(via Hiragana Pronunciation Practice らりるれろ (ra ri ru re ro) - YouTube)
“This is the hardest one for most people. It’s really important that you pay real close attention, because the difference is very small to the untrained ear, but fairly big to the trained one. Make sure you don’t make the mistake of just thinking you have it down when in actuality you’re not pronouncing it correctly. Go through the steps and practice, trying to get closer and closer to the correct pronunciation. I’ve even broken it up into steps for you so that you can be perfect.
Make the English “da” sound. Do this approximately ten times, and pay attention to how your tongue is shaped and where it ends up as you’re saying it. Your tongue should be pretty flat against the top of your mouth, with the tip of your tongue pushing against your top front teeth. Your teeth should be lightly touching both the top and bottom of your tongue. Say “da” ten times.
Now, make the English “la” sound. Continue to pay attention to your tongue placement and mouth shape. Really exaggerate this sound and curl your tongue back so the bottom of it is touching the roof of your mouth. Notice how your tongue flicks forward when you say “la.” Do this ten times as well, taking note of everything as you do it.
Both “la” and “da” should have been nice and easy for you. Now, I want you to go back and forth between the two, saying “la da la da la da la da” twenty times. Really exaggerate and enunciate both sounds.
Now, you’re going to do a combination of the two. You should have a really good idea where you put your tongue for both “la” and “da.” You’re going to make an “R” sound by putting your tongue in a spot right between the “la” and “da” locations. This is the magic sweet spot for pronouncing the Japanese “R.” With all this in mind, and with your new knowledge of “R” placement, let’s practice “ra, ri, ru, re, ro.”
The Japanese “ra, ri, ru, re, ro” is kind of a mystery for a lot of people, and here’s why. The Ra-column is made up of multiple sounds. It’s part R (I’d say around 75%), part L (I’d say about 20%) and strangely enough, part D (I’d give this about 5%). Combine these together and you have the “Japanese R.” By doing the exercises above, you should be able to get the R & L sounds. The subtle “D” sound should come naturally with those things, though it’s not as important as the R & L.
Go through the video above, and think about your tongue placement with each one. Listen to the video and try to copy the sounds. You don’t want to be too R or too L. Something right in between is pretty good.
If you’ve ever had any experience talking with Japanese people, you’ll notice they have a really hard time distinguishing L’s and R’s. This totally makes sense, since their “R-sound” is a combination of the two.”
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