Japanese Phonetics #1: Introduction to Japanese Phonetics (Pitch-accent and Pronunciation) 

Coming here after I lost marks for pronunciation for "sounding like a samurai" in a speaking task.

I agree with the vast majority of the video, but if you don't think you can make a delicious steak with only salt and pepper as seasonings, come to Nagoya and let me cook you a steak.

英語上手ですね

Expanding brain meme Small brain: pronouncing it 学生 Galaxy brain: pronouncing it 学生

I think I've listened to you speak Japanese for so long that when RU-vid showed me this series I was surprised to actually hear your English voice.

Unlike Chinese and Vietnamese, There is no pitch accent and intonation “mark” in Japanese. However,Japanese exactly has intonation. I’m Japanese, but until I learn foreign language, I didn’t realize Japanese has it,

This us great stuff! I've been studying Japanese for near,y 30 years and Dogen is the tops when it comes to pitch and accent

I actually came across this video of your's after watching your comedy. This was brilliantly explained and presented better than most university professors I have been instructed under. I do recall some lower level books like the Genki Series, and some more university-based texts, having vague mentionings about little markers for intonation but no one teaches typical patterns to follow. You should definitely consider at least putting out a book/ebook for Japanese language learning. It would be quite fun for even advanced learners to read something that has some comedic references in it as well!

I was just thinking of how flooded we are of "Learn Japanese" material, when there's few things like this. My fondness continues to grow.

Interestingly, the first Japanese textbook I ever read, Japanese For Today (1973) briefly mentioned five different patterns of pitch accents, but other than that I've hardly ever encountered anything else mentioning them at all, let alone their importance. An Introduction to Japanese Syntax, Grammar, & Language by Michiel Kamermans does briefly mention pitch accents. However, there is no mention in Genki, Kakehashi, An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese, Japanese for Busy People, Japanese From Zero, A Dictionary of Japanese Grammar, Tae Kim's Guide to Japanese Grammar, nor Remembering the Kanji. Apart from not wanting to discourage students by burdening them with the task of learning pitch accents on top of all the other seemingly intimidating aspects of Japanese to learn, I suppose it would make sense for books whose sole focus is on written language not to include information either. I do agree that it should be something to be aware of, as the difference is noticeably better.

Here's also something important: listen. I've been learning to better my English pronunciation for a couple of years, and I've learned to hear a lot of stuff that doesn't exist in my native language, and it has helped me pronounce English better a lot. For example, only a couple years ago I realized that "th" in some words is actually /ð/ and not /θ/, and I was like oh god how am I ever gonna memorize where it's this and where it's the other. But then I learned to hear it, and quite quickly got a very wide grasp on it.

日本人なのに彼英語うまいですね

Who's this weirdo, I want the guy with the beanie back

This was really interesting! Applying the heiban pattern to "dictionary" and mapping that back to "gakusei" was kind of awesome!

Was already subscribed to Dogen and then a Japanese course I'm taking linked this video as extension work. Quality content Dogen!

Hey Dogen, I watched your Japanese phonetics series on patreon around 4-5 years ago. Just wanted to come back and thank you for being a great teacher. My pronunciation wouldn't be where it is now if I hadn't watched your series at the beginning of my Japanese learning journey.

This is what I needed from the beginning. It was never really emphasised, and I felt that I never progressed. I'm glad I found you. I'm starting with episode 1 now. Here we go...

wow, this is awesome. the visual pitch accent is really helpful. thank you.

Recently found your channel, and I've had laughed at almost every video! One thing though; for newcomers it would be really helpful if this series was made into a playlist on the channel.

I'm a little amazed by how much pitch accent I got just by mimicking bc in my first 7 years of study no English speaking teachers even mentioned this, but I spent two years in the country. This is going to help so much. Thank you!

7 years later, Dogen is still the GOAT of pitch accent. Thanks man. I'm taking a conversation class this summer and I have no doubt your videos are going to be extremely helpful.

Dogen, this series sounds absolutely fascinating! You're a great teacher. I can't wait for the next episode.

SUPER excited about this-- very clever with the intonation visual mapping you used. ナイッス！

I'm really looking forward to the series. I have always been amazed by your pronunciation and intonation. I haven't had the time to do a linguistics class yet, so learning it has been put on the back burner.

Looking forward to this series. Thank you!!!

Very excited for this series

Oh my god! Thank you so much for this! I'm currently studying to be a voice actress in japan and this is just what I need! I've been actively trying to correct my accent and intonation but it's not easy XD I've been told that I can speak well for day to day conversation, and it normally take a few sentences for people to notice that i'm not a native speaker but it doesn't cut it for voice acting! So thank you for this!

Now over 60 episodes later. This is going to help me grow. I am going to go study this every day when I start getting into the lessons.

Wooooaaaaahh!!! I'm so very excited. I have been speaking Japanese for 15 years and this is totally new to me. So excited that my pronunciation will become more native-like. Thank you thank you 1,000 times!!

I really look forward to this series! I've been aware for a while that I have an accent but like you said I'm unable to know exactly why that is. This information is exactly what I need

New from tiktok where I stumbled on your video. Please keep making tiktok videos. I’ve been studying Japanese a long time and I think you have such a amazing engaging way of presenting information. I’m about to binge your RU-vid videos

Really looking forward to this!

I was happy I could tell which “ore” was correct! I will definitely have to study pitch accent from now on! Thanks for the info!

That's something cool you've got going on. I look forward to your videos!

Dogen... I love you! You're amazing!

Thank you a lot for your videos, so far ! I watch your channel daily as I want to be able to speak Japanese like a native or, at the very least, as much and as good as I'm talking in English (I'm a native French). I really think your tone and accent is almost perfect and it feels super nice to listen to you. Besides, your videos are very funny and it makes a great entertainment while getting used to Japanese sounds vocabulary. Thank you for your hard and high-quality work !

教えるはありがとう！ドゲンさんの動画を一番好き！

Pitch accent has got to be the most difficult thing when it comes to learning Japanese. I'm really excited to see a series on youtube about it!

Man, I’m so glad a friend of mine told me about your chanel. I’m a first year Japanese Studies student and was quite worried about if my accent wouldn’t be too foreign, so findingg this is a great relief. Keep up the great work!

I just discovered your channel and I'm honestly in awe. I only really use native resources for my Japanese these days, but I think for the first time in a long long time I've discovered a non-native Japanese speaker who I can look up to as a kind of model or inspiration for my own Japanese acquisition. Brilliant videos; so glad to have stumbled upon them. Intonation is something I've been interested in a lot lately too. Thank you!

Thank you very much for this series. I have been watching your comedy sketches for some time now, and am very excited to follow this course. Thanks again!

Dogen you are amazing!!!

How comprehensive; I love it. Thanks.

Great lesson!

This video deserves WAY more views

I've been waiting for this series :DDD I'm so excited!

Looking forward to the following lessons!

I've never done any patreoning before (yes, I just made that word up) and having been obsessive about pronunciation learning a language before (Thai), despite being low level in Japanese, I want to really be nailing each word. I was already debating joining your patreon, then I saw that video of the Japanese guy nitpicking your pronunciation, and I was like, ok, I'm sold. お願いします、どうぎん先生。

This is excellent! I'm really excited to see more of these lessons. I didn't know pitch-accent could be systematic, I thought it was one of those learn-it-per-word things. I'll be recommending this to my friends who are going out and studying in Japan from now.

I'm really glad you're doing this series. I've been learning Japanese for quite a while now but I've only recently got around to learning intonation. It's kind of confusing me though to be honest, so it's nice to find a series on it from someone who really knows what they're talking about.

can't wait for the next one!

Nice video serie. I'm looking forward to it!

確かにドーゲンさんのアクセントはめっちゃ日本人のアクセントに近い。

Thank you so much for this. It fills the exact hole I was noticing between all the various texts and apps I use otherwise to study Japanese.

Neat! Definitely going to be a handy guide for a lot of people. Maybe a little too many cuts in the editing, but I understand the need to keep the time down a bit. Looking forward to seeing some later episodes!

Great stuff, can't wait to see the rest. You just may be the first person I get around to supporting on Patreon (hopefully I remember to make my rounds for some of the other great content creators haha).

Great lesson plan.give us the tools to teach ourselves wish schools did that.

I've never really even understood the diagrams until I suddenly got it with the dictionary example. I am so hyped for this series now!

Thank you for doing this. I had a Japanese opera singer coming to our university and offer us a phonetics course that I attended for 1 year but to have something to watch over and over again is going to help so much, since I don't have any phonetic course anymore. Really looking forward to this.

Man, first Yuta and now this. I'm glad I've been able to find material teaching phonetics, as I've had basic pronunciation down alright, but wanted to see what I was missing in terms of accent and speech patterns

I am so glad you have that condenser mic

Just what I needed.

Although I haven't done much active study of pitch accent, I was fortunate to come across a webpage about it early in my studies when I was a teenager. Even though I wasn't studying it, it was in my sphere of awareness, and so I think perhaps my ability to hear and mimic it has improved more over the years than it would have otherwise.

Great video! Also I liked your chiptune music usage. Subscribed!

After seeing this, I think that I actually need this. I can't wait to get economically independent to start studying properly and support you in patreon as well

I can't remember how I initially found your channel, but I remember starting to watch videos ever since I saw one being linked on reddit. Kinda surprised that you didn't have a Patreon page, but glad to see it's up now!

darn you have some catchy bgm! Looking forward to your videos

Gah, thank you! This is so useful, I've been struggling to find good content on this topic. Just subbed :) cheers!

Wow, really looking forward to this series. Hope I can improve my pronunciation that way. Thanks for your continuous effort. :)

Fantastic, thanks Dogen! It's hard to find phonetics guidance with Japanese. As you know it's usually just picked up through experience, which is why I always recommend my classmates try to listen to or watch native media, which is surprisingly often overlooked or dismissed. I consume a lot of Japanese media so my passive phonetics ability is alright, but I do really need an actual active understanding like you are providing. Thank you!

This is gold man... you are creating something unique. Thanks so much.

The problem with wearing the same thing everyday is we definatly notice when you dont lol

Until I stumbled upon your videos, I had no idea Japanese had pitch accents. So, I was very grateful your channel exists. ;)

This is amazing. Thank you so much. Pitch accent is almost never discussed, even in formal settings. The first person who pointed it out to me was my ex gf, who was a native bilingual speaker (and musician with perfect pitch). Looking forward to going through this whole series! 👍👍 👍

Wow, after hearing your pronunciation I realise just how much is missing from mine. I have to say it's been eye opening, and I definitely want to follow the series now.

Looking forward to more of these!!

That's the kind of lesson I never knew that I wanted or needed them. Seriously this series is so much better and interesting than anything else from the Japanese learning channels. I mean they make so many videos about very basic grammar or other things, which one could answer them selves, if they'd just hit the textbooks or pay attention in classes... Anyway, I really like your videos, as they are funny, entertaining, interesting etc, (I need more adjectives in my english vocabulary...) and I hope I can motivate myself to get a PayPal account to be able to support you. ^^

your english is very good!

yo i straight up didn't recognise you in the thumbnail for a second haha. In all seriousness I'm really looking forward to this series, pitch accents and phonetics as a whole is something I've been putting off. I can see this being helpful for many people. Keep up the great work

I'm unbelievably excited for this. My main interest when learning a language is forming a nice intonation, but I hit a plateau because I didn't really know where to look for resources. I'd like to pursue narration as some sort of hobby in the future, so I really appreciate these videos! This is my first time commenting, by the way, but all your other videos are also excellent :)

So far so good--sounds like a very well thought out and comprehensive plan. I've never really thought that much about pitch accent (because immersion), but I think it's an excellent idea for Japanese learners who are abroad. これからも頑張って下さい。次のビデオを楽しみにしています。

Thanks a lot! This topic is really not covered no by textbooks neither by internet resources. All I was doing just relying on my pitch )) looking forward!

You are highly skilled my friend

First time I'm supporting someone on Patreon and I probably would have done it also if there hadn't been an incentive, albeit not that much. That being said I'm really looking forward to this series a lot. My wife (Japanese) corrects my intonation a lot but since she is a native, she does know when something doesn't sound right, but she doesn't know why.

Great first episode. Seems like it's going to be very useful. I'm barely N4 in level, but hopefully if I start thinking more actively about pitch and intonation while I learn the intermediate stuff it won't be so much of a problem when I reach a more advanced level. Also, your use of both the English and Japanese languages is truly impressive. Keep up the great work.

Great video. It almost encouraged me to get off RU-vid and study :P Congrats on the Patreon support too; you definitely deserve it.

Now you have reached a whole new level! :')

I've yet to reach the level/be ready to speak Japanese but since finding your channel I hope someday I could be something else than 日本語上手

I've heard so many stories of my senior's working overbroad, the number one problem with the people that work overbroad is not to speak Japanese properly those producing miscommunication and some unprofessional work ethics and some even got harassed by their own boss That's why i want to improve my Japanese to "minimize" those incident that might occur in my future working overbroad

Awesome! Looking forward to it ^^

Never before have I even heard someone acknowledge the importance of pitch accents on RU-vid. I am so excited to learn from someone so intelligent and articulate.

I am def looking foward to this!! i gotta reach your level and i must do it (relative) NAO

very cool! I'm looking forward to this, I have yet to encounter a useful phonetics module or course in my Japanese studies. (Also I didn't know you studied at Keio?) I hope this series is a hit! よろしくお願いします

Wow!!!! No beanie -perfect dogen Sensei!! Thank you!!!! Sorry just seeing these videos!

聞き取りやすくて逆に英語の勉強になる笑

hey, great videos! it would be super helpful if your channel had playlists to help folks line up video by lesson type. keep it up!

Thank you much for this video. This helps a lot not only with the Japanese accent I've been trying to master since I saw your video, but with also Igbo, my native language, that I've been trying to learn. Since Igbo is a tonal language I've had to learn to change tone and find the difference. For example the word "ike"(pronounced like it would be in Japanese) can mean one of two things. "Ikē" which mean "Pond" and "Iké which means "Anus". So yeah pitch is really important, but this video really help me understand the difference better. So again thank you.

Yessss, this is always want I wanted! Subscribed! The first few years studying Japanese I came across some pitch lessons, but each time they were missing something. The one or two videos were missing visuals to confirm the differences, the pdfs I somehow found were missing audio so I could only guess, and everything was missing how to apply that knowledge to new words! Or even why certain words have certain pitches. My Japanese teacher in college one day randomly decided to explain how 兄 and 姉 have different pitches, but never touched on it again! In total it's been over a decade and I still have no idea about Japanese pitch. Even with Spanish, the stress and accents are easy to learn once you know the system, but not with Japanese. :'D So many times I thought, "Is Japanese pitch stress? Can I say it like stress?" I know it's not, but I was never given a solid system to work with to understand the difference between pitch and stress... Anyway, by some miracle of trying to look up "ryuukuu ben" which is misspelled I came across a website that had one of your videos up for download. Not only did I not immediately click off and decide to watch it, but after watching it I was interested enough to see more so looked up your channel! The internet is weird sometimes. @▽@

This is absolutely critical. Intonation is fundamental to Japanese. I look forward to working through these. I will take a look at your patreon

何だドウゲンさんは天才です。😲