I recently listened to a recording of myself speaking Japanese and my pronunciation is very bad. Is there any way to practice and improve on my own, without a language partner?
I second Flora's method.
Recording yourself and "shadowing" are a great way to improve pronunciation!
(google "shadowing method" to get an explanation, but basically you try to repeat what you hear until you can say it with the same rythm/intonation/etc. as the audio sample).
And just grab whatever you can read and read it aloud!
The key thing here is to record yourself and be very critical at assessing your pronunciation.
When I was studying French, for 9 months, I would mostly sing songs/raps, try to mimic the tv and I'd read all of my homework out loud (simple novels and plays) and, by the end of my stay in France, my teacher said:"You hardly have any accent at all :0" so it works! Just don't give up :)
Now the accent's back though, after years of neglecting the language. But if you keep it up you should be fine.
I totally agree with Ebi and Flora.
Here is my little trick I use when I study English. Rather than just reading some sentences out loud, I'd reccomend you to mimic intonation with emphasise and emotion as if you were an actress! if you can put your emotion to what you are saying, pronounciation will definitely follow.
even simple sentences like えいが が だいすきです (I love movies). you could say えいが が だーーーーーーいすきです！(I LOOOOOOOOVE movies.)
little silly advice but hope it will help.がんばってくださいね！
Kaori x
i m in a beginner level... me too having the same problem... i think for me listening to a movie and song will work
I heard one litre of tears is really sad but also very good. I've avoided watching it for years because I don't think I can handle it, but everyone has said good things about it so maybe I'll give it a try? Thanks!
Watch 1 Litre no namida (2005). It is a super duper awesome drama of a real life story of a Japanese girl Kito Aya. It's kind of emotional drama.
If you want have good laughs, watch Hana Yori Dango, Lucky Seven and Samurai High School.
aIf you have more time and opportunity, watch Bloody Monday and Gokusen (season 1,2,3+movie).
For your information-Gokusen, 1 Litre no namida and Hana Yori Dango, these 3 dramas are very famous in Japan (as far as I am concerned!)
Hope you like them! ^_^
