 Minasan konnichiwa. Hello. I'm your host, God Perry, and this is Let's Talk Hawaii, live from Honolulu. This is a program about pronunciation, communication, and interesting things in Hawaii. You can see me here every other week at 3 p.m. Today's topic is, Reading English is Bad for Your Pronunciation. Yes, I'll repeat that. Reading English is bad for your pronunciation. It's true. Over my 30-year career teaching pronunciation, I've discovered many odd things about pronunciation and trying to improve my student's ability. And one of the things I've noticed is that when students are reading English, it is basically, actually my students from Japan, when they are reading English, it is basically like reading their mother language or katakana English. So as a result, their pronunciation sounds like their original language. Basically, it's kind of like saying, 今までは, you've seen the color red, and you've always said red, but when you come to America, you have to call it yellow. And that's very strange, but in America it's called yellow, in Japan it's called red. Basically, the sounds are different. And to suddenly have to speak yellow when you see red, it's a little bit confusing. It took me many years to figure this out, but what I found was that if you rewrite the words based on sound, you have a better chance of speaking clearly. Now, the problem is not being able to speak the same thing over and over and over. You're not able to get the repetition. Repetition is what helps people improve their natural speaking ability. So if you're always making small mistakes as you're speaking, you're really not improving. So having a method to continually say the proper sound allows you to improve by repetition. 正しい正しく英語できたら becomes a habit. 新しくてができます。 今までは1回目正しい2回目 間違い3回目これが正しいそれが間違ってる。 で4回目は半分ok. そしたら上達できないですね. Always you're a little bit confused. So I've developed a way to help my students improve naturally. 私が長い間頑張りましたけどやっぱり最後にこの techniqueができました。 これは helps my students to improve over time. Now, today I have a special guest. Her name is Yu Nakamura and she's going to visit us live from Tokyo, Japan. Yu is a businesswoman in Tokyo, Japan working for an international company and you need to use English or work on a regular basis. She has taken my private lessons years ago but wants to improve her speaking. ゆうさんは日本の日本にいるのビジネス女なんですけど。 彼女は国際ビジネスやってます。 毎日よく英語を使わなきゃいけない。 ずっと前は彼女は僕の生徒なんですけど。 今、出したいんです。 She wants to review and improve. And today I'm going to explain how she can speak new words, new concepts better. So, without any more waiting, I would like to introduce Yu Nakamura. Hi Yu, how are you doing? I'm good, how are you? I'm doing fine and thanks for joining us on ThinkTek Hawaii. And your first time on my show so I'd like to welcome you. How is the weather in Japan right now? 日本の天気はそうですね。最近結構暑くなってきていて、あとは日曜日ですね。 暑くなりましたですよね。 And what temperature is it right now? 今、どうでしょう。30度近い日も結構多いです。 I see, so it's about 30 degrees. In English, I think that translates to maybe, I mean in Fahrenheit, I think that translates to close to 80 something. That's pretty hot. So how do you stay warm? I mean, how do you stay cool when it's so warm? 暑い時間帯を避けたり。 I see, so I know you were living in America at one time. When was that? 十年以上前になりますね。十分前ですよね。 That's right. 何のために来ましたか? Why did you come here? えっと、一応学医取得を目指して行って、最初は小学学校EASLから入って、大学に入ってという感じでした。 っていうことは、I know you were my student, but I never got to ask you these kinds of questions. こういう生徒だったりでしたけど、こういう質問は聞いたことないよね。このチャンスがなかった。 Where were you in New York, California, Texas? エースエルの時はカリフォリニアに行って、そのあとにウィスコンシーン州にトランスしました。 When you first came here, what was the most difficult for you? 初めて来た時は、本当に英語が何もできない状態でアメリカに行ってしまったので、何もかもがチャレンジでしたね。 でも、一番大変だったのは何でしょう。自分の頭で構築した英語を自分の言葉で話すということが、覚えたフレーズじゃなくて自分で考えた言葉を自分の言葉にして英語で話すということが一番難しかったなと思います。 So, figuring out what English to use. 来る前にはどういうふうに英語を勉強しましたか? How did you learn English before you came here? 来る前、日本に行った時ということですよね。 Before you came to Japan. アメリカ来る前に、日本の時にどうやって英語を勉強しましたか? Before you came to America. How did you learn English? えっと、多分典型的な日本人の英語学習だと思うんですけれども、私の場合は、文法はやっぱり覚えないとできないところもあったので、文法をきちんとやることと、あとは私は音読が好きだったんですね。 なので、教科書を声に出して読むって言うことを勉強してやっていました。 That's why I studied English. なるほど。いつごろ英語に興味ができた、中学校で勉強するとかみんなしなきゃいけないんですけど、いつごろ英語に興味ができた、中学校で勉強するとかみんなしなきゃいけないんですけど、 それから興味ができたか、なんですずこうと思いましたか? What did you want to continue? リズネスのためすると、工人のためですか? For the sake of the business, for the sake of the workers? 英語に興味は、実はかなり昔から持ってはいたんですけど、中学校校でちょっと苦手意識を持ってしまっていて、 オーラルのクラスっていう、こういう読み書きだけじゃなくて話すクラスもあったんですけど、 それで全然できなくて、でもできるようになりたいっていう気持ちの中ででしたね。 なるほど。じゃあ家族の中は他の人は英語できますか? Does anyone else speak English in your family? 私の姉が英語とフランス語を話せます。 My older sister speaks English and French. 本宿もテレブ? But that's not your idea, is it? え? So what are you doing in Japan now? 仕事は日本に帰ってきてからはずっと貿易関係の仕事をしていて、 今もう輸出や輸入に関する国際ビリネスの仕事をさせていただいています。 じゃあ貿易で何かいつも他の国と電話とか、という話するんでしょうね。 Your pronunciation now is much better when I first met you. We studied a lot, but what are your plans for the future? 今のプランとこれからの予定は何でしょうか? What are your plans for the future? 英語に関してですか? 英語に関しては、やっぱり自分らしさを出せる英語を話せるようになりたいと思います。 誰かが言った言葉を真似するとか覚えた言葉を言うではなくて、自分の思いや意見をきちんと自分らしく伝えられるような英語を話せるようになりたいと思っています。 間違いないと思いますけど、やっぱり英語できるからそのインターナションの仕事ができますよね。 そうだ、英語できなかったら if you couldn't speak, you probably couldn't do your job, is that correct? I think so. Right now, what is the most challenging part? 前よりかけの時から you've improved a lot. What's challenging now? 今何が一番難しいところですか? はい、一番難しいのは、ある程度コミュニケーションが取れるようになったりとか自分の意見を言えるようになったり、あるいは発音に関しても伝わるレベルになった後にそれよりも さらにアドバンスなレベルになっていくっていう部分がすごく難しいなって思います。 始めたばっかりの頃は、インターミリエットまではいけるんですけど、そこから上のレベルアップが壁が高いなと感じています。 2. Master English or at least one part of English. Are you ready for that? Yes. OK, so we're going to be coming up on a break but not yet, but at that time we're going to take a short break. Then I'm going to come back and go over some of these points for you, OK? So before we begin, do you have a pen and a piece of paper to write with? Yes. OK, great. Now, this is a strange concept. When I told you the concept, what did you think? Reading English is bad for your pronunciation. Reading English is bad for your pronunciation. I've been studying English in my high school and junior high school for a long time. I see. So a lot of people in Japan, they hear the English and then they copy it or they read it. But as I was saying before, when you are looking at the written English words, it's basically you are reading your own country's language. So it's just been taught to you that way. It's hard to break the habit, so changing the look is an easier way to master English. Now, I'm going to show you a couple of examples of some strange words. Well, they're regular words, but they will look strange. At this point, we're going to take a short break and we'll be right back right after this. Aloha. I'm Jane Sugimura, our host here at Think Tech Hawaii, a digital media company serving the people of Hawaii. We provide a video platform for citizen journalists to raise public awareness in Hawaii. We are a Hawaii nonprofit that depends on the generosity of its supporters to keep on going. We'd be grateful if you'd go to ThinkTechHawaii.com and make a donation to support us now. Thank you so much. Aloha. I'm Gwen Harris, the host here at Think Tech Hawaii, a digital media company serving the people of Hawaii. We provide a video platform for citizen journalists to raise public awareness in Hawaii. We are a Hawaii nonprofit that depends on the generosity of the supporters to keep on going. We'd be grateful if you'd go to ThinkTechHawaii.com and make a donation to support us now. Thanks so much. Welcome back to Let's Talk Hawaii. I'm here again with Yu Nakamura live from Japan and I am live from Honolulu. So we're back and I'm going to start teaching a little bit about this strange concept of not reading American English or to improve your pronunciation. Now, not reading Yori, not reading the dictionary version of English. Now, the dictionary version of English is the way it is written, the way it is grammatically put on the paper, but it only sounds a certain way for American people. British people say everything differently. Irish people say it all differently. Japanese people learn it and say it differently. So in order to copy another country's style, it's helpful to rewrite it so that you can say the sounds of English. So right now I'm going to put up a sample of some couple words. As you can see, on the far right, we have dog, fish and breakfast. Now, these are very simple words, but they're actually a little bit challenging for Japanese students. Now, on the left side, we have Nihon no styro. It is spoken like dog. So when the teacher in junior high stood in front of the board, they wrote DOG on the board. That's the same thing that my teacher wrote on the board. But when my teacher spoke the words, they said DOG, DOG. In Japan, the teacher most likely said DOG, DOG. So the vowels are different, the parts are different. It's just a different word basically. DOG, DOG. They're very different. Now, if you are an American person and you want to copy Japanese sound, it's not so easy to look at DOG and say DOG. It's much easier to look at DOGU and say DOG. Now, in the middle column, we have a better way for writing that word DOG, which is helpful to a Japanese person. Now, it's not the only way, and often I will have to rewrite it based on the person's style. Someone might want to say DAG, I would change it, or DOG, I would change it again. I would rewrite it until they said DOG. Whatever those letters were, those were the letters I keep. So, this DAHG is not just this, there are different styles depending on the student. DAHGG is fine, and the point is DOG. The reason is that it's a problem. DO, DO, DO. How is the Japanese word? Yu-san, can you say Japanese English and the American English version? I'm going to keep this on the screen and you can keep talking. DOG, fish. American English, DOG, DAG. DAG. Japanese too. DOG. American English? DAG. Very good. So, as you can see, it's very difficult to say DOG when you see DAHG. And if you can read that sentence like, my dog, that dog, you're always going to get it right. And that tatashi repeating the tatashi sound will help you create a new habit. So when you see the dictionary word, your brain can think of two sounds. It's not incorrect, it's just Japanese. Versus the American sound, DOG. Let's look at the next one. Nihongo ego de wa e fishu. If I want to teach an American junior high school kid how to say Japanese English sound of fish, I would write F-U-E-E-S-H-U, fishu. Can you repeat that for me, Yu-san? Japanese version? Yes, Japanese version. Fishu. Okay, fishu. The American version, right? Fish. Good. So as you can see the middle, fish, the problem is letter I. That's a very big problem for a Japanese speaker. It's a big problem for a Japanese speaker. If you look at the letter I, you can only say E in Japanese. So there's no letter E. So you have to remember that. About 90% of the letters are A. I is most of the time it is A, not the E sound. ING, it will be E, but usually it is A. That's an E, but most of the time it's E. That means fish. Now, if you rewrite the word F-E-S, F-E-H, and then sh, you can easily not make the common mistake. Now, another big problem is the word asagohan. In English, it's breakfast. In Japanese, it's breakfast. Yu-san, can you say that one? Breakfast. That's the way it looks on paper. If I'm not American, I look at that word, I'm going to say breakfast, because that's what it looks like. But the truth is, we say breakfast. So breakfast. Can you see it in the middle? Breakfast. Another point is, I put the period there to make people see it's two things. It's not one. It's two things together. Breakfast. If you do that, it sounds a little more clear. More clear. Dog, fish, breakfast. Yu-san, can you say those for me? Dog. Dog. Dog. Fish. Breakfast. Very good. Now, that's basically a sample of what these words look like. I'm going to go to another slide, and we're going to see practical use. Okay, we're going to go to slide number one. Yes, good. This fish is very big. My cat is asleep because it should be it's. It's hot. My cat is asleep because it's hot. And my cousin's wedding was in October. Yu-san, that says it, but it should say it's. Can you put the S there for me? Could you read those three sentences for me? This fish is very big. Very good, correct. My cat is asleep because it's hot. Good. It's hot. My cousin's wedding was in October. Very good. Now, these are very basic English sentences, but these are challenging words for Japanese students. The vowels. So, of course, there's other smaller problem areas such as EH and V, mouth movements, and so on. The other big problem is the I-word. This fish is very big. That's how people were taught, and it's hard to break that sound habit. So, rewriting it will help everyone improve that sound. My cat is asleep because it's hot. My cat is asleep because it's hot. My cousin's wedding was in October. Now, those are the way you learned, and it's hard to change the sound when you can see only the dictionary version. So, how's my Japanese English? Pretty good? Yes. We're going to go to the correction slide, and I'm going to review that. Okay, now as you can see, everything has changed. Well, the important things have changed. The problem areas. The problem areas have changed. For example, F-I-S-H-E-H-E-S-T-E-S. The problem with the I-S is in Japanese. It's easy to understand when you write the I-S. It's not very, it's not B. So, if you write a big V, it's easier to help you see the V and not say B. Very. The I-word is always going to be something to focus on. If you write an I-word, you have to focus on it. It's a dangerous sound. Big, big, big, big. B-E-H-G, easy to see that. And the last of the middle sentence, my cat. Is, sleep, because. Because, because. Easier to understand. It's, E-H. It's, Hot. It's hard. It's hard. Can you read the first two sentences again please? The fish is very big. Cat is sleep because it's hot. Right. And the last one I'm gonna read. My cousin's wedding was in October. So this is just a little bit, but I think it's very helpful. And I've used this technique to help many people become surprisingly good just like yourself. And we're going to wrap up today. And I want to thank everybody for watching. And again, like I said, you can see me every other week here on Think Tech Hawaii. And this is Let's Talk Hawaii. Thank you again for your time. See you next time.