Japanese pronounciation (short question)

I'm a bit confused by the whole L and R thing.
What is the 411 on this?

I've heard something written as "kara" pronounced "kala", but I also hear people roll what sound like Rs sometimes, so I'm very confused.

roll your tongue to get that sound..not 'kala'  ka-ra

R are pronounce as a single trilled R, almost sounds like a D....very odd sound.

So, what gets written as an R gets that trill-ish between-L-and-R sound, and Ls get normal Ls?

Well in Japanese there is no L sound. Anything translated from  English to Katakana, (the alphabet used for foreign words) will be substituted with an R equivalent

Examples：
Color カラー Kara-
Log In = ログイン　Rogu In
Log Out = ログアウト　Rogu A（Long A)uto
Relax＝　リラックス　Rirakkusu

It always confuses me why they say it as an R, when it sounds more like a cross between an L and a D. Its the sound you make when you flick the roof of your mouth with the tip of your tongue. Longer than a D, shorter than an L

us japanese people have no R, V, Z pronounciation in our language. so yah like you said no rolling of the tongue to make the words vibrate
so anything that is not japanese that consists of these three languages are said differently
R will usually pronounced with L
V will usually be pronounced with B
hence why VIP is pronouned 'BI'ppu

It's hard to explain. that why we sometimes have trouble trying to tell someone in english what we're trying to say for 
example right and light
since we can't say R, we say both words as light
so we have to sometimes say "hidari, migi (left, right)...right"

just like fa ra ra ra ra from 'a christmas story'.

[QUOTE=hipermax_d;66004]us japanese people have no R, V, Z pronounciation in our language. so yah like you said no rolling of the tongue to make the words vibrate
so anything that is not japanese that consists of these three languages are said differently
R will usually pronounced with L
V will usually be pronounced with B
hence why VIP is pronouned 'BI'ppu

It's hard to explain. that why we sometimes have trouble trying to tell someone in english what we're trying to say for 
example right and light
since we can't say R, we say both words as light
so we have to sometimes say "hidari, migi (left, right)...right"[/QUOTE]

Yeah you Japanese people and your weird language. You should see how many time my girlfriend has to say her name for people to get it right. My son name is the same way. Her name in Romaji starts with an R.

Note: Only for Romaji reading purposes are R's Used as hipermax said there is no true R sound.:thumbsup: