippines

18 Oct 11

@Evanfred I don't know about the discussion starter but you are right that japanese can pronounce R of course what they can't pronounce is L and they replace it with R. The only problem about the japanese language is that their alphabet is so limited which most of their alphabet are composed of a consonant and a vowel. I think only N doesn't have consonant since they can pronounce words ending with N Genin,sanin,kenshin,etc. But words ending with D, R, ect. they can't pronounce it. We also hear them pronouncing S but the truth is it is SU since they don't have S in their alphabet examples are SASUKE they pronounce it as SASKE, TASUKI as TASKI, ARIGATO GOSAIMASU as ARIGATO GOSAIMAS.

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evanfred0219

@evanfred0219 (209)

• Philippines

18 Oct 11

thanks for the information. i think you're more knowledgeable about japanese language. i'm confused with the SU part though. you discussed that japanese don't have an S in their alphabet and they use SU instead, and when they use it they pronouce SU into AS?.like SASUKE,as SASKI?. did i get your point?.

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@katcarneo (1433)

• Philippines

17 Oct 11

I wondered about accent and pronunciation differences when it comes to using Siri when I first saw the iPhone4s video come out. Since Siri communicates in English, it is necessary for the user to communicate in English and correctly pronounce words as well. Therefore, it may not be a useful feature for those who are non-native speakers, unless iPhone creates a multilingual Siri. Many people in the Philippines speak English so it's very rare to find products that have a Filipino language option. When the iPhone 4s comes to the Philippines, how easily or how hard will it be for the Filipinos to get it working? Some have neutralized accents but some still have Filipino accent.

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@swirlz (3136)

• Philippines

18 Oct 11

We may still have a problem with it. I've seen a video on some British using Siri on Iphone4, and they're having problems as well. Siri is programmed with Californian English I've heard.

@katcarneo (1433)

• Philippines

21 Oct 11

Yeah so Siri is smart, but not smart enough. People can communicate effectively most of the time even with a confusion of accents.

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carmelanirel

@carmelanirel (20942)

• United States

17 Oct 11

Oh wow, I wish you had shared this about 3 weeks ago. I was on a thread on FB and someone mentioned this, but for the life of me, I can't recall how we got on that topic..Poor guy, I didn't finish watching the video when the computer started misinterpreting his "work" into very a colorful word, but the letter "R" is hard to pronounce. I am sure if a speak teacher tutors a Japanese, he or she can learn to say it. Even in America, some kids have trouble pronouncing this letter. My own son had to take speech class for a year because he couldn't and I remember the two words the teacher had him practice, it was: "Earl's World" and by practicing, he soon was able to say his R's very clearly..:)

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Your Highness Emperor Albert Whisker

@swirlz (3136)

• Philippines

18 Oct 11

No, I've been wrong. It's L they don't have. But they can't pronounce R in the word "work" properly because their language is syllabical, they pronounce ra, ri, ru, re, ro. He should have tried wo-ru-ku. Even Filipinos have trouble pronouncing some letters.

I think it's common to every language. Practicing would really do help, I also remembered chanting some tongue twisters when I was young.

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lady Di

@lady1993 (27224)

• Philippines

24 Oct 11

I thought Japanese can't pronounce L and just make it R...

I think Koreans are like that too. Maybe it is because of the structure of their language, and they are not used to pronouncing those other letters..

1 person likes this

@CaptAlbertWhisker (32748)

• Calgary, Alberta

23 Oct 11

they basically confuse R and L, I remember they pronounce the name Alice as Arisu and Rachel as Reichesu. Its Ironic they have words with letter R but if they pronounce English words they cant pronounce it. I remember there is an American superheroined named Miss Marvel and in a Japanese show is is introduced as Misso mavaru. In my country people confuse B and V, P and f.

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way2vision

@way2vision (613)

• Canada

22 Oct 11

Wow that's really interesting. To me it always sounds like they have an "r" in every word they speak. Actually I hear a lot of 'r' and 't' when they speak but I assume it is not really an 'r' just sounds like an 'r' and when specifically asked to say 'r' it sounds like something else. Just like the confusion between 'b' and 'v' in some languages. This is really surprising, thanks for the info.

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japanese langauge

@Jacruz25 (1124)

• Philippines

18 Oct 11

I think everything was explained in my previous posts so all I can say is Japanese can pronounce R but not words ending with R. It's very hard to learn their language because you need to learn their alphabet first which is hard since they have this hiragana,katakana and kanji which will surely blow your mind.

Then they also included some chinese characters in their alphabet which is really complicated. AS far as I know I only understand less than 1 percent of japanese language.. So i'm no expert in the japanese language

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@swirlz (3136)

• Philippines

26 Oct 11

Yes, I know about Japanese language and alphabets. My sister even taught me hiragana last summer. Reading it and writing, some other basic stuff, numbers... Numbers, that was pretty complicated. Did you know that just for a date and time question, I have to chant for like a minute? Example: Today is Oct. 27, 2011 1:20 AM. I would have to go "Today is 2(suffix for thousand) 1(suffix for tens) 1(suffix for year) 10(suffix for month) 2(suffix for tens) 7(suffix for day) 1(suffix for hour) 2(suffix for tens)(suffix for minutes)(word for AM) My sister's gonna kill me, I've forgotten a whole lot about it.

It's only natural the Japanese has some Chinese characters, if not most of them. The Chinese were the ones who influenced and taught the Japanese.

SmilezKiwi

@SmilezKiwi (123)

• New Zealand

17 Oct 11

Did u know most Europeans in New Zealand can't pronounce Maori words lol now u know

1 person likes this

@swirlz (3136)

• Philippines

18 Oct 11

What are Maori words? This sounds like another discussion.

girl_thinking

@girl_thinking (1959)

• Philippines

21 Oct 11

Hi Swirlz! I studied basic Nihongo (Japanese language) and worked for a Japanese learning school over a year ago so I'm sure that Nihon jins (Japanese people) can pronounce the letter r. Below are samples of their phrases: 1. Doumo arigatou = thank you 2. Owarimasuka? = are you done? / is it done? 3. koko kara = from here 4. shitsureishimasu = please pardon me Nihon jins actually pronounce r very clearly. I like your topic, I am really interested everything "Japanese" :)

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japanese

@swirlz (3136)

• Philippines

26 Oct 11

I am also interested in the Japanese culture.

jazel_juan

@jazel_juan (15746)

• Philippines

21 Oct 11

Hahahaha i just saw the video now, It is funny..but i also pity him in a way, well its just like here in our city, there are those with native dialects that do have a hard time speaking in Filipino.