My Road to Japanese Language Part 4 - The Voice-Source

[akhsnika]

I remember every single language class at school having listening practice. Teachers would make us first listen to language-tapes, and later on language-cds.  Did I learn anything from them? Probably. But was what I listened to natural-like material? Did the people on those English-tapes speak like native-speakers in their everyday-lives? That I don’t believe.

This subject is very important, because I think one has to take into serious consideration what kind of audio one listens to when learning a language. Nobody will just listen to boring language-tapes with basic phrases like 初めまして's  or こんにちは's over and over again, and gain a functional level on a language. This is because, in real life, people don’t speak like in language-tapes! Some people mumble, whereas some other’s speech rhythm is fast like rapid fire. Native level speech is also full of little extra sounds that don’t really mean anything, like the English “ummm”. Language-tapes don’t usually teach these things. In order to learn properly, you need the right type of audio.

So the question is what makes a good audio? People have different voices and different ways to speak, as we know. We’ve all been in a situation, where somebody’s voice just irritates us like hell, even if we can’t really tell why. (“Could it be because she sounds like a hyena...”?) We’ve all also been in a situation, where somebody’s voice just melts our heart and makes us weak at the knees. (“Oh yeah, speak some more honey!”) Could this be used as a language-learning tool? Could a desirable voice-source make exposure to native-audio enjoyable? Yes, it could and it does.

I believe I’ve come up with few important requirements, which need to be fulfilled while searching for a personal voice-source.

1. Native Speaker

This should go without saying. Even the most fluent non-native speaker is most likely going to have tiny errors in pronouncing. They don’t matter in everyday use, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to reflect someone else’s errors in your own speech. The only flawless source is a native speaker. Even if you’d never be able to speak exactly like one, at least your source is the best possible.

1. Pleasant Voice

Another quite obvious requirement. If you’re going to listen to a person talking for 10000 hours, you better find the voice pleasant. If your ears bleed every single time when your voice-source speaks, it definitely doesn’t make learning enjoyable (“Yup, a hyena…”).

1. Plentiful Material

It makes life much easier, if your voice-source has much material available online. It doesn’t matter what kind, it can be interviews, TV-shows, podcasts, audio books or whatever interests you. If the person has much material for you to use, you’re never out of learning material and because it’s effortless to find it, it gives you more time to spend on learning itself and less on needless padding in preparation for learning.

So, how does this relate to my Japanese-learning? It relates to it closely, because I have a almost perfect voice-source that fulfills all the requirements. My voice-source is definitely native speaker with an extremely pleasant voice.  He is also one of the biggest stars in Japan, so there’s more material online than I could ever use. Of course, since the person is a male, I have to filter out the male speech-expressions he uses since I don’t want to sound like a guy when speaking Japanese, but that’s not really difficult. Besides, I have to understand male speech even if I don’t use it myself, don’t I?  More than anything, listening to my voice-source makes exposure to Japanese an enjoyable experience. What else could I hope for? :)