Unexpected Benefits for Learning Japanese

The Japanese system of phonology is a unique one based on syllables, for example allowing for the sounds ka, ki, ku, ke and ko to be expressed, but not ‘k’ by itself. This limited phonetic system is the primary reason Japanese often have thick accents when speaking foreign languages, since you can’t easily fit the subtleties of English or French through a filter with only thirteen consonants and five phonetic vowels. This linguistic deficiency contains some unexpected benefits for foreigners learning the language, however, The simpler phonetic system means fewer difficult sounds to master, and no intonation to mess with at all. In addition, there’s no confusion about how to pronounce a given word as long as you know the kana reading. For example, many anime fans might debate about the correct pronunciation for Evangelion, whether the ‘g’ in the middle is hard or soft, but katakana never lies, and tells us that the ‘g’ is indeed hard, and the show should be pronounced evan-GEH-lion. As I often write, the best way to learn Japanese is always using a textbook that starts you off memorizing words in real hiragana rather than romanized Japanese, since the brain tries to apply linguistic rules like ‘silent e’ to Japanese written with the Roman alphabet. which harms your early pronunciation. (The Genki textbook series or the White Rabbit kanji flashcards that we sell are great examples of study tools that force you to read hiragana and katakana right from the start). How do you pronounce Evangelion?