I've debated whether to bring this up since my opinion may be controversial, but since a certain J-Youtuber is apparently getting a bit of a (long overdue) comeuppance, I just wanna say: hey, if you're a Japanese beginner and you struggle with pitch accents, don't be ashamed.

I'm not saying that pitch accents aren't important at more advanced levels and certainly they can be really helpful with listening. But I think channels like his have a really bad habit of framing the topic in a way that makes it sound like having any foreign accent is shameful.

And it's not. You shouldn't be embarrassed if sometimes hints of your native language slip through in how you pronounce certain things. Your accent is a testament to the diversity in perspectives and experience you bring to the table and broaden what it means to speak Japanese.

When I was studying JLPT N1 at Kansai Gaidai my senior year, there was a girl in my class who had a very thick American accent. Her r's had that telltale hardness. It used to surprise me that our native professors didn't mind, but in hindsight, I think it was the right call.

In my experience (and I suspect hers, knowing what she's gone on to do), speaking as someone who has almost no academic training on them whatsoever, you can pick up on a lot of the different pitch accents between words by just being immersed and naturally living the language.

The first few years, the fundamentals in grammar, etc. matter way more and unlock a lot more communication potential sooner than being able to say 橋 and 箸 with perfect pitch accents, especially when, let's be frank, context will dictate which you mean 99% of the time anyway.

More broadly, like many aspects of spoken Japanese, a lot of rules that folks like him like to lord over beginners as being essential to being Taken Seriously vary so much by dialect and even individual speakers, there are few genuine absolutes and that includes pitch accents.

Like I said, pitch accents have their place in the learning process, but they're not at all worth beating yourself up over in the early years. My advice is to pursue them ONLY once you feel really comfortable at general communication, even if you aren't 100% fluent or perfect.

And if your accent still slips through, that's a sign of your diligence to step out of your comfort zone and embrace other ways of communicating. It's a badge of honor, nothing to be shunned. From what I've seen, if you act in good faith, natives are happy to meet you halfway.

(Honestly, if I'm being completely real with you all, much like my native Spanish friends who struggle with knowing which characters to accent when they write it, I can't concretely identify when I shift my pitch accents. It's so automatic, I don't ever actively think about it.)