kaihathefrenchbaguette

[kaihathefrenchbaguette]

1 - Japanese pronunciation (with phonetics!)

The first thing to do when learning Japanese is to pronounce it correctly. So here we'll tackle every specificities of the Japanese language by viewing each line of the hiragana syllabary chart (no changes in the katakana one if you were asking yourself). Japanese has no exceptions (new sounds) but a character can be pronounce as another one in some cases, we'll see that in later lessons. The first line of the syllabary is "A I U E O". A is said [ä] like in "bra" for EN speakers or "patte" for FR speakers, you can find more examples on this page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_central_unrounded_vowel#Occurrence I is said [i] like in "free" (EN) or "fini" (FR). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close_front_unrounded_vowel#Occurrence U is said [ɯ] which is harder for many because it sounds like /ʊ/ (good -EN, poule -FR) but it's not the case. As wiki has no examples for the two languages I speak, I've searched elsewhere and found this video as the best one (I can hear the difference): https://youtu.be/_fLCg4gupUc Best explanation I can give you is that the /ʊ/ is made by making a circle with your lips and your teeth no touching, while the [ɯ] sound is made by making your teeth touch, that way your lips won't make a perfect circle so focus on your teeth. E is said [e̞] like in "let" (EN) but according to Wikipedia, it doesn't exist in French which seems wrong to me, because I also saw pages saying French has [e], [ɛ] and [ə] (like in "et", "ai", "le") but [e] and [ɛ] are the same thing in French, so if you speak French, an example would be "boulanger" (if you disagree, please go check how young french people write and you'll see they hear the same thing so they end up writing "et" instead of "est"). O is said [o̞] like in "body" (EN) or "beau" (FR), more examples here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid_back_rounded_vowel#Occurrence Now that you passed the first line, most of them are the same thing, phonetics aren't necessary anymore to explain the rest. On the s-line and the t-line, the "I" has some modifications: s-line -> shi し like in "chier" (FR) or "sheep" (EN) t-line -> chi ち like in "tchin tchin", just add a "t" before. z-line (s dakuten) and d-line (t dakuten) -> ji じ/ぢ like in "jean". Last thing for FR speakers is the H-line. In French, people won't pronounce the H because it is mute. So just say the basic letters and take a deep breathe at the same time. I hope that helped people with the basics of Japanese. Don't hesitate to comment so I can explain if you ever have trouble.