Why can't asians do that "R" thing?

Question

The Japanese can, but Chinese, koreans and Viets can't.

the northerast asians

Wow Mike Tarano, you are a moron.

Answer 1

♡Well, I'm sitting with a group of 8 Japanese (as I pretty much do once a week) and I asked them your Q just now. This is what they said ～　It's a little difficult for us to pronounce "R" as well as "L", "V", "TH" and a few other letters or combinations of letters because they are those letters/sounds that aren't used in our everyday Japanese. SOME of us aren't accustomed to forming the letter(s) with our mouths or making the correct sound. We're just not used to it so when SOME of us speak English, which is foreign to us, we have some difficulty. It's not on purpose! It would be the same for some "foreigners" trying to speak Japanese and using "tsu", "gyo", "ryu" and such, they just don't get it. Think about it. We stress SOME because many Japanese people don't have the problem and pronounce "R" and all sounds perfectly. ～～So Coffee, there you have it, straight from the mouths of Japanese, who all speak English exceptionally well I might add!♡

Answer 2

The ASIAN category is too wide. The languages that do not use the R sound are most related to spoken Chinese and will have the R "ploblem." Japanese use R all the time, so no ploblem. On the other hand, the Japanese have SERIOUS "L" probrem! Prus, they have rong words containing many syrraboes, each syrrabo must contain at reast one vowo.

Prease do not rump Chinese with Japanese.

Lememba, two longs don't make a light!

Answer 3

Every language is different!

Lots of Asian languages have no specific 'l' or 'r' sound, just one sound which is somewhere in between an l and an r. The Japanese one is closer to an 'r'. But in practice it varies from region to region of the country, and town to town of the region, and even from person to person! So, because they don't have different 'l' and 'r' sounds in their language, they have great difficulty distinguishing between them when they hear them, and even greater difficulty saying them differently - unless when they were young they learned a language which DOES have those sounds, then their ears adapt to the sound, and their tongue is more likely to be able to create the sound!

I'm English, and I have GREAT trouble pronouncing the Japanese りゅ (ryu)!! It's just totally beyond me!! (Maybe I'm just too old!)

By the way ... have YOU ever tried authentic Russian pronunciation????? I really think you should!! You might understand Asians who can't separate 'l' and 'r' if you try!!

Or maybe one of those African languages ... there's one which mostly consists of 'clicking' noises!! Try pronouncing THAT!!!!

Answer 4

language is learned..but please don't generalize, some Asians don't have never experienced that.. maybe they have difficulty saying 'r' coz they don't have it in their language..

what if we do it the other way around? how 'bout if the English-speaking people speak the Chinese, Japanese, etc, etc.language..im sure it won't be a piece of cake..and i know that they will still have their English/American accent, same as some Asians still have their accents when speaking the English language..

and maybe some Asian countries have the difficulty of speaking English coz this was not taught and given much emphasis in school..but, if only this was taught, i don't think they would have any difficulty saying the words,etc..

Answer 5

Why are you picking on Asians? Why not ask why the British drop their Rs -- or why Bostonians and Carolinians drop their Rs?

For that matter, you could ask why Minnesotans stick an extra R into words like "Warshington" or why Texans have such a hard R.

As for Asians, it probably has to do with the fact that they don't pronounce them in their own languages.

Do you think the Belgians wonder why we don't trill our Rs?

Answer 6

Language is a learned behaviour while the formation of your tongue is a hereditary/genetic formation.

If Japanese don't have the use of the "R" in their vocabulary it is not expected that their offspring develop the proper tongue formation. It is a form of adaptation, their tongue has never adapted to the use of rolling the "Rs," hence their lack of adapting.

Answer 7

Excuse me.... Asians? Indians are very good at it....rrrrrr. Its juat the chinese they replace the r with an L most of the time

Answer 8

possibly similar to why people have accents, their languages and speech.

and i know chinese/koreans/viets that can!

Answer 9

i tend to think of the dropping of the R in relation to the english. i don't know why, something to do with the accent i quess.

when you find out the real answr, let me know

Answer 10

japanese cant. cause they dont have that sound on they letters.
i think chinese can, but not sure.