Some ads say, "English uses high sounds, and Japanese uses low sounds, so Japanese ears cannot hear English." Is this true? Scientists recorded people speaking more than ten languages, including Japanese and English.

The sounds of all the languages were very similar. Japanese also has high sounds, like "s." The real problem is in the brain. Japanese puts English L and R into one group. You can practice with word pairs like "light" and "right."

A popular claim in Japan says that English uses high frequencies above 2,000 Hz while Japanese uses low ones, so Japanese ears cannot catch English. This idea is said to come from the theories of a French doctor, Alfred Tomatis.

However, when an international team in 1994 compared the average sound spectrum of speech in more than ten languages, including Japanese and English, they found only small differences. In every language, most energy is in the lower frequencies. Japanese also contains high-frequency sounds, such as the "s" in "sa" and "su." So why do Japanese learners struggle with L and R? A 2003 study suggested that Japanese listeners paid little attention to the main cue English speakers use to tell them apart. The problem is attention, not hearing.

Japanese learners are often told that English occupies a high-frequency band, roughly 2,000 to 12,000 Hz, while Japanese stays below about 1,500 Hz, leaving Japanese ears unable to pick up English. The claim is usually traced to the French physician Alfred Tomatis, who proposed that each language has its own characteristic frequency band, but the specific figures circulating in Japan have no clear measurement behind them. In 1994, an international team led by Byrne compared the long-term average speech spectra of more than ten languages, including Japanese and English, and found much the same overall shape everywhere, with energy concentrated in the lower frequencies in every language.

Japanese also has high-frequency sounds such as /s/. The real difficulty lies in perception. A 2003 study using synthesized speech showed that Japanese listeners attended little to the third formant, the cue English speakers rely on to distinguish /r/ from /l/, and were drawn to other cues instead. As for listening programs based on Tomatis's ideas, a two-year controlled evaluation with children found no support for them, and a Cochrane review of sound therapies for autism found insufficient evidence of benefit. Retraining attention through varied minimal-pair practice is a better-supported strategy.