Did you learn ひらがな?
Yay! Good for you!
Time to learn かたかな! It's the second character set!
By the way, you learned the combos in ひらがな, right? Kya, kyu, kyo, etc? If not, go back and learn those too! Those are important!
Now you're probably mad at me. ANOTHER character set?? I just spent a year learning the first one!!
Come on, though. Just one more character set to learn. Then we can start on vocab. I won't make you learn the third character set before I start teaching you vocab (hehe).
The second character set
Stroke order
Printout of かたかな
Once you're done, you can move on to the next blog post I write! Exciting! You have no idea how much progress you've made already!
I'm just a student learning Japanese from English, like you. Learn with me! I'll show you how I've been learning and my advice step-by-step for where to start.
Thursday, 16 May 2019
Step 1
Don't kid yourself! You're not learning Japanese unless you learn the writing system. "Romanji" doesn't cut it. Doesn't get at the spirit of the word, will probably turn you into a nightmare of bad pronunciations and permanent foreign accent, and basically acts as a crutch for those who want laziness and comfort more than they want to learn Japanese. And you are not that person!
Step one is to learn Hiragana. It's like the alphabet. Sort of. It's called a "character set". Every character is made of two letters combined. English has one alphabet. Japanese has three! And one of them has over 2,000 characters, apparently!
Go here!
You're welcome. This page has all the hiragana on it.
Here's a printable version. Print it, carry a copy in your bag always, work on it in the car, on the bus, plane, or train. Tape a copy on the wall by your bed or in front of your toilet, somewhere where you'll see it and can study it a little while you're doing something.
Write these letters over and over. Every time you write them, pronounce them out loud. Make sure you listen to some Japanese people talking on YouTube too so you get an ear for the way they actually pronounce things. They do NOT pronounce these letters the same way we do! Here is a video with quick basic pronunciation, and here's a more thorough one with stroke order which might really bless you up if you're a visual learner.
The stroke order is important! It's a big nod of respect to Japan and its tradition if you learn to write these letters in the correct stroke order, not just starting wherever your hand wants to start the character. Here's a link to a cool page that will show you the order.
Okay. Go on. Go learn this! And don't come back till you have. I'm not teaching you anything else till you learn Hiragana. I wanna be able to start writing words in Hiragana characters instead of "English-type" letters, and have you understand what I'm saying. I don't want to have to type any more Japanese words in Romanji.
Also, there's something I want to say to you if you're really up for learning Japanese with me. I can't say it any better than this girl does here.
Step one is to learn Hiragana. It's like the alphabet. Sort of. It's called a "character set". Every character is made of two letters combined. English has one alphabet. Japanese has three! And one of them has over 2,000 characters, apparently!
Go here!
You're welcome. This page has all the hiragana on it.
Here's a printable version. Print it, carry a copy in your bag always, work on it in the car, on the bus, plane, or train. Tape a copy on the wall by your bed or in front of your toilet, somewhere where you'll see it and can study it a little while you're doing something.
Write these letters over and over. Every time you write them, pronounce them out loud. Make sure you listen to some Japanese people talking on YouTube too so you get an ear for the way they actually pronounce things. They do NOT pronounce these letters the same way we do! Here is a video with quick basic pronunciation, and here's a more thorough one with stroke order which might really bless you up if you're a visual learner.
The stroke order is important! It's a big nod of respect to Japan and its tradition if you learn to write these letters in the correct stroke order, not just starting wherever your hand wants to start the character. Here's a link to a cool page that will show you the order.
Okay. Go on. Go learn this! And don't come back till you have. I'm not teaching you anything else till you learn Hiragana. I wanna be able to start writing words in Hiragana characters instead of "English-type" letters, and have you understand what I'm saying. I don't want to have to type any more Japanese words in Romanji.
Also, there's something I want to say to you if you're really up for learning Japanese with me. I can't say it any better than this girl does here.
"ん" is weird!
Like I said, all the Hiragana characters are, in a sense, made of two letters smooshed together. Except ん. ん is just a nasal sound. Kinda halfway between "m" and "n". But don't take my word for it. Go listen to some random Japanese people talking on YouTube and see if you can pick out this nasal character in their speech.
Since it's just a nasal sound with nothing else involved, it's written as one letter in Romanji. Usually the letter n. Sometimes m.
Oh yeah, and then there are some characters which are just lonely vowels. With no consonants to pair with them.
Japanese has a lot of weird exceptions!
Since it's just a nasal sound with nothing else involved, it's written as one letter in Romanji. Usually the letter n. Sometimes m.
Oh yeah, and then there are some characters which are just lonely vowels. With no consonants to pair with them.
Japanese has a lot of weird exceptions!
What's "Romanji"?
Important word to know!
Basically means: English-looking letters except you use them to write Japanese words so they're pronounced all differently. You'll see lots of weebs in the comment sections of YouTube saying things like "NANI???????" and "Arigatouuuu!"
When people write Japanese with these "normal Englishy letters" it's called writing in Romanji script.
Basically means: English-looking letters except you use them to write Japanese words so they're pronounced all differently. You'll see lots of weebs in the comment sections of YouTube saying things like "NANI???????" and "Arigatouuuu!"
When people write Japanese with these "normal Englishy letters" it's called writing in Romanji script.
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