Study tips please re: しょ　しょう

aikochan86 · (#1 (**permalink**))

Hey everyone,

I've been studying hard to learn all the kanji and vocab for jlpt3 and was wondering if anyone has some tips for remembering if words have long sounds or short sounds. That is, しょ　or しょう　and ちょ　or ちょう　etc.

I've just been saying the words to myself in an exaggerated fashion and I think it might be working, but I'd like to hear how others have dealt with the same problem.

I figure there are likely to be trick questions on this kinda thing.

Thanks in advance!

MMM · (#2 (**permalink**))

In English we never have to worry about the lengths of a vowel sound affecting meaning, so our ears aren't trained to listen for those sounds.

You just have to practice listening, and also listening for context. This will also be true for the hard sounds in words like "gaKKou"

Shadowulf · (#3 (**permalink**))

you probably also have to practise listening for the differences for sounds such as:
びょう and　びよう
when i was in japan i almost embarrassed myself by hearing びよういん as びょういん =_="
as for how i learn these, just listening to japanese speech/music tends to help (obviously lol o_O")

silversoraryuu · (#4 (**permalink**))

u can hear it if u listen carfully so just keep exagerating. when u say it 2 urself it works this way if sum1 else say it and don't exagerate it then... guess u got a 50 50 chance

aikochan86 · (#5 (**permalink**))

Cool, I guess I'm on the right track then. Thanks for replying.

びよういん and びょういん! Haha, wow, I can see how that can cause troubles. Hurry! To the beauty parlour! It's an emergency!!!

Shadowulf · (#6 (**permalink**))

haha yeah >.<
i even found it hard to hear the difference when i was saying those 2 when i first learnt how similar they sounded -________________-" so dumb haha

btw goodluck for your jlpt

ive thought of doing it before, but never got around to it
too lazy -_________-" so i just email my friends in japanese hahaha

aikochan86 · (#7 (**permalink**))

Thanks. ^_^ I hope I pass, I'm feeling confident.

Emailing in Japanese is really good study, takes me ages though, because I always want to say thinks more complicated than I'm capable of.

Shadowulf · (#8 (**permalink**))

lol everyone starts off at that point
because everyone starts of not knowing much of whatever language is 'foreign' to them
and after a while, that language is no longer 'foreign', although in thise case, a while could be a matter of years

Keaton421 · (#9 (**permalink**))

Think of it this way.

しょ - The way we say "Oh." Short and sweet
しょう - More like whoa. A little longer

かっこいい - You see the little つ? That makes the next sound (in this case, the K in Ko) a little longer. Kak-koii. It's called a "verbal halt" or something.

びよ - Bee-yo
びょ - Byo

Hope this helped