I love English and was once good enough to become an English teacher at a Japanese junior high school. But that was in the past, and since then my English skills have been declining rapidly. So, as part of my language learning, I decided to post some simple questions and comments about the English language that are not easy for me (and that I should ask on HiNative or Quora) on Newgrounds. I am not an expert in English and may make elementary mistakes, but thank you for your patience.

GIRL | English Is Not So Easy 18

How you learn a foreign language differs from person to person because it depends on what you want to do with your language skills. In my case, the main purpose is to exchange ideas about pop culture, technology, and literature, so my reading and writing skills have been developed more than my speaking skills. In other words, I am particularly bad at speaking English. However, my English teacher Hironobu Takeoka said that reading aloud is the best way to learn English, so I have been practicing reading long English texts aloud for a long time, and I am actually better at reading them quickly. However, my English pronunciation is still at a low level.

Incidentally, I found an interesting question about English on Quora: "What is the English word that Japanese people cannot pronounce?" I have seen many interesting words around such questions, "rural"?, "mischievous"?, "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious"? Yes, these words are among them. But I think they forget the simplest word: "girl".

Even in Japan, the word "girl" is a common word, so almost all Japanese know its meaning and even use it in practice. But I remember the first time I heard the word "girl" pronounced by a native speaker. I was very surprised. I could not understand what they were saying.

girl /ɡɝl/, /ɡɝ.əl/

I cannot understand which letter starts when and when the sound changes to the next letter. And because I cannot understand the sound, I cannot pronounce it correctly.

But why is it so hard? I have come up with a clear explanation.

Let's go back to the famous fact that Japanese cannot pronounce the English "R" and "L" sounds. This is true because I am bad at it. When I speak English, I always have to watch out for the danger of "rice" sounding like "lice" and "election" sounding like "e-ection. The word "girl" contains both, so I guess the difficulty of pronunciation is at least doubled. But no, it is not that simple.

First, I would like to talk about the "L" sound. When I hear native speakers pronounce "girl," I feel that the sound of "L" becomes clearer. In general, when pronouncing other L-ending words, I think I can use the "not pronouncing it" technique. For example, these words sound a little easier to pronounce:

• national
• rational
• additional

However, when I pronounce "girl," I must clearly pronounce the American "L" sound. I still do not know the exact mechanism, but when I listened to the sound slowly, I heard the "L" sound begin before the previous sound ended. I know you don't understand what I'm saying, but this feeling is clearly explained as the "ə" in /ɡɝ.əl/. Anyway, when I pronounce "girl," the problem with the "L" sound suddenly becomes an insurmountable challenge for me.

Second, the pronunciation of the "R" is difficult on its own, but the problem becomes more complicated when the letter "I" is added.

• circus /ˈsɝkəs/
• birthday /ˈbɝθˌdeɪ/
• shirt /ʃɝt/
• skirt /skɝt/

What is "ɝ"? It sounds both "UR" and "AR" to me. In the UK that part is pronounced "ɜː" which is a little easier for me. But when I am in the USA, I have to pronounce the "ɝ" sound.

In conclusion, when I pronounce the only four-letter word "girl," I have to fight against the two evolved forms of "L" and "R"; "Clear L" and "I and R". This is the reason why pronouncing the word "girl" is especially difficult for Japanese.

I am always looking for a way to pronounce such a word more easily. For example, there are some hacks to pronounce some words like a native speaker. What I independently found is that if you pronounce the five basic vowels, e-a-i-a-o, quickly, you can pronounce "Ariel" like Eric in Disney's "The Little Marmaid," but I am not sure if this works for other people from non-English speaking countries. Also, as you may have noticed, the pronunciation is slightly off. It doesn't make any sense LOL

[for Japanese Learners]

I think the bias of the Japanese language makes the situation worse. English beginners in Japan tend to speak English with katakana sounds in their heads. And the word "girl" is pronounced as "ガール (gāru)" in Japanese.

• Girlfriend -> gārufurendo; ガールフレンド
• Black Magician Girl -> Burakku Majishan Gāru; ブラック・マジシャン・ガール

The sound of "IR" is basically pronounced as "Ā". Japanese people subconsciously assume that native speakers would pronounce it similarly, but they actually pronounce it quite differently. We try hard to correct the pronunciation, but it is also true that for a long time we recognized "girl" as "gāru". As a result, we suffer from the big difference for a long time.