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Pronunciation in English is relatively difficult. Take the numbers. Every number from one to ten has pitfalls for the foreign learner and especially the Japanese.

Wan, Tsu, Suri, Fuo, fwaifu, shixu, seben, eto, naeen, tsen.

And then there are the errors which come about from the individual. I have one student called Kouki who is unable to say the word six properly.

How old are you Kouki?
I`m sex.

This is unnerving for me coming out of a six year old`s mouth especially when his parents dressed him in a yukata whilst the rest are wearing T-shirts and shorts.

They also have difficulties with -g sounds at the end of words such as bag, dog and frog which come out as bak, dok and frok.

Naturally mispronunciation is not limited to the Japanese. I find it nearly impossible to say the trilled “r” in French or produce the adequate amount of phlegm to get around the “ll” in Welsh.

But the most unnerving pronunciation discrepancy in Japanese is the near uniform tendency to say cock instead of cook.

Ok we`re going to do verbs now. What`s this?
Jump. Run. Swim. Cock.

They say it with blissful ignorance even though they will happily call out PEN ISS instead of penis with glee.

The mind boggles…