Pronunciation for Japanese

People trying to learn a foreign language tend to have accents from their first language. This is as true of Japanese learning English as Americans trying to learn Japanese. We all have accents.

In this video, daiquirikiss explains the difference between Americans saying "WaTAshi wa" versus the Japanese pronunciation of "watashi wa." Same words but American English has stress on different syllables. Japanese doesn't, for the most part.

What's a particle?

A point not mentioned in this video is the stress Americans put on particles. I think this is because Japanese teachers have so many drills on particles that they give the impression the particle is the most important part of the sentence.

The は、が、に、で part of the sentence is the particle. Such as "watashi wa Americajin desu." The 'wa' is the particle and many Americans tend to say "WaTAshi WA AmericaJIN deSU." When, in fact, it should be "watashi wa Americajin desu." In fact, many Japanese mumble the particle so much as to be practically invisible.

Enjoy the video.