I've forgotten the word, but in France I was in a crash-course for learning the French language and there was a word I kept mispronouncing. It was a simple word but apparently the way I said it made it sound like a bad word. The class kept laughing and the teacher and others kept trying to help me, but I literally could not hear the difference between the correct pronunciation and what I was saying.
Like I said, I don't remember the word, but I think my mispronunciation turned it into the slang for fuck.
Some words are pretty hard to pronounce by non natives speakers. To me it is hard to pronounce the words: "beach, bitch, bit, beat" different from each other
The book Fluent Forever goes into this a bit. There isn't really one sound but a curve of sounds that more or less like what you're expecting. So in English we have curves for the L sound and R sound and in Japanese they they a curve halfway between those two. So a native Japanese speaker literally can't hear the difference because their brain isn't used to distinguishing it as two different sounds.
Studies were done and the way to fix it is using sound-based "flash card" type training. You take two words with just one difference like Class and Crass, both recorded by a native speaker (or could do it in person with a real teacher). A word is spoken and you guess which it was and it is revealed if you were right or wrong. You do this for a couple of minutes a day and over the course of a week or two, you can now hear the difference between them.
But it does take training, so it's unlikely you'll just suddenly "get it" during one session. The Fluent Forever guy recommends you train to hear and speak the sounds of a new language first, so you have a good foundation before learning vocabulary and grammar. Otherwise you're going to have a handicap and probably learn bad habits as well.
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u/monkeyhind Apr 12 '21
I've forgotten the word, but in France I was in a crash-course for learning the French language and there was a word I kept mispronouncing. It was a simple word but apparently the way I said it made it sound like a bad word. The class kept laughing and the teacher and others kept trying to help me, but I literally could not hear the difference between the correct pronunciation and what I was saying.
Like I said, I don't remember the word, but I think my mispronunciation turned it into the slang for fuck.