The Ramen I Ate Discussion

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I can't talk as fast as the recordings talk, and there's no chance I can think that fast either, I have to listen many times before I can understand. in this lesson, it took me many tries to realize she was saying "hito" and not "ishto", which had been confusing me. even knowing she said "hito", I could barely hear it, and couldn't read at the tempo she said it anyway.

 

Why are the words かんじ, ひらがな and カタカナ in the vocabulary section again? I'm pretty sure we covered those about a hundred lessons back, and this far into the study, I'd be severely surprised if anyone didn't know them.

Thank you, ginko-san!  I'll fix it.

Here's a typo I noticed:

... and put in the phrase "that (I) ate yesterday" - 今日食べた - before "ramen."

The English says yesterday, but the Japanese says today.

Hi Jace75さん As a native speaker of Japanese, sometimes I don't realize how difficult some of the pronunciations can be for the learners. (It might be hard for you to understand why Japanese people cannot distinguish between R and L sound ^^;) I really appreciate your note!

It's exceedingly tempting to pronounce がいる as "guy-rue" but with a fake Japanese accent. However, as depicted in the playbacks, the transition from "ga" to long "e" is far sharper than any comparable English word or conjugation. To add further challenge, the half-roll of the "L/R" in る requires the tongue to completely shift position on the fly. Practice until you can comfortably make this transition, as it will be vital to the quest for complete fluency. I think the blending of the "hi" in ひと into the previous syllable is also very tricky to learn. Tempo is absolutely quintessential in this language as a pause at the wrong moment can completely alter the meaning of a word or sentence.