I'd like to think that my pronunciation of Japanese is pretty good.

Sadly, "pretty good" is not perfect. And it's still far from native-sounding.

Meh.

So let's look at how our native Japanese homies get down on pronunciation practice:

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Tongue Twisters!

As a kid, I'm sure I spent an unhealthy amount of time working on my rendition of "Sally sells seashells down by the seashore."

Yeah, I still suck at that one. T_T

It's actually easier for me to reproduce some of these popular Japanese tongue-twisters...

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First, we'll start with the only tongue twister I knew on this list before Rei introduced them to me:

Translation note: These aren't really "sentences," so I'm just going to translate them word-for-word.

バスガス爆発
バス　ガス　ばくはつ
Bus gas explosion!

Well, that's the version I already knew. But Rei told me this one...

バスガス爆発 ブス自爆
バス　ガス　ばくはつ　ブス　じばく
Bus gas explosion! Hag suicide bombing.

The end part of that "Hag suicide bombing," as I translated it, might differ based on age of speakers or location. In other words, different Japanese people will add different things to the end of バスガス爆発.

Vocab:

バス. Bus!

ガス. Gas!

爆発 (ばくはつ). Explosion!

ブス. So... I translated ブス as "hag," but I hear it being used colloquially to refer to a girl that is ugly. I think it goes without saying that this word is extremely rude, and you should probably never use it. But you might hear girls referring to themselves as ブス from time to time... which is at least less offensive than calling someone else ブス.

自爆 (じばく). Suicide bombing.

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新春シャンソンショー
しんしゅん　シャンソン　ショー
New Year Chanson Show!

新春 (しんしゅん). I translated this as "New Year," but honestly I'd never heard this word before, the characters of which are "new" (新) and "spring" (春). Rei told me it shows up on TV a lot.

シャンソン. In my brain, "chanson" means "one of those old French songs." I don't know how accurate that is, though. Ask a French person. Or a Japanese person, I suppose.

ショー. Show.

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生麦 生米 生卵
なまむぎ　なまごめ　なまたまご
Raw wheat. Raw rice. Raw egg.

The only of these words that I hear regularly is 生卵 (なまたまご), because Japanese people put raw eggs on top of food all the time.

That said, you do need to know the prefix 生 (なま) and its function of saying that something is "raw" or "fresh." Also, the words 麦 (むぎ // wheat) 米 (こめ //[uncooked] rice) are pretty common on their own, too.

For more about the different ways to say "rice," check out: [NDL #24] - The Land of Many Rices.

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青巻紙　赤巻紙　黄巻紙
あおまきがみ　あかまきがみ　きまきがみ
Blue rolled paper. Red rolled paper. Yellow rolled paper.

Though you might not need to know the word 巻紙 (まきがみ), which is what this is:

...you should know that the verb 巻く (まく) means "to wind; to roll; to coil," and you should know that 紙 (かみ) is "paper."

Also, knowing colors helps too. We talk about them a ton in these two lessons:

[NDL #125] - White's Whitish White Whiteness
[NDL #130] - White's Whitish White Whiteness Continues

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坊主が屏風に上手に坊主の絵を描いた
ぼうず　が　びょうぶ　に　じょうずに　ぼうず　の　え　を　かいた
A Buddhist priest skillfully drew a Buddhist priest on a folding screen.
Literally: "Buddhist priest + が + folding screen + に + skillfully + Buddhist priest + の + picture + を + drew.

When looking at the following picture of a 坊主 (ぼうず), note that this word can mean "Buddhist priest," or it can mean "a completely shaved head:"

And this is a 屏風 (びょうぶ), a "folding screen," and a word I just learned today:

Ugh, these tongue twisters twist my trachea traumatically.

And my brain.

Good luck, fellow students...