If you have talked to Japanese people in English, you might have noticed their specific way of pronunciations. Sometimes you might not be able to understand what they say. Of course there are a lot of Japanese people who can speak English pretty well, but some don’t… Here are 5 common habit of Japanese English.
Every word is pronounced with vowels
In Japanese, almost every word is pronounced with vowels, so Japanese English speaker tend to pronounce consonant with vowels.
For example, “good morning” could be like “guddo moningu”, and “try” could be like “torai”. And Japanese has only five vowels. “Run” and “ran” are same pronunciations for Japanese people.
2. There’s no pronanciation difference between L and R
Japanese doesn’t have pronaciation difference between L and R. When Japanese people try to say the words with L or R, they sound like R-ish something. Neither L nor R.
When you hear Japanese people say “erection”, it must be “election”!
3. There’s no “th” sound
“Th” sound is sounded the same as “s” sound in Japanese. When you hear Japanese people say “sard”, they probably want to say “third”. And when you hear they say “za”, it might be “the”.
4. V and B are same
Japanese people know the difference between them, but Japanese people tend to say “B” instead of “V”. They maybe want to say “very” when you hear “berry”.
5. Some people can’t pronounce W sound well
When some Japanese people try to say “wood”, it just sounds like “uddo”. It’s because Japanese doesn’t have “wo” sound. But most people can pronounce it when they realize the difference.
