I once found a nice freeware program that could compare an audiofile to your recording(by using a spectogrmm or sth like that) and such was very useful to check your pronunciation against a real japanese one. Unfortunately I can't find the link anymore. Does anybody know that programm or has any other idea how to improve the pronunciation?

thanks

I think it might have been Read Write Japanese.
But really all you need to do is just listen to some audio, and then record yourself saying it (using free tools like windows sound recorder) then see if it sounds similar.

There's a plugin for Anki that lets you record and replay your voice. You can use it with multimedia decks.

Sebastian Wrote:There's a plugin for Anki that lets you record and replay your voice. You can use it with multimedia decks.

sweet didn't know that, even though i'm using anki.

Well, my problem is, I don't know if I got the pitch accent right, so I would like to use that programm that visualizes the audio. Listening to my own audio doesn't help unfotunately...

There is no one "correct" pronunciation for every sound (just like English). Different people will have different pronunciations.

My advice is to listen to Japanese audio and to find a Japanese conversation partner.

chamcham Wrote:There is no one "correct" pronunciation for every sound (just like English). Different people will have different pronunciations.

My advice is to listen to Japanese audio and to find a Japanese conversation partner.

I agree with this totally. You're way of saying things will be different, but that won't mean you won't sound correct. All you have to do is match the pronunciation. If you're worrying about wanting to develop an accent in Japanese. That takes a long time. I'm sure sometimes you notice, there are some people who speak English fluently but they still have an accent from their native language. Theres not much you can do, expect to listen a lot and try to match pronunciation as much as you can.

How do actors learn to fake accents ? Granted, sometimes its done really badly. I once watched Liam Neeson do an absolutely atrocious "southern" u.s. accent. But, sometimes its done really well. Anyways, they just keep mimicking the real thing, essentially doing an impersonation, until that impersonation gets really, really good.

kendo99 Wrote:How do actors learn to fake accents ? Granted, sometimes its done really badly. I once watched Liam Neeson do an absolutely atrocious "southern" u.s. accent. But, sometimes its done really well. Anyways, they just keep mimicking the real thing, essentially doing an impersonation, until that impersonation gets really, really good.

I guess it just takes a lot of mimicking. And some real live correction (i.e. let a native speaker hear you speak and see what there input is on you're accent)

I almost bought this book once.

1日10分の発音練習
http://www.bonjinsha.com/product/?item_id=3564

You might find it useful. It goes over the different stresses in Japanese words and sentences. Standard Tokyo dialect.

it's not freeware, but if you don't mind spending some cash to get the text book "Japanese: the spoken language" it is well worth it. The entire book is based on, you guessed it, the spoken language which means that it just DRILLS speaking and listening practice. I highly recommend it.

I'm hoping for something like this as well: http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?p...8#pid64588 (second paragraph, references a post from chamcham) ... I think Magamo's thoughts on this stuff is pretty good: http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?p...4#pid67504 and http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?p...3#pid87283

Ohh, just re-read that bonus article I linked in that comment on colour n-backing, hmm, I suppose there are some things to play with there, re: single/dual/triple n-back modalities. I wonder how to customize these tasks for learning Japanese beyond replacing letter audio with kana, while keeping it as 'neutral' as possible in terms of task-specific training... /ramble

I mention singandsee there: http://www.singandsee.com/ but I remember there being other open source programs out there...

bizarrojosh Wrote:it's not freeware, but if you don't mind spending some cash to get the text book "Japanese: the spoken language" it is well worth it. The entire book is based on, you guessed it, the spoken language which means that it just DRILLS speaking and listening practice. I highly recommend it.

Actually, you can get the drills for free. The textbook is entirely in romaji, and non-standard romaji at that, which is a huge drawback for many people, but Ohio State University has posted the audio online.

http://languagelab.it.ohio-state.edu/index.php?id=1673

zarxrax is that a real kanji on your screen name? hope not

errtu Wrote:zarxrax is that a real kanji on your screen name? hope not

It is. But it's rare. So you won't need to worry about writing it or reading it ever. Unless you like learning rare kanji.

Personally I like learning more kanji, even if isn't the helpful.

Getting a native girlfriend/boyfriend is the best way to improve speaking ability, so maybe the best program would be a dating sim?

har har I kid.

Depends on the boy/girlfriend. I've found that my girlfriend just uses language that is at my level. This may be a good thing, but I can't say it's helping my speaking all too much :/
She claims that I'm improving quite a bit, but I don't notice any progression...

Delina Wrote:Actually, you can get the drills for free. The textbook is entirely in romaji, and non-standard romaji at that, which is a huge drawback for many people, but Ohio State University has posted the audio online.

http://languagelab.it.ohio-state.edu/index.php?id=1673

Oh wow, I didn't know that. Yeah, so again, I highly recommend this for speaking practice. If you don't have the book I would still recommend getting it so you have all the context and grammar points (which are explained really really well). But if you just need speaking then this should be wonderful. Thanks Delina!