Japanese is hard enough as it is for someone with English as their native language.
A wildly different grammar. A set of only 46 morae that are used in every Japanese word. And the pronunciation of each one doesn’t vary between different words (ignoring the sort of nasal sound that you get with the か・き・く・け・こ in some words).
And, of course, the 2000 or so kanji that are found in the words you need to be a literate reader of everyday Japanese, and…
And then you throw pitch accent on top of it.
Listen, you need a lot of dedication to learn this language. You have to have a real long term goal. Maybe you goal is to find a waifu. Always aim high, I say.
So yes, pitch accent is important if you want to be a fluent Japanese speaker. And yes, I will be adding it to my study plan.
But I am way past university age, so I don’t have the luxury of spending a year at home and then transferring to a university in Japan to continue my studies. So what’s to be done?
Stay tuned for my next post!