Study the whole book, but also pay special attention to the topics outlined below. These are
common areas of difficulty for Japanese speakers of English.
Consonants
The /r/ Sound
Learn to pronounce the correct American f /r/sound by studying Chapter Three and by doing
all the /r/ exercises in Chapter Four.
When the I r I sound is at the end of the word, as in fay and computey, or before another consonant, as in dath and concelf, fapanese speakers tend not to pronounce it at all. Remember, the lrl is neuer silent in Standard American English whereas in British English it
sometimes is.
Confusing /r/ and /l/
Practice all of the r and I exercises in Chapter Four. It's very common for fapanese speakers
to confuse these two sounds. The lrl and lll sounds are particularly problematic when they
are preceded by a consonant. Make sure that "pLay" and "p1ay" and "flight" and "ftight"
sound different. Be especially careful with the lr land /l/ sounds when they are near each
other as in: garely, teally, careless, and mailroom.
Confusing lfl and lhl
The Japanese sound forf is a combination of the English lfl and l!r.l. Be especially careful
not to pronounce/z like "hu.i Compare how an American and a ]apanese person would pronounce the word Fuji. For the American lfl , make sure that your lower lip is touching your upper teeth.
Confusing /b/ and /v/
Review the exercises in Chapter Four. Remember, the lbl sound requires the lips to be completely dosed, with no air coming out, whereas the /v/ sound only involves the lower lip,
which touches the upper teeth and creates a vibrating air flow. Be particularly careful with
words that contain both a b and u or when these sounds are close together, as in
Deyerly, Noyember, uibrate, wailable, l'ae been, and yery !ig.
The /w/ Sound
Review the section on the /w/ sound in Chapter Four. Make sure that you are producing a
puff of air and that your vocal cords are vibrating as you produce this sound. Don't say "I
us," say "I gas. " Pay special attention to the rp in the middle of words and to words that begin
with qu. Remember, 4u sounds like /kw/ as in question. Don't say "/kesf + tion, " say "/lqges/ + tion."
Confusing ful and /B/
Both the /g/ sound (as in beige) and the /d5/ sound (as in orange) are voiced. The easiest way
to fix the problem of confusing these two sounds is to practice pronouncing their voiceless
pairs. First say the sh sound as in shoes and then add the vibration to the vocal cords. That
will produce the /g/ sound. Now say the ch sound as in choose. If you add vibration and
make it voiced, that produces the /S/ sound. So, if you can pronounce shoes and choose differently, you can also pronotnce mdssage (fufi and message (/fi/) differently.
The th sound
Review Chapters Three and Four to learn the correct pronunciation of this sound. A
common mistake is to substitttte a ltl or a ldl for th.