Is it necessary to learn pitch accent?

[wheat kite]

I’ve seen multiple words in anki that are read the same way but have different meanings depending on the pitch accent

[dreamy iron]

<@&1248039856404431062> Is it necessary to learn pitch accent?

[ruby root]

The answer depends on what you want. As some examples (though there may be other options that better suit your own goals):
Do you want to be able to consume native Japanese media without subs?
Do you want to be able to converse with Japanese people and be understood, but with an accent?
Do you want to sound closer to native when speaking Japanese (ie less accent)?

If the first, it’s not super important, even words that are spelt the same but have different pitch accents you’ll be able to tell apart based on context 99% of the time.

If the second, it’ll be a bit more useful, but still not super important compared to other aspects of the language.

If the third, yes it’s necessary.

Additional point:
pitch accent is not easy, especially for learners coming from languages like English which have stress-accents instead of pitch-accents.

And many long-time learners have said that they believe it’s much easier to ingrain the correct pitch accent early on than to try and “fix” bad pitch accent later. Which is why a lot of ppl suggest at least doing the Kotu.io minimal pairs listening stuff early on.

[upper trail]

I will approach this question differently than most people I've seen discuss it

Yes, because pitch accent is a part of the word, the same way other features are part of the word, like for instance an article in German

That being said, unlike articles in German, it's pretty difficult

So you should approach it as a long term thing

[fallen tundra]

Can confirm, very hard. Also since were on this topic should we do minimal pairs early on because other people are saying that it doesnt matter and I should only do it once a while because I'll naturally get it....

[ruby root]

Imho yes, if you think pitch accent is something you even might care about in the future, you should do minimal pairs kotu stuff early on.

You will only “pick it up naturally” from immersion if your ears have learned how to hear the difference pitch patterns.

As someone who was ignorant of pitch accent for a long time, believe me, i did not “pick it up naturally” through immersion until after started actively learning to hear it.

[fallen tundra]

I try listening to the patterns but then I find it hard to catch on to what they're talking about. Also have been doing kotu for 17 days and gained 3% lol

[grand junco]

If your goal is fluency and you care about accent at all then some amount of focused pitch accent study is probably worth your time.
10-100 hours of upfront study and practice and then just paying attention as you go along makes an enormous difference in how you sound 4000 hours in.

If you're struggling that much with kotu it may be a good idea to just simply get some listening in and try again in a month or two but I'm not sure. I'd ask in #pitch-and-pronunciation if anyone has had similar struggles and overcome it.