woodwojr Wrote:kazelee: やっぱり and "so" serve the same purpose in your second-to-last sentence as far as I can tell, making one of them redundant.

~J

やっぱり That was a throwback to a problem I had last week. Barney Rubble.

なんか。。。。失礼します。

Nuriko Wrote:Serge, my native language is English (詰まんないだろう）. Was there something that made it sound otherwise?

Only the fact that you've managed to overcome all typical problems that 99% of English speakers keep in any language they speak. Well done to you!...

Whow, 3300? I'm almost there, with 3100!

Ahh, here it is:
http://www.snapvine.com/bp/VXGNLgnpEd60fgAwSFxxvg

And the transcript:

「ただの人間には興味ありません。この中に宇宙人、未来人、超能力者がいたら、あたしのところに来なさい。以上」。入学早々、ぶっ飛んだ挨拶をかましてくれた涼宮ハルヒ。
そんなSF小説じゃあるまいし・・・と誰でも思うよな。俺も思ったよ。だけどハルヒは心の低から真剣だったんだ。それに気づいたときには俺の日常は、もうすでに超常になっていたー。

mentat_kgs Wrote:Whow, 3300? I'm almost there, with 3100!

Ahh, here it is:
http://www.snapvine.com/bp/VXGNLgnpEd60fgAwSFxxvg

And the transcript:

「ただの人間には興味ありません。この中に宇宙人、未来人、超能力者がいたら、あたしのところに来なさい。以上」。入学早々、ぶっ飛んだ挨拶をかましてくれた涼宮ハルヒ。
そんなSF小説じゃあるまいし・・・と誰でも思うよな。俺も思ったよ。だけどハルヒは心の低から真剣だったんだ。それに気づいたときには俺の日常は、もうすでに超常になっていたー。

by any chance, did you just wake up and read that? or do you smoke a lot of weed
lol

mentat_kgs Wrote:Whow, 3300? I'm almost there, with 3100!

Ahh, here it is:
http://www.snapvine.com/bp/VXGNLgnpEd60fgAwSFxxvg

And the transcript:

「ただの人間には興味ありません。この中に宇宙人、未来人、超能力者がいたら、あたしのところに来なさい。以上」。入学早々、ぶっ飛んだ挨拶をかましてくれた涼宮ハルヒ。
そんなSF小説じゃあるまいし・・・と誰でも思うよな。俺も思ったよ。だけどハルヒは心の低から真剣だったんだ。それに気づいたときには俺の日常は、もうすでに超常になっていたー。

Thanks for contributing and also providing me with some reading material
You know, I didn't realize how hard it would be to analyze correctness of accent and stuff like that. I think, though, the main thing that I can help with is accents on certain words. Not too long ago, I was making the exact same mistakes with words like 人間, すでに. To fix it, this is what I do: for every sentence I have that includes a word whose pronunciation I'm unsure of, I go into iKnow and record the sound file of the speaker saying it and attach to the sentence it's in. (I'm a little iffy about the robot lady. For certain words she sounds like a teenage boy going through puberty and the word gets really mangled, you know? Other times she sounds just as natural as the human lady version).

I think you're on track with pronunciation, but I feel like there are some kinks here you there, you know? But I can tell you have that 3100 under your belt.

Anyway, for those words I pointed out, here is how they would be pronounced (caps=high, non-caps = low): NINgen, SUde ni. I can't really tell if other words have the wrong accent though.

There are parts where you sound a little "choppy" (by that I mean not really fluid) but of course that goes away the more you practice. Especially when it's stuff you haven't read before it'll have that non fluid sound (for example, when I just tried reading the very thing you read).

One more thing, I had a good laugh when I heard a male speak the word "あたし"

mentat_kgs Wrote:だけどハルヒは心の低から真剣だったんだ。

I think that's probably meant to be 心の底（そこ）.

超能力者　sounded like ちょうのりょくしゃ to me, rather than　ちょうのうりょくしゃ.
And I think you missed ぶっ from ぶっ飛んだ

@Nuriko: At first, I thought that file was some kind of example. Listening to it more closely might show up some errors, but I thought your accent was good. I don't think I can pick out mistakes or anything, but still it sounded pretty convincing to me.


I can't guarantee this will still be around in the morning when I realise what I've done, but I had a go reading the Haruhi one. I tried the OP text, but kept stumbling on words like 四神天地書. And shamefully, 時計. I never get that right.

I probably should have waited until the morning to record it when I wasn't as tired. I deleted the longer pauses to cut the time (so if it sounds jumpy that's why), and towards the end I get too breathy at the end of lines. And I think I'm putting a bit of a 'narration' voice on, but sadly this is the extent of my acting skills

http://www.snapvine.com/bp/CpGDvAoDEd6LqAAwSFxx0g

albion Wrote:

mentat_kgs Wrote:だけどハルヒは心の低から真剣だったんだ。

I think that's probably meant to be 心の底（そこ）.

超能力者　sounded like ちょうのりょくしゃ to me, rather than　ちょうのうりょくしゃ.
And I think you missed ぶっ from ぶっ飛んだ

@Nuriko: At first, I thought that file was some kind of example. Listening to it more closely might show up some errors, but I thought your accent was good. I don't think I can pick out mistakes or anything, but still it sounded pretty convincing to me.


I can't guarantee this will still be around in the morning when I realise what I've done, but I had a go reading the Haruhi one. I tried the OP text, but kept stumbling on words like 四神天地書. And shamefully, 時計. I never get that right.

I probably should have waited until the morning to record it when I wasn't as tired. I deleted the longer pauses to cut the time (so if it sounds jumpy that's why), and towards the end I get too breathy at the end of lines. And I think I'm putting a bit of a 'narration' voice on, but sadly this is the extent of my acting skills

http://www.snapvine.com/bp/CpGDvAoDEd6LqAAwSFxx0g

...albion, you have completely blown me out of the water. I wonder if a native could find any errors in that. I certainly can't. And yeah, I can detect your narration voice big time XD Anyway, if this place has more females than I think, you might find yourself bombarded if they listen to this.

Oh right, the 心の低 part had me kind of puzzled too. I thought it supposed to be 心の底 as well, but then I looked up てい and it was "base," which just started to make sense (sounds kinda funny in English though, "the base of my heart.") Unsure of whether it's an error or not though.

edit: I managed to find a mistake in albion's post. 以上's accent should be on 以.

mentat, you were pretty good, but you may want to make it a little more fluid and "sparkling", otherwise, like liosama said, you sound like you're not feeling very well. But it doesn't have to do with Japanese, I think
By the way, you chose one of my favourite J-lines!

Albion, good job! Are you an actor or something?
I notices just a few things, like 超能力 being pronounced as ちょうんのうりょく with a double n, and ぶっ飛んだ pronounced like ぶ飛んだ. But generally, it sounded cool!

Ow yeah. But I did read a few times before recording.
In the first one I even tried to impersonate Haruhi's voice, but erm... it didn't worked very well XD

What I noticed is that my Southern Brasilian accent is interfering. Here we don't pronounce many parts of most words, like the す of すでに.

Just for the records, I recorded this just before going to sleep, and no I don't do drugs other than coffee.

I'm pretty darn impressed and humbled by all the readings so far.
Actually mentat's reading made me laugh because although he didn't exactly radiate enthusiasm, when I worked in a Japanese high school, about half the boys talked almost exactly like that (and not just when they were being forced to speak English).
How do you guys work on your pronunciation? Shadowing? Do you ever work specifically on pronunciation with a teacher?

I just grumble with myself silently, generaly without noticing. Sometimes during my reviews, I read sentences aloud. But it is getting rarer and rarer.

What I do is a lot of listening.

Today, I'm looping yomiuri podcast since 7:50hs. It is now 10:37hs. It's a 18mins 28secs cut with yesterday's headlines + an editorial.

I figured I'd join in the fun and read the speech I wrote for my 3rd year students at Junior High as today was my last class with them. As I converted my thoughts from English to Japanese, I'm sure it doesn't sound natural... I gave the recording three shots and this was the one I liked the best, I realize some of my pronounciation is pretty off, but... I've had a couple beers (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it).

This is the first time I've ever recorded myself. I speak Japanese too much like I speak English- waaaaay too much intonation and volume change. I'm much too expressive but I'm not sure it's a charactaristic I can get rid of. Additionally, the dialect in my area is much, much more expressive than typical Japanese, so that probably isn't helping.

http://www.snapvine.com/bp/nmRrbApUEd6a3gAwSFsPiA
here's my transcript:

"私の最後の授業

頑張る、頑張ってー　英語の意味は何ですか？

To do your best, to try your hardest.

でも，英語にはこの言葉がありません。 日本語にしかない、特有な表現だ。一ヶ月あとで高校生になる。頑張って,覚えてください。頑張ってという 言葉を覚えたら、なんでもできる。

そして、旅行したら英語を勉強しなければならない。英語は難しくないけどたくさんの時間が掛かる。毎日ちょっとだけ勉強し続けたら上手になります。

頑張ってください."

I decided to ignore my flu and made a recording! Perhaps the real reason was that I needed my wife to leave for a while so I could do this alone..

I thought “atashi” wouldn’t suit me so well so I used the OP's text:

”高校１年生の夕城美朱（ゆうき　みあか）は、「四神天地書」という本の中の世界から、冒険を終えて帰って来たばかり。本の中で出会った恋人も、神獣、朱雀の力で現実の世界に転生し、再び出会うことができた。
ところが、幸せいっぱいの美朱の目の前に、また朱雀が現れた。朱雀は邪悪な存在である「魔神」を封印するために、美朱と恋人のたからの力が必要だといって、美朱の時計に入り込んだ。”

This was actually the first time I ever tred recording myself speaking Japanese and actually noticed some things I need to work on!
It was actually fun in a twisted way and I think I could actually make this a study routine!

Anyway.. Here goes nothin'!

@captal
Whow. You have a storng accent, but you made your text sound deeply poetic. Amazing.

I would guess that I'm closest to mentats ability, though I still lack the courage to tape myself

Extremely impressed by Albion, so much enthusiasm. It was still hearable that it was a foreign speaker, but if I get my pronunciation to that level, I won't care anymore.

mentat_kgs Wrote:@captal
Whow. You have a storng accent, but you made your text sound deeply poetic. Amazing.

I do, don't I. That's the Chicago in me, sigh- hard to give it up.

As I said, I speak Japanese like I speak English- I didn't realize this until my kids made fun of me for saying numbers like English (I give tests in both English and Japanese). In English I'll say Number Onnnnnee, in Japanese I was saying いちばあああん - and I got hell for it. I'm trying to be less accented, but it's hard.

Edit: This was a really helpful exercise- I knew I sounded accented, but I didn't realize how badly. Any tips? More shadowing? Maybe i'll try reading something I haven't written to be purposefully dramatic

Sorry buddy, I'm not in a position to help you.
How many hours/day of japanese you use to listen?

All right, here's mine.
It's the first time for me, too, and I'm quite disappointed at my voice and pronunciation. But everybody's being brave so I'll imitate y'all

The text is from みなみけ:
この物語は、南家三姉妹の平凡な日常を淡々と描く物です。 過度な期待はしないでください。 あと、部屋は明るくして、 TVから3メートルは離れて見やがってください。

It's very short, but at least you can check the real version in the first 16 seconds of this youtube video.
On with the corrections!

Nuriko,
I think I'll try something similar to what you do. Thanks for the tips!

PS.
I was simply looking for Japanese users on snapvine and look what I've found: here. It's that exact Haruhi passage, and it was posted like 4 hours ago... could it be a coincidence?

I'm far from acceptable, but I'll post my voice anyway:

http://www.snapvine.com/bp/RNgEEApsEd6uTwAwSFxytA

It's weird to hear my voice, it seems the ugliest in the world

I think I have a really strong italian accent... う sound too "long", し and ち too "strong" and a hard to hide rolling R. I need more practice for sure...

Edit: Ahem... and the rythm is messed up と思う

Hehe..
Aren't you supposed to give feedback to others. Not yourself! ;P

alantin Wrote:Hehe..
Aren't you supposed to give feedback to others. Not yourself! ;P

Uhm... you're right But I couldn't resist...

Hmm..

nac_est:
To me your pronunciation sounds really good!
You speak really fast though..

LordGolem:
I think you pronounce pretty well, but you shoud work on how you stress the words!
You seem to put much stress to the end of the words and it kinda sounds to me like you're in a hurry to get to the next word..

alantin Wrote:Hmm..

nac_est:
To me your pronunciation sounds really good!
You speak really fast though..

Though his speech was faster than others, it wasn't anything faster than a typical Japanese person. There is a lady that works at the train station coffee shop near me and understanding her is... difficult. She speaks ridiculously fast- makes nac_est sound like he's taking his time.

Interesting thread. I did not have the sack to try my own original material, so here's me reading from some iKnow sentences. Horrible, considering these are single sentences with simple structure.

Wonder if I should try posting me singing "明日晴れるかな". There is that karaoke site that has 15000 songs.

http://www.snapvine.com/sb/1508946e0ab41...30485b0e2a