I've been studying Japanese for several years, with 2 of those years spent in Japan. My level is conversational, and my pronunciation is good enough to never be misunderstood. My accent in Japanese is an outgrowth of a very natural process. I merely watched a lot of dramas (thousands of hours), constantly imitated native speakers, and spent a lot of time trying to leverage intonation and other nuance to truly connect on an emotional level with my Japanese friends.
Now, this isn't to say I don't have an obvious foreign accent. If I sounded like a native, I wouldn't be asking this question. Basically I feel like the natural progression isn't working as well as I had hoped. I've determined that I must do some formal study of the mechanics of speech production in Japanese. Therefore, I want to know: What are some solid resources on Japanese phonetics? What textbooks, websites, or other media will provide me a deep understanding of the subtleties of how native people create the sounds?
Thank you.
Now, this isn't to say I don't have an obvious foreign accent. If I sounded like a native, I wouldn't be asking this question. Basically I feel like the natural progression isn't working as well as I had hoped. I've determined that I must do some formal study of the mechanics of speech production in Japanese. Therefore, I want to know: What are some solid resources on Japanese phonetics? What textbooks, websites, or other media will provide me a deep understanding of the subtleties of how native people create the sounds?
Thank you.
Edited: 2015-12-11, 10:24 pm


