Having trouble repeating sentences

[watertommyz9255]

Hello!

I've come across bit of a problem, and I seem to do fine listening to the language, and I'm able to repeat small words or very simple phrases, but when it comes to a full sentence full of new words I don't know, I just get flustered, and I can't get the pronounciation down. Is there any advice for imporving this, or is it going to come down to practice?

Should I try each word individually first, and then attempt saying the sentence? Thanks in advance!

[community.japanese]

watertommyz9255-san,
kon'nichiwa!

I think I know what exactly you mean.
I often have the same problem with languages I'm studying.

It is totally okay to speak slowly at the beginning, even breaking the sentence down to
word basis. I'm not too sure which level you're in, but assuming you're really at the beginning of
learning Japanese, I've got a recommendation. Let's take the simple short sentence as an example:
watashi wa nihon-jin desu. (= I'm Japanese).
You can pronunciate each words, right? To say this sentence fluently, first try:
"des" (unstead of pronouncing "su" properly, drop "u") three times.
Then,
"jin des" three times.
Then,
"nihon-jin des" three times.
Now,
"watashi wa" (pause) "nihon-jin des" three times.
If you got used to repeat this, finally, without any pause but slowly,
"watashi wa nihon-jin des".

After that, just try a bit faster until it sounds like a natural speed.

The point here is to practice repeating the part of the sentences, making it longer and longer.
Try not to separate particles, though. This means, "watashi wa" needs to be practiced together
never "wa nihon-jin des".

If you have other sentences you want to practice this way, please give us that sentence(s)
and I'll give you the tips how to break it down in the best way

Natsuko (奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

[watertommyz9255]

ありがとうございます


That's helping a lot.

I just have to piece it together, like a puzzle...a puzzle made of sounds. This will be very useful as I'm just now starting to learn Japanese grammar structure, so I can go ahead and start using the words I learn, and finally have conversational practice!

[mmmason8967]

I've recently realised that I have the same problem. I get very little opportunity to practice speaking Japanese: I mostly read and write, and I don't speak very often. And on the rare occasions when I do speak, I stumble over the words.

One thing that I've found very helpful is reading Japanese text out loud (the "out loud" bit is very important). Japanese children's books are good for this: they have furigana (small hiragana characters alongside each kanji) so you don't have problems reading unfamiliar kanji. It doesn't matter if you don't understand what you're reading--it's not the point of the exercise (although I've found that after reading the same thing 20 or 30 times you do start to figure it out).

I've found that I have to concentrate on the vowel sounds. It's very easy to end up using English vowel sounds when you're reading Japanese, so that you make kawaii sound the same as Hawaii (which it doesn't). I've also had problems with long strings of vowels: Japanese speakers pronounce the vowels separately while English speakers tend to slide from one vowel to the next, which is really, really difficult to do when you get three or four vowels sounds in row, as in something like

せんだいへいきます。
Sendai e ikimasu.
I will go to Sendai.

One thing I've found that helps with that particular problem is a song called Waon by Yunchi. The first line of the chorus (at 0:52 in the video) is a long string of vowels, all separated in a somewhat exaggerated way. What I do is take the troublesome vowel-series (so in Sandai e ikimasu that would be a-i-e-i) and imagine it being sung as the chorus.　Well, it works for me...

マイケル

[community.japanese]

watertommyz9255 san,
douitashimashite.
We are happy you got the tip.

マイケルさん、
Thank you for sharing your experience and tips.
I think you really reflect on your study and analyse how to study Japanese.
I think they are really useful and helpful for other learners.
Doumo arigatou gozaimashita.

Yuki 　由紀
Team JapanesePod101.com