哈囉，大家好！I’m Grace.
Today we’re going to talk about the Japanese Mandarin accent.
In this video, I’ll introduce some common features of
Japanese people speaking Mandarin,
and if you’re a Japanese person who is learning Mandarin,
I’m sure this video would be super helpful for you
if you want to improve your pronunciation!
好，那我們現在就開始吧！ OK, now let’s get started!
When learning a second language,
we often have trouble with sounds
that don't exist in our own native language,
so we might just use similar sounds
that exist in our native tongue to replace them.
This is one of the main reasons why many of us carry a foreign accent
when we speak our target language.
Just like I still have a Taiwanese accent when I speak English.
OK, now let’s talk about some common features
of the Japanese Mandarin accent.
The first one is
Using the consonant of “ふ fu” to pronounce Mandarin “f ㄈ”
In Japanese, the “f” sound doesn’t exist,
so they often use the consonant of “ふ fu” to replace the “f” sound
when speaking Mandarin.
The consonant of “ふ fu” is pronounced by using your two lips
as if you’re blowing out the flame of a candle.
However, in Mandarin, the way to pronounce “f ㄈ” is
by using your lower lip and your top front teeth.
So for instance, Japanese people might pronounce “很方便” as “很方便”.
Let’s see some other examples:
The second feature is
pronouncing “zhi chi shi ㄓ ㄔ ㄕ” similar to “ji qi xi ㄐ ㄑ ㄒ” in Mandarin
In Japanese, “zhi chi shi” don’t exist, so while speaking Mandarin,
they might use some similar sounds in Japanese
like “じ ち し” to replace these Mandarin sounds.
For example,
The next one is
pronouncing “r ㄖ” similar to “l ㄌ” in Mandarin
Because in Japanese, there is no Mandarin “r ㄖ” sound
they use the “r”（ら行） sound in Japanese to replace it.
And it sounds like “l ㄌ” in Mandarin.
you may hear “日本人” pronounced like “日本人”.
Let’s see some more examples:
If you want to know how to correctly pronounce
the “zh ch sh r ㄓ ㄔ ㄕ ㄖ” sound in Mandarin,
I’ve made a video about them,
you can click here or find the link in the description below.
The fourth feature is
Pronouncing “p t k q ch c ㄆ ㄊ ㄎ ㄑ ㄔ ㄘ”
similar to “b d g j zh z ㄅ ㄉ ㄍ ㄐ ㄓ ㄗ”
Now you might be wondering why they pronounce so many sounds differently,
Actually, there is a pattern here.
The difference between these two groups of sounds is that
one has a stronger airflow going out of your mouth
when producing the sounds, while the other one does not.
In case you haven’t watched my pronunciation training videos.
Let me reclarify one concept:
But in Japanese, they don’t differentiate meanings by
whether sounds are aspirated.
So sometimes when Japanese people pronounce the sounds in the first group,
they don’t exhale enough and thus “p ㄆ” sounds like “b ㄅ”,
“t ㄊ” sounds like “d ㄉ”,
“k ㄎ” sounds like “g ㄍ”,
“q ㄑ” sounds like “j ㄐ”,
“ch ㄔ” sounds like “zh ㄓ”,
The last one about consonants is
Mixing up “-n” and “-ng”
Such as mixing up Chinese finals “en ㄣ” and “eng ㄥ”,
“in ㄧㄣ” and “ing ㄧㄥ”
“an ㄢ” and “ang ㄤ”.
The difference between “-n” and “-ng” is that
one is a front nasal sound and the other one is a back nasal sound,
so to pronounce the first one “-n”,
you need to raise the tip of your tongue to the alveolar ridge
behind your upper front teeth and let the air pass through your nose.
The other one “-ng” is produced by
raising the back of your tongue close to the roof of your mouth
and also let the air pass through your nose.
Actually mixing up these two sounds is quite common
among students learning Mandarin from all over the world
and even among native Mandarin speakers.
If you want to practice pronouncing these two sounds,
I’ve made a video for you! You can click here
or find the link in the description below.
OK, now let’s take a look at some vowel features
in the Japanese Mandarin accent:
Number one is
pronouncing “u” in Mandarin with unrounded lips
In Japanese, the “u” sound is pronounced with unrounded lips.
However, to pronounce “u” in Mandarin,
you need to round your lips
and raise the back of your tongue close to the roof of your mouth.
Let’s see some examples of this feature of Japanese accent:
Number two is
Not opening the mouth wide enough for the Mandarin “a” sound
I’ve heard that in Japan, speaking with your mouth opening too wide is impolite.
I’m not sure whether this is true,
so if you’re Japanese,
please let me know your thoughts in the comments.
As I was saying, when pronouncing the Mandarin “a” sound,
Japanese people often don’t open their mouths wide enough,
so it ends up sounding differently.
Number three is
Skipping the medials（介音） “i u ü”.
In Mandarin, “i u ü” can be medials
and are put in the middle of an initial consonant and a vowel.
One of the features of the Japanese Mandarin accent is that
sometimes they leave out “i u ü” these medials.
Here are some examples:
OK, that’s all the features I wanted to talk about today!
If you liked the content of today's video,
and would like me to analyze any other Mandarin accents,
please let me know in the comments!
Also, if you want to learn some daily expressions in Mandarin,
check out my Instagram: @GraceMandarin
好啦，如果你喜歡今天的影片， OK, if you liked today’s video,
記得幫我按讚、訂閱和分享喔！ Remember to like, subscribe, and share!
那我們下次見囉！拜拜！ I’ll see you next time! Bye!