There are so many vowels in English. We Japanese have only 5 vowels, so it is so hard for me (us?) to pronounce these English vowels correctly. Even telling the difference by hearing is difficult. Wha

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Taroh Umeno

There are so many vowels in English. We Japanese have only 5 vowels, so it is so hard for me (us?) to pronounce these English vowels correctly. Even telling the difference by hearing is difficult. What is the best way to get used to it? I think that the best way is living in another country for a long term where I must be surrounded by the English atmosphere, and it would force me to pay attention what is being said and to speak naturally. I, however, don't have enough time to live such a long term.

Corrections · 3

There are so many vowels sounds in English.*

We Japanese have only 5 five vowels sounds, so it is so hard for me (us?) to pronounce these English vowels correctly. Even telling the difference by hearing through listening is difficult. What is the best way to get used to it? I think that the best way is living in another country for a long term (period of) time where I must be am surrounded by the an English atmosphere environment,** and it would force me to pay attention to what is being said and to speak naturally. I, however, don't have enough time to live such a long term. {better="long immersion/stay"}

*We have the same vowels -- あ(a), い (i), う(u), え (e), お (o) -- and sometimes 'y', but we have long and short pronunciations of the same vowel.

**Or "...where I am surrounded by English", "...where I am immersed in English", "where I am immersed in an English environment".

Thanks for your comment. I like to watch YouTube videos ^^

Even though I can't pronounce them perfectly either (in fact, my spoken English is pretty weird), my listening skills have improved a lot just by watching various shows and other things in English. There are a lot of educational and interesting channels in general in English on YouTube which makes practicing even more fun, though I still prefer English subtitles sometimes. ^-^

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