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According to
[wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katakana#Table_of_katakana), the
'sh' sound in Japanese し is pronounced [ɕ]
_(in[IPA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet))_
while the 'sh' sound in English "she" is pronounced [ʃ].

How do these differ? I've been pronouncing them exactly the same.
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2015-09-14T22:06:44.270
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2015-10-19T05:56:43.020
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pronunciation
How does [ ɕ ] ( し) differ from [ ʃ ] ("she")?
Oooh! Good question. I haven't thought about it in some time, but the Japanese
sound is pronounced (at least in my experience in Tokyo) with the tip of the
tongue closer to the top front teeth, as in the Mandarin _xi_ sound. The way I
pronounce English "she" as a native speaker is with air over the middle-front
of my tongue, not the tip.

As it so happens, the _Edokko_ accent pronounces _hito_ like _shito_ ; this
may offer you a way to approach the _shi_ sound in standard Japanese (if you
have _hi_ covered). You can try aspirating _hi_ more strongly until you get
closer to a _shi_ sound that passes muster.
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2015-10-19T05:02:18.573
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2015-10-19T05:02:18.573
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answer