Perceiving Initial r in names likes 隆介（りゅうすけ） and 綾（りょう）


I've chosen the name a bit at random, but for reason I don't understand I have
trouble hearing the initial r-sound on several of my male Japanese students'
names. Two examples chosen someone at random: 隆介 and 綾

They say りゅうせすけ and りょう but I hear ゆうすけ and よう

I'm a native English speaker of American English but also had experience
hearing German as a child in Germany. Is there some linguistic issue going on
here or do I just need to get my ears checked?

I saw this question: [Utterance initial
[ɾ]](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/6141/utterance-
initial-%C9%BE) which explains some of the mouth position for the sound. But,
it doesn't answer what I'm asking.




For the ラ行, you are curling the tip of your tongue touching the alveolar ridge
(between 5 and 4 in the picture). There is a large gaping whole in the middle
of your mouth and the slightest build-up of pressure will "break the seal",
which means that the airflow is very small, whence the initial `r` is hardly
audible.

If you're pronouncing りゅう in the middle of a word, you can use the existing
airflow through the mouth to slam your tongue onto the alveolar ridge to
produce a more audible `r`.

(Please excuse the informal explanation, but I'm lacking vocabulary to make
this a more concise explanation.)

![alveolar
ridge](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/Places_of_articulation.svg)




For the ラ行, you are curling the tip of your tongue touching the alveolar ridge
(between 5 and 4 in the picture). There is a large gaping whole in the middle
of your mouth and the slightest build-up of pressure will "break the seal",
which means that the airflow is very small, whence the initial `r` is hardly
audible.

If you're pronouncing りゅう in the middle of a word, you can use the existing
airflow through the mouth to slam your tongue onto the alveolar ridge to
produce a more audible `r`.

(Please excuse the informal explanation, but I'm lacking vocabulary to make
this a more concise explanation.)

![alveolar
ridge](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/Places_of_articulation.svg)

