Japan to revise official romanization rules for first time in 70 years

Re:Japan to revise official romanization rules for first tim... by TulliusCicero on Thursday March 07, 2024 @01:48AM (#39625799)

I mean it probably helps that few, if any Japanese sounds are alien to English speakers. I've studied some Japanese, been several times, can't remember any sounds that were particularly difficult (whereas Japanese speakers definitely struggle with some English sounds, like "th" and "l").

There are intonation aspects that are hard for (native) English speakers, and the syllable speed is higher than English, but the basic sounds are straightforward to grasp.

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Re:Japan to revise official romanization rules for first tim... by lmm on Thursday March 07, 2024 @01:59AM (#39625901)

つ is an unnatural sound for at least some English speakers, and can be hard to distinguish from す. The short/long vowel distinction is also completely alien at first (e.g. people are mostly familiar with the pronunciation of Tōkyō, but the natural reading of "Tokyo" in English would be quite different, starting with a "tock" sound).

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