problems with る

[marrow]

I took 3 years of Japanese in high school and have now been out for about a year and a halfish. Without a native speaker around to converse with, I find that when it comes to pronouncing る, especially when it is the second syllable in a word, I have great difficulty.

I'm not sure why, but れ and る have become a real challenge for me to pronounce correctly. I tend to want to pronounce them by kind of smacking the tip of my tongue against the roof of my mouth--as when when rolls one's "r"s. It has become impossible for me to say, for example, とまれ quickly.

I've heard that the r/l sound in Japanese is made as if one were pronouncing a d without touching the roof of one's mouth...easier said than done though...Any tips?

Pictures of "correct" tongue placement would prob. be helpful...

[taikutsu]

This is a sound that requires some practice before you will sound natural, at least for English speakers. You're not going to become good at this through a text description or a picture, though. (Well, you can, but it's a lot harder)

It's better if you tried imitating the sounds of native speakers. Even if you don't have a live person, there's plenty of audio on this website, and if you're into Japanese music, you could try singing along to that, too. It's a better idea to do it this way overall, because there are a lot of sounds in Japanese that are similar, but not the same, as those in English, such as ズ, ヒ, フ, etc., and you'll have a very difficult to understand accent if you don't get these right.

[Burning_Typhoon]

Hmmm... I dunno how, but, I think one day, I just started pronouncing it correctly (at least I believe so)...

anyway, say "La" Notice how your tongue moves. Now, while doing that same motion with your tongue, say "Row"... Also, don't spend 15 seconds to pronounce the word, and put too much thought into it, just say "La" like you normally would.

Maybe to make it easier, I don't think you need to move your lips to do this... Also, say "O" as in the letter, notice where your lips are. Say "La" again, and then, say "Row." Say "Row" once more, but, this time motion your tongue as you would in "La". It should "click" with the roof of your mouth, and fall back into place.

Hope it helps... I tried the best I could to explain, with practice, you should know when you get it right.

If you don't think that helps, then guess what? I just got another idea to help explain it.
(Awesome!)

Say "La" slowly.. When your tongue gets to your roof, stop... Hold it there. You shouldn't have even began to pronounce the "a" in "La" yet, now, say "Ro," continuing from where you left off with the L, and your tongue should slide back on the roof of your mouth as you say the rest of the syllable. It should sound like "low" with a slight "R" somewhere in there... Hope that helps, keep practicing, and, I hope I'm doing it right. Do it slowly, and get comfortable, as you say it faster, your togue shouldn't slide anymore, but, click, and when you stop sliding, you should be doing it correctly. Just, get comfortable with it.

good luck.