it's something very common among Asians who used to speak an Asian language b4,
I find it funny and intriguing how they often say L instead of R, hihihi

I know that the 'r' sound is missing in Japanese.

Because their native languages don't have the "r" sound.

Or maybe they do it on purpose just to mess with you.

indian too.

hmm aren't there words like "sayonara, arigato, hara-kiri" where the 'r' is pronounced...?




aww I hope not hihi




I didn't know that...

The "r"s are pronounced sort of like a "d". That's the only example I could think of atm. The "l" sound, however, is missing from the Japanese language. So when it is pronounced, usually the "r"s replaces it.

When you pronounce the "r", softly flick your tongue upward. Keep in mind that the "r"s are always followed by "ra", "ri", "ru", "ro", or "re".

ah ic thx

ra, ri, ru, re, ro is pronounced as la, li, lu, le, lo. That is the romanization. Here is the Hiragana version of those letters: ら, り, る, れ, ろ.

@fivers
The 'r' in "sayonara, arigato, hara-kiri" is pronounced as 'l'.

If you try to pronounce さよなら,ありがとう, or 腹切 with just a "L" it's not going to come out right. It's a combination of the English "R", "L", and "D".

Obviously, if you want to pronounce it correctly, just skip the romanization of it and learn the kana. But this is just my way of explaining it to English speakers.

I'm starting to get the picture along with what SkyBurial said.. thx

How do you know?

ah ic thx mastaping ^^ didn't know that either.. it's time I start learning Korean


@Rahul, do you speak Indian?

agreed
Romanization should only be used at the beginning. Once you get used to the writing system, you should get rid of it. There seems to be some confusion on how to pronounce 'ん' too.

Chinese romanization is even more confusing.

Chinese can pronounce R perfectly.

+1.

we can't pronounce the english Ci sound though. Sit = sheet.

It's to do with bad teaching.

I know many Asians who can speak English with a British accept and flawless Chinese.

+1 for slave mentality. so let me ask you: why can a white man, in an Asian country, speak with a terrible accent and people would be bowing down to him like "oh master, you bothered to learn the language of us lowly colonial slaves" while in an Anglophone country, an Asian speaking with even a slight accent is BAD and WRONG?

I think the most difficult one is "th".For example, three,thrive.

You have to ask those people who do that.

Personally, as someone who speaks many languages, I don't find it remarkable when someone can speak a few words of some foreign language.

From what I know, R and L are sometimes interchanged or mispronounced as the other because of the native language, it lacks the proper pronunciation for such letters that they grew up not being able to pronounce the r correctly. though scientific studies suggest that it is sometimes because of how they are not able to position the tongue correctly due to lack of control of their tongue muscle that is still connected to how they don't really pronounce the letter R in the native language so the tongue doesn't curl up the way its suppose to be for the letter "r".

Interesting that the Japanese seem to have it reversed...they have difficulty pronouncing the "L" sound, substituting the "R" instead.

I took a speech class in college and only then did realize I have been pronouncing my "R" with "W". The "R" sound is not used in the Chinese language, so a lot of Chinese have difficulty pronouncing it.

BTW, I also finally learn how to pronounce the "TH" sound from that same class.