実践ビジネス英語 Friday, April 26 / May 3
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Accent Reduction Training (6)
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1[S]: Now in our current vignette, the H&B staff discuss accent reduction training in which people work to bring themselves closer to an American accent in English. Have you ever done anything like that with Japanese, Heather?
2[H]: I have, actually, some things I did is part of my Japanese classes in college, others, I worked out on my own. But I have taken various steps over the years to bring my Japanese closer to the way people in Tokyo speak it.
One example involves the "te" sound. When we make the "te" sound in English, our mouth tends to widen, stretching out to the side. However, I noticed that native speakers of Japanese drop their jaws down when they say "te," making a shaper, shorter sound. So I made a conscious effort to pronounce it that way.
With definitely a case of practice makes perfect. At first, I had to think about it every time, often saying words over again the correct way. But now I automatically drop my jaw down when I say "te."
3[S]: Hmm... interesting. What else have you worked to adjust in your Japanese speech?
4[H]: The particles "ga," "wa" and "o" also give non-native speakers trouble. We tend to put too much emphasis on them, and they jump out from our speech like Jack-in-the-boxes. So I came up with a mental trick of thinking of all these particles as part of the word before them, and that naturally deemphasizes the particle, makes it softer. So I end up saying, "Mizu-o Kudasai" intead of "Mizu-Oh Kudasai."
Also a lot of foreigners say "desuga," but in that case, the proper sound is "desunga." There's an "n" sound in there. That's one I learned from my Japanese teachers in college.
5[S]: Hmm... What else did they teach you about natural Japanese speech?
6[H]: One thing they particularly emphasized was the pronunciation of loanwords from English. As native speakers of English, the other students and I tended to say words like "bus" and "table" in their original pronunciations, but our teachers would always tell us, "No, that's wrong. Those are not the Japanese words." It's "バス" and "テーブル."
7[S]: Have you studied any other languages besides Japanese?
8[H]: None for anywhere near the same length of time or with the same dedication. I took some French in middle school as a required course, but I must confess I was not very good at it. I've always been grateful that Japanese didn't require me to memorize whether words were masculine or feminine.
In more recent years, I've tried my hand at a little Italian and German. But I've spent so much time with Japanese that it's affected my efforts with other tongues. Somehow I feel that all foreign languages are Japanese, and I filter them through what I've learned about it.
That's why my husband laughed and laughed when we were practicing some Italian together before our honeymoon to Italy. He told me I was probably the only Caucasian woman in the world who spoke Italian with the Japanese accent. Apparently my intonation was very level without the usual ups and downs of Italian.
