"AIUEOngaku" - Do You Know Your A I Us?

Good timing! If you're new to Japanese, today's lesson is the best place to start. If you're an old Japan hand, today's lesson will help you help people just starting out. We're talking about the ABCs of Japanese – or rather, the AIUEOs.

Original Lyrics / Romaji / Phrasal Translation

About the Song

GreeeeN is the most hilariously unusual Japanese rock/rap/pop group in history.

The four es in their name stand for the four members of the group (Kuni, Hide, Navi, and Soh). Their logo is their name as teeth in a mouth:

Why? Because all four members are practicing dentists.

No, seriously. All for are active dentists and don’t allow pictures of their faces to be published to avoid interference with their practice. They’re undebatable dental/musical superheros with legit secret identities.

As a group of beatboxing, rhyme-busting dentists, GreeeeN burst onto the scene in 2007 with the double-platinum A, Domo, Hajimemashite. Despite the album’s popularity, GreeeeN did not achieve a number one hit until 2008’s Kiseki, a fun, upbeat single that we’ll probably return to in the future.

Today’s song is from the 2013 album Ii ne!(´・ω・｀)☆ (yes, the emoji is part of the title). While AIUEOngaku was never released as a single, it was used as the theme song for the Line Town animation (yes, there's an animated series about the stickers from the Line app).

[Today's Topic: Do You Know Your A I Us? is after the jump]

Today's Topic: Do You Know Your A I Us?

It's often said that the foundation of the house is more important than the roof. A bad roof will leak, but even a good roof will fall down if the foundation is crooked.

Or think about setting out on a journey. It's important to turn the right way at every junction, but you get most lost when your first step is in the wrong direction.

Years ago, some friends and I set off on a trip to Hokkaido, the northernmost island in Japan. We decided to drive so we could enjoy taking our time and seeing the sights. Unfortunately, none of us understood the roads (or kanji signs!) at the time, so we ended up going south instead of north.

More unfortunately-er, we didn't notice our mistake until about two hours into the trip!

Some people are like this with Japanese study. They start out practicing complicated kanji or memorizing long vocabulary lists, but they neglect the foundation.They get very far on their journey of studying, only to realize they've been going the wrong direction the whole time!

You would be shocked to know how many Japanese language students I've met who can't even say their A I U E Os properly (let alone their KAs, TAs, and SAs).

Before being able to say is being able to hear. I know many people who can memorize vocabulary words, but can't pick them out in a Japanese conversation. This is a MAJOR problem.

Today's lesson will start you on the way past all of that.

1). Listen to today's song (video is up above). GReeeeN sings fast, so if you're a beginner, the song will sound like a lot of gibberish. That's because we haven't done today's exercise yet!

2). Now just listen to the opening few seconds of today's song. Do this a few times. Here's a clip of the opening few seconds that you can loop easily.

Keep listening until you can clearly pick out each individual sound:

A i u e o ka ki ku ke koSa shi su se so ta chi tsu te to na ni nu ne noHa hi fu he ho ma mi mu me mo ya yu yo ra ri ru re ro wa wo n

Right now it may sound like a bunch of sounds, and there's a good reason why. Your ears are getting used to hearing Japanese sounds. Your brain is tuning in on them. This is natural. Just keep at it until it clicks.

3). Pay special attention to the following sounds:

Shi – Sometimes written as si, sounds like the English word "she" (sells sea shells).
Chi – Sometimes written as ti, sounds like the first half of cheese.
Tsu – Sometimes written as tu, sounds like no common English words. Listen close on this one.
Fu – Sometimes written hu, sounds like the "fu" in Kung-Fu (kind of).
Ra, ri, ru, re, & ro - Sometimes written as La, li, lu, le, & lo. Why? Because it's neither r or l, but somewhere between the two. This is why native Japanese speakers usually have trouble with rs and ls in English. Listen carefully and try to blend the r and l sounds in your mind.
Wo – Wo (を）is pronounced the same as O (お). Yes, really.

4 ). Once you can hear each individual sound, start imitating them. Here's a slowed-down version ofthe first few seconds that may help you practice.

Take as much time as you need, long or short. You may surprise yourself how easy it is to repeat the sounds now that you've practiced truly hearing them.

If you have any trouble, go back to listening and try again. This is worth doing right, so take all the time you need.

5). Once you can say each individual sound by itself, try to sing along with the first few seconds of the song. It's fast and your tongue may have trouble keeping up at first, but each mistake will bring you closer to the right direction.

Even if you have trouble at first, you now know when you're saying them right and when you're not.

Alternate between listening and singing until you can sing it flawlessly.

6). Here's the fun part: Now that you can hear and sing every sound, listen to the full song again. Notice how much easier it is to pick out individual sounds – even individual words that you're familiar with.

I guarantee that when you go through this exercise, you'll come out the other end with a better ear for Japanese than most people have. Sure, you still need to learn the exceptions to the rules (dropping the u sound from the ends of verbs, slurring iu into yu), but knowing the foundation will make this a breeze.

Once you finish this exercise, you should also appreciate the importance of hearing Japanese. I say should because this part is up to you. Many people get caught up in reading/writing/speaking, but if you can't catch what people are saying, you don't understand the language.

Step out from behind your textbooks, flashcards, and carefully constructed classroom Japanese. Listen to a crazy complicated song that you love until you know every syllable by heart. That's a step closer to learning Japanese as it is actually used.

Today's lesson was long, because it will benefit you for a long, long time. You're paying up front to reap the rewards later. Those rewards are waiting for you now, so keep going and keep StudyOkeing!