How to say the words

[Hoyu]

Re: How to say the words

http://mylanguages.org/japanese_alphabet.php

Here you have a a list with japanese pronunciation, with exemples in english words, and a video with those pronunciation.

I hope that it will help you

Gasho

Thank you for the link. However I feel that it has many incorrect English word examples. I really feel this can lead to improper pronunciation.
Examples:
For A they used acute. A is more like the O in the English word "Top".

For I they used ink. I is more like the E in the English word "Eat".

For Hi they used history. Hi is pronounced like the Enlglish word "He".

I could go on but there's little point. Just watch the video and repeat along a few hundred times.

And one final thing I must say is that this link called it a Japanese Alphabet! Japanese doesn't have an alphabet!! Hiragana and Katakana are syllabaries :wink:

Gassho,
Hoyu

[Hoyu]

Re: How to say the words

I guess we should also keep in mind that with English there are many different accents. Mine is Midwestern. This no doubt affects which words I choose to use as equivalent sounds to the Japanese ones. If I had a southern accent I may choose differently. Anyway, good luck to all who choose to study Japanese. It's a beautiful language and culture!

Gassho,
Hoyu

[Jinyo]

Re: How to say the words

Hans, Yang hsin, and Hoyu - thanks for feedback.

It would be great if you could make a video Hans - I feel quite nervous about contemplating learning a new
language ( not very good at languages ops: ) and I think Japanese is quite difficult?

Really - I'd just like to be able to pronounce words and learn a little about the language.

Thanks for the kind offer Yang hsin - it gave me the idea of looking on Amazon for language course CD's. There are
quite a few but I think I'll wait to see what Jundo advices. Not quite sure where is the best place to start.

Amazon has some flash cards for Kana - would be grateful for explanation of difference between Kana (Hiragana/Katakana) and Kanji

Thanks

Willow

[Myoshin]

Re: How to say the words

Hello willow

Indead there is not alphabet but syllab in japanese, the hiragana and katakana are phonetic writting, hiragana for japanese names, particule and so on, and katakana for stranger name like teburu, table, kanji are one word, or one syllab to compose a word, there are to ways to pronunce the kanji chinese type or japanese type, in general chinese when i'ts a part of a word.
I don't want to teach lol my level is not high ,what I wrote is to summerize 2 years of japanese studies some years ago (2 years is almost nothing lol, with 2 years in english it's easier to improve)
so my appologies for the general information in japanese pronunciation, and for my basic english
I've studied with 'japanese for busy people, book 1, 2, 3" it's a good progressive method, with japanese teachers, this was the book of reference, maybe you can check on amazone, or order in japanese bookseller . If you need tables to write or something like that from my book, I can send it even by post. I remeber how funny it was to learn japanese with english books for a french speaker :lol: the occasion to learn both.

Gassho

[Jinyo]

Re: How to say the words

Hello willow

Indead there is not alphabet but syllab in japanese, the hiragana and katakana are phonetic writting, hiragana for japanese names, particule and so on, and katakana for stranger name like teburu, table, kanji are one word, or one syllab to compose a word, there are to ways to pronunce the kanji chinese type or japanese type, in general chinese when i'ts a part of a word.
I don't want to teach lol my level is not high ,what I wrote is to summerize 2 years of japanese studies some years ago (2 years is almost nothing lol, with 2 years in english it's easier to improve)
so my appologies for the general information in japanese pronunciation, and for my basic english
I've studied with 'japanese for busy people, book 1, 2, 3" it's a good progressive method, with japanese teachers, this was the book of reference, maybe you can check on amazone, or order in japanese bookseller . If you need tables to write or something like that from my book, I can send it even by post. I remeber how funny it was to learn japanese with english books for a french speaker :lol: the occasion to learn both.

Gassho

thanks for that ... and also the book recommendation, it is one of the study guides I looked at on Amazon.

I think your English is very good and I really admire everyone here who express themselves through a second language.

Will let you know how I get on,

Thanks again,

Willow

[Jundo]

Re: How to say the words

Hi,

Well, this is a very big question, actually. Taigu, Fugen and Hans have accents when they speak English ... light, amazingly subtle, but accents. Then again, I have an accent (American) when I speak English, and so do our British friends (though inventors of the language). Hans and all of us non-natives have accents when we speak Japanese and Chinese (I still do when I speak Japanese, as you can imagine from speaking to most folks from other countries in Canada, the UK or US even after they may have been living there 20 years). In fact, even the Japanese have accents when they speak "Zen Words" because (1) most "Zen Words" are Japanese mispronounced "nativizations" of Chinese terms, which are often Chinese "nativizations" of older Sanskrit terms (2) even modern Japanese don't pronounce Japanese as was done in the 16th or 13th centuries.

So what?

Nothing really, because these words don't "belong" to anyone ... are not bound by any place or time ... and even though Pali, Sanskrit, Japanese, Chinese or Korean there is really no reason to pronounce them exactly like the Indians, Japanese, Chinese or Koreans did/do. In a sense, what Americans/Brits do when we speak these words is "nativize" them, make them our own for our own culture (a better term than "mispronounce", which implies the words belong to the Indians, Japanese, Chinese or Koreans even though from there).

So, Hans can make the video even though, no matter how good it is, we realize it is not "right" to a Japanese or Chinese ... but is right for Hans.

Here is a video I sent to Adam that kind of sums it up. It is by a famous comedian here named Shimura Ken and is called ...

japanese english teacher teaches foreigners english

[youtube]

[/youtube]

Gassho (pronounced "Gassho"), Jundo

[Koshin]

Re: How to say the words

:mrgreen:

I'm still having problems reciting the Heart Sutra in english with all of you in the Zazenkais, so let's keep the Japanese for later :wink:

[Shohei]

Re: How to say the words

Hi,

Well, this is a very big question, actually. Taigu, Fugen and Hans have accents when they speak English ... light, amazingly subtle, but accents. Then again, I have an accent (American) when I speak English, and so do our British friends (though inventors of the language). Hans and all of us non-natives have accents when we speak Japanese and Chinese (I still do when I speak Japanese, as you can imagine from speaking to most folks from other countries in Canada, the UK or US even after they may have been living there 20 years). In fact, even the Japanese have accents when they speak "Zen Words" because (1) most "Zen Words" are Japanese mispronounced "nativizations" of Chinese terms, which are often Chinese "nativizations" of older Sanskrit terms (2) even modern Japanese don't pronounce Japanese as was done in the 16th or 13th centuries.

So what?

Nothing really, because these words don't "belong" to anyone ... are not bound by any place or time ... and even though Pali, Sanskrit, Japanese, Chinese or Korean there is really no reason to pronounce them exactly like the Indians, Japanese, Chinese or Koreans did/do. In a sense, what Americans/Brits do when we speak these words is "nativize" them, make them our own for our own culture (a better term than "mispronounce", which implies the words belong to the Indians, Japanese, Chinese or Koreans even though from there).

So, Hans can make the video even though, no matter how good it is, we realize it is not "right" to a Japanese or Chinese ... but is right for Hans.

Here is a video I sent to Adam that kind of sums it up. It is by a famous comedian here named Shimura Ken and is called ...

japanese english teacher teaches foreigners english

[youtube]

[/youtube]

Gassho (pronounced "Gassho"), Jundo

Thanks!

That vid is awesome

Gassho

Shohei... Eh.

[Nenka]

Re: How to say the words

This seems as good a place to ask as any . . .

I'm trying to learn the Heart Sutra in Japanese. I've listened to a number of renditions online and I've noticed that sometimes bits like this:

kan ji zai bo satsu gyou jin han nya ha ra mit ta ji

Are pronounced without the -tsu sound so it's like:

kan ji zai bo sa gyou jin . . . etc.

And sometimes the whole satsu is clearly pronounced. Is it a regional accent thing? Is one pronunciation "more correct" than the other?
Gassho

Jen

[Taigu]

Re: How to say the words

Hi Jen,

A good question indeed, There are minor variations from school to school. You have to stick to the Soto version and learn it with your ears and your heart...Don't worry about getting it right, sounding like a Japanese native, it would not make sense. Enjoy the process and make it a daily activity. The best is to put it on your Mp3 list andplay it and sing along as you walk, drive, wash the dishes...

a good version is the following one:

[youtube]

[/youtube]

you can make it an mp3 using video2mp3.

gassho

Taigu

[Myoshin]

Re: How to say the words

Thank you Taigu for the video

Gassho

[Hans]

Re: How to say the words

Hello,

here is me without enough sleep rambling on about pronounciation and related topics...it was made on the fly and wihtout a proper structure....so don't blame me if you find that this is too chaotic

UPDATE: Seems the video uploaded okey, but youtube removed it because it was a minute too long..aaarghhh...

[youtube]hgqeSaHF-azQ[/youtube]

Gassho,

Hans Chudo Mongen

[Jinyo]

Re: How to say the words

Hello,

here is me without enough sleep rambling on about pronounciation and related topics...it was made on the fly and wihtout a proper structure....so don't blame me if you find that this is too chaotic


[youtube]hgqeSaHF-azQ[/youtube]

Gassho,

Hans Chudo Mongen

Hans that is great - but I can't get the link to take - any suggestions?

gassho

Willow

[Jundo]

Re: How to say the words

Hello,

here is me without enough sleep rambling on about pronounciation and related topics...it was made on the fly and wihtout a proper structure....so don't blame me if you find that this is too chaotic


[youtube]hgqeSaHF-azQ[/youtube]

Gassho,

Hans Chudo Mongen

Hans that is great - but I can't get the link to take - any suggestions?

gassho

Willow

Also, how do you pronounce "hgqeSaHF-az"? :shock:

Gassho, J

[Amelia]

Re: How to say the words

Also, how do you pronounce "hgqeSaHF-az"? :shock:

"Huh-gee-que-saaf-as"