Language Acquisition #3: Training My Ear and Tongue

Japanese R: http://www.sljfaq.org/afaq/japanese-r.html

Konichiwa!    Genki desu ka?

Genki desu.

I spent four hours putting together a video just for you!   I can’t begin to explain how much of a pain it is to have to record 2 minute snippets, upload them on my old laptop (it needs a walker), and use the YouTube editor.    It take so long.   I thought my biggest problem was going to be my camera shyness (just how many times can I say “umm”).

I am continuing with my plan to learn Japanese the way a baby would by focusing on the sound (musicality) of the language, learning the individual sounds (through Hiragana since I don’t have a Japanese speaking mother to repeat the sounds to me a thousand times throughout the day).       My next step is some question words (what, where, why, how, who)  and basic nouns (animals and their sounds, everyday objects).    I am hoping that being able to say “What is that?” and “That is a ball” and “Doggie goes woof-woof” will help me to create more imagery for those words and sounds.   I’ve already picked up a few new words accidentally by just seeing them over and over even when concentrating on something totally different:  hito (person), haha (mother), chichi (father), momo (peach), obaasan (grandmother), obasan (aunt), ojiisan (grandfather), ojisan (uncle), usagi (rabbit), donguri (acorn), koneko (kitten), kobuta (piglet), shika (deer),  and a few others.

http://youtu.be/AubmLVbI8vk

So, just how terrible is my pronunciation?  Hah!