The way the Japanese speak

- Developing teaching materials for education of spoken Japanese based on contrastive studies among Japanese, English and Chinese

Children's ad-lib song

Probably, like children in other cultures, Japanese children are considerably talented ad-lib singers and songwriters. They control melodies and phrases according to their feelings, regardless of musical and poetic restrictions. As a result of this, their songs shift between music and speech. An investigation of these songs might be helpful in elucidating many aspects of prosody and language.

"A song for shieldbugs" (WAV format)

 

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