Rob's Rumpus Room

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I like tongue twisters. Today at lunch I was talking to Woody and Mark about tongue twisters and what tongue twisters I find tough. The toughest tonge twisters are for me Vietnemise and Thai.Thai tongue twisters work with tones amping up the difficulty. I found This link to internation tongue twisters.

The trouble with the site is that you can't hear them. For example
Kono Take o Kono Takegaki ni Tatekaketa no wa,
Take o Tatekaketakattakara Tatekaketa no desu.
When spoken sounds like a train rushing down a track to me. Read aloud by someone who does not know Japanese it well, it does not. The art of tongue twisting is not just saying the words, but making the melody. The art of sound if you will.

I am also odd in the sense that I have words I like because of they way the feel in my mouth, or the way your mouth and tongue move to make the words. Jidohanbaiki for instance (jee doh hahn bye key).

So take a few minutes on the web site, and play with some words. It can be quite fun, and a good way to exercise your speaking ability.