Is improving your ability to be easily understood by native speakers an unworthy goal?
Depends on your goals, that’s why I ask.
Personally I don’t intend to use it for speaking, so no idea whether it’s important or not specifically in Japanese.
2 Likes
You don’t intend to use what for speaking, pitch accent? I mean… obviously it’ll help your listening comprehension if you have a thorough understanding of pitch.
2 Likes
The language, I don’t intend to use the language for speaking orally.
Also I am apparently one of those tone-deaf people anyway, so I don’t ask for advice, just curious about your reasons. It seems like a serious investment of time.
2 Likes
It’s not so much that I plan to spend a huge amount of time dedicated to it, but once you know that you could be screwing up every word you say by not knowing the pitch accent, you want to know. At least that’s how it feels to me.
I spend a lot of time speaking, so it’s just something I find myself referencing when I have questions.
There are some rules of thumb that can help you guess the pitch accent for words you don’t know. Like 4-mora 2-kanji compounds are usually heiban pattern.
4 Likes
忍者しましたね。。。ありがとう
2 Likes
So… people who regularly practice shadowing: what app do you use?
I want to load an audio file and transcription into an app and break it up into lines so I can listen to one line over and over again… first listening and then speaking along.
The innovative language app for jpod101 has exactly this function (their “line-by-line audio” feature), but you can’t load your own content into it – it’s only for using their dialogues.
I don’t see anything in the app stores that markets itself specifically to language shadowers… is anyone aware of an audio recording/playback app that could do this type of thing?
1 Like
Offline dictionary for Android / iOS that include pitch accent info. Does it exist? If not, online version, but an app?
2 Likes
Not that I’ve found. 
I put a request in for Midori to add this, but who knows if anything will come from it.
1 Like
Maybe a J → J dictionary might have this information?
@Leebo do you use a J - J dictionary offline on mobile by any chance?
1 Like
If you have the audio files, you could load them into some DAW like Reaper and just use the loop function to keep replaying it? And if you have a mic, you can record your own voice and listen back too, of course.
Hope I understood your question and gave you some help!
2 Likes
The mobile J-J dictionary I use is the weblio app, and it has no offline functionality. I’d be interested in an offline one though.
2 Likes
I’m with you @Leebo. I’ve recently sub’ed to Dogen’s patreon and youtube to learn all I can from his Phonetics/Pitch Accent course and have committed to daily study of recording myself shadow individual words, expressions and from the Shadowing books. And then analyzing the recordings.
Similar to you, the “a-ha” moment happened for me when I watched some Dogen vids and realized I could be mispronouncing everything and just speaking “weird” Japanese all the time, even with perfect grammar and structure! XD
2 Likes
You might try Aedict. I have noticed that when you click on a word it sometimes has an arrow in the hiragana. I didn’t know what that meant until I saw this thread.
1 Like
It may helps with listening, but probably not by so much. But you might not be as tone deaf as you think… Pitch accent seems to be associated with stress too.
I think it would help with speaking, even as a traveller to Japan; because some words starts high, some words starts low. But the more closely I listen, there are actually more details.
2 Likes
What is a syllabary? I have heard of this when I start studying Kana.
2 Likes
As the name implies, it’s a syllable-based writing system. Instead of vowels and consonants being represented by separate characters, consonant and vowel combos are represented by characters.
4 Likes
Right. But importantly, there are vowel and consonant groups that are not syllables. A syllabic writing system represents groups of sounds that are syllables. The kana systems also represent groups of sounds, but they are moras instead, so it is a moraic system.
Hangul is a funny example that exists in between because technically it is just an alphabet, with individual symbols for each sound. But the symbols themselves are grouped into standardised forms by syllable, so it can also I guess be considered a syllabic system.
cc. @polv
3 Likes
quasi off topic, but…
I’ve been putting pitch accent diagram from OJAD onto anki cards with the content from the Shadowing books and I accidentally dragged the wrong diagram onto one of them.
Didn’t notice it until it came up for review and I lol’d
1 Like
This topic really interests me. I subscribed to Dogen’s patreon to learn more about it. I’m really interested in the Kansai region and especially Osakan culture, and have a friend there too, but I wonder how weird it would be for a foreigner to learn Kansai-ben (besides it being kind of impractical to do outside of Kansai). I know it’s more than just pitch accent, but it’s also a big part of it. 
I also wonder how a foreigner’s (lack of?) pitch accent sounds to a Japanese person. Would it be like someone whose second language is English and will put the stress on the wrong syllable of a word (e.g. syllAble vs. SYLLable)? If so, it’s noticeable, but not the end of the world in terms of comprehension. Or is it more distracting than that, more akin to someone speaking with a very heavy accent and sometimes wondering what words they are saying? I’m guessing it’s more like the first, but could be totally wrong!
3 Likes
This dictionary has pitch-accent info in it:
That being said, I personally have no interest in learning pitch accent. I’ll be lucky to have a decent conversation by the time ten years have passed. Trying to sound like a Japanese is pretty low on my to do list, but more power to those who can make it happen.
1 Like