I feel like pitch accent is one of the largest hurdles to speaking the language well. I learned a ton of vocab and 500-ish kanji before I even knew pitch accent was a thing, and now I'm putting in significant effort to re-learn large chunks of that because I internalized unnatural pronunciation
Absolutely! The details really do matter, especially as you move beyond the beginner stage. I (Clay) can totally relate. Back in the 1990s, when I started learning Japanese, all I ever heard from teachers was, "Japanese is flat." Sure, that’s decent advice to start with-but it’s far from the whole story! Like you, I still come across words I learned as a beginner, look them up, and get completely floored when I realize I’ve been pronouncing them wrong all these years! You're definitely not alone in this.
I do still say both. I usually don't pronounce Japanese loan words with the Japanese pronunciation unless I'm talking to a Japanese person. It's the same reason I say English loan words while speaking Japanese in their katakana spellings even though I could just say them normally.
It's the same issue I have when cooking with bread crumbs. If I'm thinking about it it is Pahn-ko, if I forget and revert to my hillbilly roots it is Pain-ko.
Haha. If you are speaking English, it is perfectly fine. I think considering loanwords as true words is really important for learners of Japanese when encountering katakana loanwords from English. It's easy to be lazy and not pay much attention to the actual Japanese pronunciation. I know I did that for years. But paying attention to the Japanese sounds really helped my Japanese. :)
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I feel like pitch accent is one of the largest hurdles to speaking the language well. I learned a ton of vocab and 500-ish kanji before I even knew pitch accent was a thing, and now I'm putting in significant effort to re-learn large chunks of that because I internalized unnatural pronunciation
Absolutely! The details really do matter, especially as you move beyond the beginner stage. I (Clay) can totally relate. Back in the 1990s, when I started learning Japanese, all I ever heard from teachers was, "Japanese is flat." Sure, that’s decent advice to start with-but it’s far from the whole story! Like you, I still come across words I learned as a beginner, look them up, and get completely floored when I realize I’ve been pronouncing them wrong all these years! You're definitely not alone in this.
I do still say both. I usually don't pronounce Japanese loan words with the Japanese pronunciation unless I'm talking to a Japanese person. It's the same reason I say English loan words while speaking Japanese in their katakana spellings even though I could just say them normally.
Totally agree! Except, for some reason, I have a hard time saying "karadee" for "karate" even when speaking English.
It's the same issue I have when cooking with bread crumbs. If I'm thinking about it it is Pahn-ko, if I forget and revert to my hillbilly roots it is Pain-ko.
Haha. If you are speaking English, it is perfectly fine. I think considering loanwords as true words is really important for learners of Japanese when encountering katakana loanwords from English. It's easy to be lazy and not pay much attention to the actual Japanese pronunciation. I know I did that for years. But paying attention to the Japanese sounds really helped my Japanese. :)
How do you pronounce anime?!