Name: Why do Japanese mix up "L" and "R"?
Uploaded: 2020-03-19T20:30:21.000Z
Duration: 7 min 50 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

So apparently that's the stereotype how Asian people pronounce L and R sound

But like Japanese people don't really speak like that

Although we do have problems telling the difference between L and R sounds, right?

Japanese has "ra ri ru re ro" as sounds which are Romanized as R's.

Which is why we say ramen in English. R-A-M-E-N.

And kind of like a D in there a little bit sometimes too.

Yeah, like when we pronounce "ra re ru re ro," the tip of your tongue touches the back of your higher teeth. So higher teeth and lower teeth--your tongue touches here.

So it's pronounced more like an L but it kind of sounds closer to an R for us.

So that's why when Japanese people hear the English L and R, it's hard for them to differentiate between the two because their sounds are like right in the middle.

So if there's a word that Japanese people don't know, and they can tell that there's either an R or L there, then they're usually guessing whichever one they think it might be.

(Because we can't tell) Which could be wrong.

So, if a Japanese person is speaking English, then their R can turn into an L or their L can turn into an R.

It can go either way. It's not that horrible stereotypical "Herro" accent.

And Japanese people don't even do that really strong R anyway.

"Herro." No, no we don't. Right? That would be like "Hello, herro."

So even though Jun's English is REALLY good --he basically sounds like a native English speaker--

he still has issues with the R and L sometimes.

Even though sometimes I know he knows what the word is, he says the wrong one.

Like you said "diffelence" the other day.

Like three days ago. I don't remember, but maybe I have. "DiffeLence."

Today, we're just going to test me telling the difference between L and R sounds.

I'm going to read Jun's words in English and he's going to repeat them and try to guess whether they're R or L s

K. It's-- What does that mean? And what is it?

It's you're wary of something. You're cautious about something. Okay. Leery.

Can you stop singing and just say the word again please. Piña colada.

Good job. It means nothing. What does that mean?

It sounds like the toshokan "library." Right.

but I cannot tell how they are different.

Okay. I think the first one is not L, it's R.

Rivalry. How many syllables does it have? I can't tell.

It's the same number of syllables as library.

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Why do Japanese mix up "L" and "R"?

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