I stole these from Satomi’s Facebook page today. I thought they were worth posting somewhere that they won’t scroll down as fast in case I want to find them later. What do you think? Does this help you understand why Japanese people can tend to have a bit of an accent when speaking English as a Second Langauge?

Satomi on pronouncing “R” & “L”

Ret me exprain to you native Engrish speakers why someone rike me gets confused between “l” and “r”.

1. There is no sound in my ranguage exactry rike “l” or “r”
2.  There aren’t sepalate files in my blain to store those 2 letters
3. When I learn a word with either retters I put them in one file.
4. When I lemember these words, I get confused which retters to use.

By the way, did you notice that I did NOT switch these retters in some words? Those retters do not have vowels light after. They are fine for me!

Satomi on Consonants

Leto me exuplain to you nativeu Engulishu supeakersu.
Why someone likeu me hasu hardo timeu puronounceu wordsu likeu “sleep”.

1. My language doesu noto haveu wordsu thato jumpusu furomu consonantsu to consonantsu.
2. So, I tendu to addu vowelusu betuween.
3. Even after learning that, some combinations are very hard like “r +l”, “s+l”, “t+l” etc.
4. Simpulu sentences can be tongue twisuter for me.

Notice I did not add vowels after “n”. That is the only consonant that my language uses on its own!