How good is my japanese?
 

Im new here and i really hope there are people who speak japanese here because i have a problem. I just made a youtube video of me speaking japanese but now im over come with nerves because im not sure if someone a native japanese person or even someone who just speaks japanese can understand me. Im a begginer in learning the language so i know i have an american accent but im not sure if im even gramatically correct half of the time. So if you speak japanese please tell me if im making a fool of myself...

YouTube - ちがう！ <-------theres the link, thank you =]

Your Japanese is passable for someone who is a beginner. Yes, you do have an American accent.

One thing that reeeeally stood out when I listened to it was that you tend to mix up plain and polite forms and juxtapose them. At one point you said "tanoshii desu. ~ ni itta." This is just wrong.

Also, I'm assuming you haven't learned the past tense of adjectives yet, so I won't criticize.

All in all, the most important part of learning a language is the confidence to actually speak it—this is (one of the reasons) why kids can learn languages so easily. You are surprisingly confident in your video, which is a very good thing.

I'm not a native speaker, but my Japanese is pretty good. My ear for accents is better. Losing your American accent is very, very hard, but you appear young enough (and aware enough) to have a fighting chance of losing it over the next few years. Just force yourself not to PUT stress on Any word beCAUSE THAT sort of STRESS is what makes you sound aMErican.

Thank you so much! I didnt even realize i was mixing up the polite and plain forms, ill have to work on that. and I have learned passed tense but i forgot how to use it. i know, my english accent seams almost impossible to lose but i will keep trying. Your input/suggestions really helped.
Thank you very much ^_^

I had a lot of trouble with this in the beginning, and sometimes I still forget about it.
I tried to speak in monotone while trying to keep all of the syllables the same length.
It's difficult to do when your worrying about remembering words and grammar too but it's worth it (obviously)

Since you are confident enough to put up a video of yourself speaking, I'm sure you won't mind recording yourself to listen back on it and see where you put stress on words.

You don't need to do it all of the time (because that would just be boring) but it's a good excersise to do :)

Yup i will try that =] Especially the speaking in monotone part thanks!

Speaking in monotone is not at all a good description of what is necessary. Japanese is a pitch-accent language. You need more than one tone to pull off Japanese. I've made a recording to show you the difference between them: MEGAUPLOAD - The leading online storage and file delivery service

It is a five-minute audio file.

Edit: Here is a 1:20 recording of three words where pitch variation is required (and impossible if spoken in monotone): MEGAUPLOAD - The leading online storage and file delivery service

Yes i listened to it and i now understand what you mean. I guess i will just have to practice not stressing my words so much and listen to recordings of myself and see if it sounds better =]

That's the way you learn to fix accent. I used to be an actor. It's the same when learning accents when speaking English.

It appears I totally forgot to write out that one extra line in my last post that would have made some difference to what I was saying.

Speaking in monotone was basically my way of learning to control my voice. To learn about pitch accents I went to places like iKnow (I think its now smartFm) and copied the voice actors on there.

I think it's called shadowing?

Sorry for any confusion.

Its ok, i always forget to say stuff :) I made a smartfm account a long time ago but i had no idea they had voice actors. Thats so cool! i`ll have to look at that later xD