Japanese Tongue Twisters Lesson 1

April 13th, 2009
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Hey all. Got the idea to create a series of Japanese tongue twister lessons and post them on YouTube. This is the first video. I decided to start with easy ones and build, because if I just started with the super chaotic ones I’ve covered before it might intimidate people and turn them off from the get-go. Instead, I hope a bunch of folks will become interested and follow along. I will be building a page that links to all of my tongue twister stuff soon. In the meantime, enjoy the first (super easy) lesson! Video responses with you attempting this tongue twister are highly encouraged!

Difficulty: Easy
Kanji: 生麦生米生卵
Hiragana: なまむぎなまごめなまたまご
Romaji: nama-mugi nama-gome nama-tamago
Meaning: Raw wheat, raw (uncooked) rice, raw egg
Audio:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

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  • Chimiko
    Haha. I've heard of the bakuhatsu one, but I can't say it... I have also heard of nama mugi nama gome nama tamago. However, I have to say my favourite Japanese tongue twister is "Abokado aoi na aiueo". I saw it on Nobuta. wo Produce and I'm not even sure if it's a real tongue twister in Japan XD;;.
  • Facebook User
    Thanks a lot the lesson.
    Though I thought that most popular was about bus gas, that had exploded.
  • I'm doing that one next. But I never said I'd be doing only popular
    ones...just random ones. Maybe I should switch it up and do easy ones and
    hard ones mixed instead of slowly build from easier to harder...hmmm.
  • Nice post :p Gotta keep the old tongue working out!

    Btw, what do you use t show up videos and embedded audio in your feed? My videos don't show up in my feed...
  • I don't think I do anything special. I use a flash player plug-in for MP3s, but I manually insert YouTube embed code so I can alter the official dimensions to my liking.
  • This was really fun to try. :D
    Thanks for walking through how to pronounce it!
  • No problemo! I hope you stick around for more!
  • I ordered a Nama-CHUU...!!...yesssss
  • Facebook User
    Think I got it. 生 is one of the greatest Japanese words that can mean everything.

    @ryanthewired: the bus one is the one everyone always used to tell me in Japan. And the take one (隣の竹薮に竹立て掛けたのは、立て掛けたかったから竹立て掛けたのさ)...

    After staring blankly for a while at my classmates, I would just counter with Fuzzy Wuzzy and BAM, major respect from Japanese schoolgirls.
  • I always use Peter Piper or the Woodchuck one. And I'll be covering 2 versions of the crazy bamboo one eventually. My former professor shared a version with 竹垣 replacing 竹薮, which does honestly make a lot more sense.
  • Well, this one is really easy for me. :P
    I guess I have an advantage because of my Romanic language. :)
  • Nah...it's easy because it's EASY. ;-) But other languages do help free your tongue up. That's no lie.
  • Actually, for us it should be easier, because we pronounce the vowels pure, practically identical to the Japanese vowels.
  • Hao
    Luckily I read the comments since I was just about to say the same thing =) in fact, people around here like Japanese because they can read romaji from the first day without much of a problem :) (of course, pronunciation is a different issue)
  • Literati
    Really great, I enjoyed learning the tongue twister, am excited to learn more, and really liked the little extra tidbit at the end, there. :]
  • 生ビール。生中！
  • Literati
    Nama biru...nama naka? D: Man, you lost me, sorry. Draft beer, draft/raw..inside? I fail.

    On a side note, though, I also really like that you've got the whole widescreen format going for ya. :] Bugs me seeing those big black margins sometimes.
  • I'm glad someone noticed the widescreen format! Ha ha. Thanks! (No clue
    where you got the nama naka from, though? I have the text in 漢字, ひらがな, and
    roman characters - plus a video and an audio clip...and I just don't see
    "nama naka" anywhere... Ha ha.)
  • Literati
    Yeah, I was excited when YouTube debuted the feature, but was slightly disappointed when I saw a lot of people not using it. :[

    And wasn't the nama naka in what you just sent to me in your reply-before-this-last-one? D:
  • Ooooh - you mean Nama CHU! 生中！The kanji is also pronounced "naka" sometimes
    - but it's "chu" in this case. Like 中学校 (middle school) or 中国 (China). :-D
  • Literati
    Oh, so you were still speaking about beer. That makes so much more sense, haha. Thanks.
  • Great lesson,it was quite easy to remember and I learned new words as well as kanji along the way!

    Thanks :)
  • This is a great compliment - it was totally what I hoped someone would think. After all, there are loads of "look what I can do" style tongue twister videos on YouTube, but not many that bother walking you through them. Ha ha. Glad you liked it!
  • i'm excited to learn more tongue twisters. it makes learning that much more interesting.

    the only other japanese tongue twister i know is:
    バスガスばくはつ、ぶすバスガイド。
    basu gasu bakuhatsu, busu basu gaido.
    bus gas explosion, ugly bus guide.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongue-twister#Non...
  • Ryan...that's actually the next one I plan on doing. Ha ha. Don't spoil folks too much!
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