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pronunciation

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Sadly, I learned today that I have the worst Japanese-language pronunciation of any foreigner that my wife knows.

I put it down to my:

1. sing-song Canadian accent, eh?

2. inability to do Japanese classes since the kid was born

3. my general disinterest in self-improvement

It's a sad state of affairs, to tell the truth. Cos I know some foreigners who would starve to death without the assistance of photos on menus. I must do something about my poor pronunciation.

I know that my two biggest problems are mixing vowel sounds (e.g. confusing 'u' and 'oh') and placing stress on syllables where there is none in Japanese. One way I've been trying to cut down on my over-emphasizing syllables is to adopt a flat manner of speech. Sometimes I try to emulate a speech synthesizer. This makes me sound like Dr. Stephen Hawking's voice assist, or the highly worrisome course registration system that my University had in the early 90's.

But recently I've been wondering if I shouldn't try to emulate Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. I'm not suggesting that he'd be any better at pronouncing Japanese than would a electric wheelchair, but I'm a desperate fellow.