Japanese Corner

Hiragana Lesson 3

2008-04-29T07:13:00.000-07:00

Do you know how to write あ、い、う、え、お、か、き、く、け、こ already?

Good, let's continue to the next 5 hiragana characters in this lesson 3.
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さ read as "Sa"
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し read as "Shi"
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す read as "Su" (pronounce similiar to 'S' in 'Swap')
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せ read as "Se"
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そ read as "So"
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--== Practice make PERFECT! ==--
** Write out one by one and memorize it! **

Hiragana Lesson 2

2008-04-28T07:01:00.000-07:00

At previous lesson, we learn about how to write & read あ、い、う、え、お.
This lesson 2 will be let you learn about how to write か、き、く、け、こ.
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か read as "Ka"
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き read as "Ki"
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く read as "Ku"
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け read as "Ke"
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こ read as "Ko"
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--== Try to remember the character and the pronounciation. ==--
** Keep practice on a paper until you can write out it easily as usual. **

Hiragana Lesson 1

2008-04-27T05:28:00.000-07:00

There are 46 hiragana characters for 46 different sounds. Hiragana are used for expressing "grammatical" elements such as particles, and endings of adjectives and verbs which show tenses, and etc. Kanji are used for expressing "meaningful" elements such as nouns and terms of adjectives and verbs.

It is possible to write entire Japanese sentences in hiragana. If an adult forgets certain kanji which are rarely used, they may substitute hiragana for them. Since the basic 46 hiragana symbols and some modifications of the suffice for all Japanese sounds, Japanese children start to read and write Japanese all in hiragana before making an attempt to learn some of the two thousand kanji currently used.

From here, you will be get to learn about basic hiragana day by day. If I show you the whole hiragana chart, I believe you will write down and put a side without learn it properly. Ok, let's start with 5 hiragana characters and how to write them.

あ = a
This is pronounced similarly to the 'a' in 'awful'.
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い = i
This is pronounced similarly to the 'ee' in 'feet'.
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う = u
This is pronounced similarly to the 'oo' in 'mood'.
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え = e
This is pronounced similarly to the 'e' in 'met'.
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お = o
This is pronounced similarly to the 'o' in 'cold' .
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--== Try to remember the character and the pronounciation. ==--
** Keep practice on a paper until you can write out it easily. **

Introduction :: Japanese Writing

2008-04-26T07:45:00.002-07:00

A brief introduction to Japanese writing:

1) Hiragana (ひらがな) is the set of symbols most likely to a Japanese "alphabet." Unlike the romanized alphabet, however, hiragana is made up of entire syllables, and each syllable has the same name as the sound it represents. It can be used to spell out any Japanese word. Books for small children are often written entirely in hiragana.

2) Katakana (カタカナ) is used for foriegn words that have been imported into Japanese. Like hiragana, it is a set of syllables used to spell words. Most of the same sounds are used in katakana as in hiragana. If your name is not Japanese, this is the set of syllables that would be used to spell it. Katakana has a sharper or squarer look than hiragana and so is often used for emphasis, especially in subtitles for TV programs.

3) Kanji (漢字) is a set of symbols derived from the Chinese writing system. Each symbol represents one or more syllables in a word, but unlike just spelling a word, these symbols also have meaning by themselves. Even if two words are spelled the same in Japanese, if their meanings are different, their kanji will also be different. Kanji can be used in compounds and in conjunction with the other two writing systems. To read a newspaper, one must know at least the 1,945 Jouyou kanji, hiragana and katakana. These are taught in elementary school and junior high school.

4) Romaji (ロマジ) is the romanization of Japanese words. With romaji you can read Japanese without learning Japanese writing. But this is not recommend to learn just Romaji.

Welcome to the Japanese Corner!

2008-04-26T07:45:00.001-07:00

Welcome to Japanese Corner. This site are dedicated to teaching Japanese Language and informations about the Japanese Culture. If you have questions or comments on the site, please feel free to write down your comments on the posts.