What makes up a English accent and a Japanese one and how to get rid of English accent in banks

Fif

Macne Nana Stan
Supporter
Defender of Defoko
So, I was wondering “What exactly makes up a English accent and what makes up a Japanese accent and how do I fix a English accent” And I know all the people of utaforum have more experience than me so here is probably the place to ask :uhuhu:
 

Kiyoteru

UtaForum power user
Supporter
Defender of Defoko
People from all over the world speak English in many different ways. Are you referring specifically to the English spoken in England? The accents there are quite diverse as well.
 

kthxsayonara

All Might is my Husband
Supporter
Defender of Defoko
as a British person I understand your troubles...
I just kept practicing a Japanese "accent"
It's not perfect, but it's much better than when I started.

Just practice, practice, practice!
 

VocAddict

The Voice Within Us
Defender of Defoko
I'm a bit confused as to what you're asking..

Accent refers to stuff like quality of voice, distinction of consonants and vowels, stress, pitch, etc and for any given language, you will encounter numerous accents due to location or social standings.

If you're asking how to "fix" (I'm thinking more mimic) your accent to sound more Japanese, it all comes down to practice. A lot of it.

Listen to how natives speak and sing and mimic that. They're numerous resources online that can help with that (I don't remember if there are any here for that other than pronunciation guides) so take advantage of those!

If that's not what you asked then I apologise; your post is a bit vague.
 

Gehenna

Ruko's Ruffians
Defender of Defoko
I don't know Japanese very well, so I can't identify all the English accents in Japanese (at least not yet), but I made a small clyp that will hopefully help you identify some.
https://clyp.it/r3hxxdhq

(exaggerated accent -> The best accent I can pull off. First 2 are paying attention to the consonants, others are vowels or y combos)
Try not to end your vowels with "w" sounds/the "wuhh" sound. If you do a little bit- you can always oto it out. Hope this helps some ;;
If you ever struggle, listen to what the others said and try mimicking how natives speak or maybe try listening to how an UTAU with a very good accent or how a VOCALOID pronounces it. Good luck, and keep practicing!!
 

sio

Ruko's Ruffians
Defender of Defoko
i'm not an english speaker myself so jp accent comes more easily to me, but english has very deep sounding vowels. try and make ur vowels sound more flat = record with a more open mouth.

and listen to jp people speak to learn their consonants, "wa" is more like a mix between u/v + a, "r" is a mix between l and d, "sh" is closer to s, "f" is more as if youre blowing out air instead of blowing through your teeth

and less emphasis on hard consonants like k, t, etc
 

Fif

Macne Nana Stan
Supporter
Defender of Defoko
Thread starter
Sorry if I wasn't clear enough but, I was wanting to get rid of any trace of a american english accent out of my banks and i want to know what makes up a american english accent and what makes up a japanese accent
 

dezzydream

cv bank enthusiast
Defender of Defoko
All you need to learn is correct pronunciation. It took a year, but my UTAU finally sounds like she's Japanese.
 

VocAddict

The Voice Within Us
Defender of Defoko
Well, getting rid of an accent is pretty hard to do once if not being immersed in the language.

As I said earlier, practice a lot. Listen to podcasts, anime, news, radio, songs. Learn the nuances of how words sound, changes in pitch, etc. Maybe talk to someone who is confident in their accent and let them critique yours, stuff like that.

I suggest getting pronunciation down. There should be a a few guides around here and Google is your friend.

I hope that answers your question.
 

Nohkara

Pronouns: He/him
Supporter
Defender of Defoko
Hiya!

I'm a multilingual person whose English is 3rd language but I try my best to answer.

I will say very straightly that completely rigging off from "foreign" accent is actually very tuff and I do think that accent is a much more complex thing than just pronunciation, it's also a "melody" of sounds, intonations... Even from foreign people who have study Japanese hard and spoken Japanese from decades or few years, I can still hear their original accent weakly while speaking (of course, these people accent is much better than those who just started learning the language but it's still there).

When I was small, I thought that in Japanese accent is perfect because everyone praised in Japan and Finland how good my Japanese accent was/is and not sounding "foreign" (I am Finnish-Japanese, my mom is Japanese). Actually, this is little true because I was like 5 years old and under when my family lived in Tokyo and my mother always talked me in Japanese every single day and watched some anime, read manga etc. But the real truth is that I have a slight Finnish accent in my Japanese, it is definitely weak but still, it is in there. I realised this when I started UTAU, recorded a Japanese VB and didn't take too long until my UTAU was labelled as "Oversea UTAU" by a Japanese UTAU community in NND plus I started to listen to natives VB and soon realized that my accent/melody was different than theirs e.g. my main UTAU Aki's "a" and "w/v" can sometimes sound more like Finnish than Japanese. Also, my Finnish VCV has also a weak Japanese accent in especially in a vowel "a", someone even came to ask me what is the "correct" pronouncing of Finnish "a" because in some samples it sounded center like in Japanese or back or very open etc... I hear from this particular person that Aki has 3 ways to say "a" (LOL). Now when I listen to it, it's actually very accurate. I didn't realize this because how used to I was my own accent XDD

Ok, my point is that don't worry about accent too much - especially if isn't your mother tongue because guess what: everyone has it! British and American sounds different, people from Tokyo sounds different than people from the countryside, from same city elder people accent can be different than a youth etc.

Good accent comes from good/correct pronunciation, a lot of speaking practicing and listening to it (music and regular talking shows). Try imitate natives say specific phrases/words/sentences aloud, listen to the tempo, how they rhythm syllables, watch lip movement etc. Getting to sound like Japanese takes a lot of time and effort, so I suggest to starting off focusing mainly on pronunciation from the beginning as getting pronouciation good is less time taking than "rigging off" from an accent. As long as you're actually trying your best with your current skills, people will be understandable and if you have done well, they can even praise you a bit even if it was little off in few parts.

As being English speaker (I assume that you are English speaker), you know plenty of vowels/consonants by default, so learning pronouncing other languages is will be less or more like alternative your current set of vowels/consonants and in general, not many new sounds to be learned from completely scratch.

VOWELS

For English speakers, I advise to watch out to not pronounce "o" as English diphone "ow" and with "a" to not making in "back" of your mouth. Japanese "a" should be pronounced more central/middle of your mouth and mouth should be more open in Japanese "a" than in English one.

CONSONANTS

- With consonants, learn to make less aspiration or not aspiration at all in k/t/p.
- Japanese "w" is not same that English "w", Japanese "w" have a little lip compressing, maybe try to think Japanese "w" to be a child between English "w" and "v"(?)
- Japanese "sh" sound, again it's not same than English "sh". If you want to know how to pronounce Japanese "sh" properly google "how to pronounce Chinese x" because Chinese "x" sound is same than Japanese "sh" and many actually great advises/resources available for Chinese x for English speakers TBH.
- Japanese "r" is basically a child between English "l" and "d". Please, don't do English "r" as sounding too "back". If you cannot do Japanese "r" right away, don't give up! Practice, practice, practice... You can pronounce Japanese "r" as English "l" as a beginner and if fact some Japanese singers R tend to sound very L-ish while singing, so that's pretty ok especially in UTAU IMO I know that some people will disagree with this opinion but to be very honest L sound is much closer than English R because where tongue is placed inside mouth.

Fun fact: Sometimes when Japanese man swears or being angry, you might hear they trill their "r" like Spanish "rr" and many Japanese think that trilling r sounds are cool and for them sounds like you're strong BUT please please PLEASE! Don't trill Japanese "r" sound by default, that sounds irritating and incorrect if all the time!

Fun fact 2: Some Japanese people incorrectly believe that English r=Spanish rr.

=====

I hope that you find this post helpful and good luck
 

Fif

Macne Nana Stan
Supporter
Defender of Defoko
Thread starter
Hiya!

I'm a multilingual person whose English is 3rd language but I try my best to answer.

I will say very straightly that completely rigging off from "foreign" accent is actually very tuff and I do think that accent is a much more complex thing than just pronunciation, it's also a "melody" of sounds, intonations... Even from foreign people who have study Japanese hard and spoken Japanese from decades or few years, I can still hear their original accent weakly while speaking (of course, these people accent is much better than those who just started learning the language but it's still there).

When I was small, I thought that in Japanese accent is perfect because everyone praised in Japan and Finland how good my Japanese accent was/is and not sounding "foreign" (I am Finnish-Japanese, my mom is Japanese). Actually, this is little true because I was like 5 years old and under when my family lived in Tokyo and my mother always talked me in Japanese every single day and watched some anime, read manga etc. But the real truth is that I have a slight Finnish accent in my Japanese, it is definitely weak but still, it is in there. I realised this when I started UTAU, recorded a Japanese VB and didn't take too long until my UTAU was labelled as "Oversea UTAU" by a Japanese UTAU community in NND plus I started to listen to natives VB and soon realized that my accent/melody was different than theirs e.g. my main UTAU Aki's "a" and "w/v" can sometimes sound more like Finnish than Japanese. Also, my Finnish VCV has also a weak Japanese accent in especially in a vowel "a", someone even came to ask me what is the "correct" pronouncing of Finnish "a" because in some samples it sounded center like in Japanese or back or very open etc... I hear from this particular person that Aki has 3 ways to say "a" (LOL). Now when I listen to it, it's actually very accurate. I didn't realize this because how used to I was my own accent XDD

Ok, my point is that don't worry about accent too much - especially if isn't your mother tongue because guess what: everyone has it! British and American sounds different, people from Tokyo sounds different than people from the countryside, from same city elder people accent can be different than a youth etc.

Good accent comes from good/correct pronunciation, a lot of speaking practicing and listening to it (music and regular talking shows). Try imitate natives say specific phrases/words/sentences aloud, listen to the tempo, how they rhythm syllables, watch lip movement etc. Getting to sound like Japanese takes a lot of time and effort, so I suggest to starting off focusing mainly on pronunciation from the beginning as getting pronouciation good is less time taking than "rigging off" from an accent. As long as you're actually trying your best with your current skills, people will be understandable and if you have done well, they can even praise you a bit even if it was little off in few parts.

As being English speaker (I assume that you are English speaker), you know plenty of vowels/consonants by default, so learning pronouncing other languages is will be less or more like alternative your current set of vowels/consonants and in general, not many new sounds to be learned from completely scratch.

VOWELS

For English speakers, I advise to watch out to not pronounce "o" as English diphone "ow" and with "a" to not making in "back" of your mouth. Japanese "a" should be pronounced more central/middle of your mouth and mouth should be more open in Japanese "a" than in English one.

CONSONANTS

- With consonants, learn to make less aspiration or not aspiration at all in k/t/p.
- Japanese "w" is not same that English "w", Japanese "w" have a little lip compressing, maybe try to think Japanese "w" to be a child between English "w" and "v"(?)
- Japanese "sh" sound, again it's not same than English "sh". If you want to know how to pronounce Japanese "sh" properly google "how to pronounce Chinese x" because Chinese "x" sound is same than Japanese "sh" and many actually great advises/resources available for Chinese x for English speakers TBH.
- Japanese "r" is basically a child between English "l" and "d". Please, don't do English "r" as sounding too "back". If you cannot do Japanese "r" right away, don't give up! Practice, practice, practice... You can pronounce Japanese "r" as English "l" as a beginner and if fact some Japanese singers R tend to sound very L-ish while singing, so that's pretty ok especially in UTAU IMO I know that some people will disagree with this opinion but to be very honest L sound is much closer than English R because where tongue is placed inside mouth.

Fun fact: Sometimes when Japanese man swears or being angry, you might hear they trill their "r" like Spanish "rr" and many Japanese think that trilling r sounds are cool and for them sounds like you're strong BUT please please PLEASE! Don't trill Japanese "r" sound by default, that sounds irritating and incorrect if all the time!

Fun fact 2: Some Japanese people incorrectly believe that English r=Spanish rr.

=====

I hope that you find this post helpful and good luck
Your answer was probably the best one, thanks!
 
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Nohkara

Pronouns: He/him
Supporter
Defender of Defoko
Your answer was probably the best one, thanks!
I forgot to mention but if want to sound more like native, research also how to say ふ(fu), つ(tsu) and ひひゃひゅひょ (hi hya hyu hyo).

fa fi fe fo are normal English f but fu is special! I mentioned hi, hya, hyu, hyo because in those sounds "h" is pronounced slightly differently than in ha, he and ho.

And last advise is to download Namine Ritsu's strong voicebank (or any native speaker's VB that pronounce consonants/vowels naturally) for listening references. Keep in mind that especially Ritsu is known to have lot of extra recordings, so look up to this resource to see what sounds you actually need for Japanese.
 

Alessandra

Ruko's Ruffians
Defender of Defoko
Well, getting rid of an accent is pretty hard to do once if not being immersed in the language.

As I said earlier, practice a lot. Listen to podcasts, anime, news, radio, songs. Learn the nuances of how words sound, changes in pitch, etc. Maybe talk to someone who is confident in their accent and let them critique yours, stuff like that.

I suggest getting pronunciation down. There should be a a few guides around here and Google is your friend.

I hope that answers your question.
For Japanese (but also when I do khaliji in Arabic), I Always learn the accent
1) Memoriging the words in a song
2) Calling a native speaker (friend)
 

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