There are some words that the Japanese seem doomed to have problems with, due to the fact that their language is rather phonetically impoverished, with just 5 vowels and a limited repertoire of sounds produced normally. For example, the sounds of L and R are not separate in Japanese, which makes it nearly impossible for them to tell the difference between words like “right” and “light” without years of practice, and opening up some pretty humorous situations in election season. The Japanese are less likely to use the Internet term “FAQ” because it has the same pronunciation as another famous word that starts with F, which can cause confusion. The sound “si” is pronounced “shi” in Japanese, which of course can lead to problems when Japanese ask you, “Please, sit!” The J-List staff reports thinking that the the word “peanut,” which is always pronounced as “peanuts” in Japanese (even if you’re eating just one), sounds quite close to a potentially embarrassing word in English. Finally, the joker who introduced the song “Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star” to Japan might have thought it was funny at the time, but I’ve observed that virtually everyone here has managed to memorize the “twinkle, twinkle” part without the “w” sound. Tsk, tsk…
