True, the Japanese 'r' is neither an English 'l' nor 'r' but it's so much closer to English 'r' that 'l' isn't in the running.
Japanese only swap r and l when not speaking Japanese. Because they don't say 'l', they don't hear it much like an English person has a hard time hearing the "oe" (o+umlaut) in German or the long vowels in Japanese. English beginners will use a pronounciation different than their native 'r', because they know they have to. They will succeed in doing that -- saying something that sounds different. Whether it sounds like an 'r' or 'l' eludes them.
Some Japanese actually say something like an 'l' when speaking Japanese. My SO does this. It's totally weird. It's considered something of a lisp by the Japanese.
The odd thing is, if you have the chance to watch a Japanese TV show with singing (and can stomach it) the verterans will usually sing "la la la" with 'l'.
Romaji doesn't tend to transcribe the sound as 'r'. Correct romaji *always* uses 'r' -- at least the 2 main romaji systems I know of (official government one for education and another, which is more common but I don't know the name). When an 'l' is used, it will usually be because they are actually writing the word in the original language (such as 'London').
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True, the Japanese 'r' is neither an English 'l' nor 'r' but it's so much closer to English 'r' that 'l' isn't in the running.
Japanese only swap r and l when not speaking Japanese. Because they don't say 'l', they don't hear it much like an English person has a hard time hearing the "oe" (o+umlaut) in German or the long vowels in Japanese. English beginners will use a pronounciation different than their native 'r', because they know they have to. They will succeed in doing that -- saying something that sounds different. Whether it sounds like an 'r' or 'l' eludes them.
Some Japanese actually say something like an 'l' when speaking Japanese. My SO does this. It's totally weird. It's considered something of a lisp by the Japanese.
The odd thing is, if you have the chance to watch a Japanese TV show with singing (and can stomach it) the verterans will usually sing "la la la" with 'l'.
Romaji doesn't tend to transcribe the sound as 'r'. Correct romaji *always* uses 'r' -- at least the 2 main romaji systems I know of (official government one for education and another, which is more common but I don't know the name). When an 'l' is used, it will usually be because they are actually writing the word in the original language (such as 'London').