Talk "Tone ~ Intonation ~"

Since my native language is Cantonese, it was only after I taught Japanese that I realized that the tone of Cantonese was quite flat (laughs). When instructing students whose native language is also Cantonese, I will occasionally ask them to "let go a little" to imitate the tone of ordinary Japanese speech.

Today's class is for a former university student who majored in English. She said, "Japanese and English are both very nice!" Me: "Then you must like languages with tones (laughs)."

Speaking of which, Cantonese is really flat at the end of question sentences (mainly supported by mood particles). Speaking of Portugal, the former colonial country of Macau, a friend gave me the listening part of her Portuguese test a while ago. After listening, I asked in confusion:

"Do they usually talk like this?"
"Yup."
"Did you have a question just now? (Because there is an answer)"
"Yes, I have."

found it! A language even flatter than Cantonese.

To master "speak like a Japanese", it is no exaggeration, and the tone of voice may account for half of it. At the beginning of the article, I said that I have studied the Japanese intonation of different native speakers. If the native language is English, which attaches great importance to intonation, even if the pronunciation is obviously foreign, the whole feeling is very natural and easy to understand. By the way, the English of my classmates in middle school was also "Bao 読み (ぼうよみ)" (laughs). Cantonese native speakers, come on!

Above, I briefly talked about the impact of intonation (イントネーション) on Japanese pronunciation.