Unboxed Writers » A Love Letter to Japan

Unboxed Writers » A Love Letter to Japan: "“Look at the mouth, at the tongue,” I’d say to my Japanese students, while exaggerating the sound of ‘llll’. Then again, “Roll your tongue” for the sound ‘rrrr’. “Can you see the difference? Can you hear the difference?” “rrrr, llll’, rrrr’, llll” consecutively, followed by an exaggerated “rred lleather, yellllow lleather, rrrred lllleather, yellllow lllleather”. Kiyomi, like most of my Japanese friends and students, could hear the sounds, even reproduce them, but could not distinguish them."