shi シ
su ス
se セ
so ソ
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Katakana, Part One (a, i, u, e, o)
Katakana sounds the same as Hiragana that you already know, but is used in borrowed words in the japanese language. For example, eugo(english) エウゴ。
Once again, the charts in the posts are taken from Namiko Abe from About.com.
Once again, the charts in the posts are taken from Namiko Abe from About.com.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Friday, December 12, 2008
Review Hiragana, Part 1
Let's have a review: (Try each part without looking back) If you can't get all of then in the first try, go back an review some more. Remember, we want to know the hiragana like we know abc's.
Part 1: Pronounce the following hiragana:
1. か 11. さ
2. し 12. せ
3. お 13. く
4. う 14. あ
5. す 15. け
6. そ
7. え
8. い
9. こ
10. き
Part 2: Write the hiragana for each:
1. ke 11. u
2. a 12. ka
3. e 13. ke
4. shi 14. sa
5. so 15. se
6. ki
7. i
8. o
9. ko
10. su
Part 3: Pronounce the following and write the romanji: (Note, these may not be real japanese words, although I think the first one means "no")
1. いいえ
2. あこし
3. かそくう
4. きうさ
5. うえあう
6. こおしか
7. いかしい
Once we have these down pat, we are going to learn 15 more hiragana!
Answer to part 3:
1. iie
2. akoshi
3. kasokuu (Note the extra u just makes it longer)
4. kiusa
5. ueau
6. kooshika
7. ikashii
Part 1: Pronounce the following hiragana:
1. か 11. さ
2. し 12. せ
3. お 13. く
4. う 14. あ
5. す 15. け
6. そ
7. え
8. い
9. こ
10. き
Part 2: Write the hiragana for each:
1. ke 11. u
2. a 12. ka
3. e 13. ke
4. shi 14. sa
5. so 15. se
6. ki
7. i
8. o
9. ko
10. su
Part 3: Pronounce the following and write the romanji: (Note, these may not be real japanese words, although I think the first one means "no")
1. いいえ
2. あこし
3. かそくう
4. きうさ
5. うえあう
6. こおしか
7. いかしい
Once we have these down pat, we are going to learn 15 more hiragana!
Answer to part 3:
1. iie
2. akoshi
3. kasokuu (Note the extra u just makes it longer)
4. kiusa
5. ueau
6. kooshika
7. ikashii
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Hiragana, Part Three (sa, shi, su, se, so)
Hiragana, Part Two (ka, ki, ku, ke, ko)
So we know the basis of the Japanese Hiragana now! We still have about 30 left, so let's keep it up. At this rate we'll know the Japanese alphabet in a few short days.
ka か (ca)r listen
ki き (key) listen
ku く (coo)l listen
ke け (ca)ve listen
ko こ (co)at listen
Tomorrow we are going to learn five more! Remember to practice a-i-u-e-o today as well.
ka か (ca)r listen
ki き (key) listen
ku く (coo)l listen
ke け (ca)ve listen
ko こ (co)at listen
Tomorrow we are going to learn five more! Remember to practice a-i-u-e-o today as well.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Hiragana, Part One (a, i, u, e, o)
To learn Japanese, we're going to learn the alphabets first. Written Japanese is made up of two written scripts and kanji. The scripts, or Kana, are Hiragana and Katakana. Kanji is modified Chinese characters. Modern Japanese sentences have all three of these in them! Once we learn the Hiragana, we will begin Katakana, and then introduce Kanji slowly. Learning the Kanji will require alot of time and persistence, considering we need to learn about 2000 to read a standard Japanese newspaper!
Hiragana is used for consonant-vowel sounds like ka, mo, ta, te, shi... Words that use Katakana are Tokyo, Kyoto, Hirigana..... Katakana is used for sounds that cannot be expressed in consonant-vowel.
Before beginning, I must give The Japanese Page credit, as they are the source I am learning from. I highly recommend you visit their site!
Hiragana, Lesson 1: a-i-u-e-o
This works as follows:
The Romanji is written, followed by the Hiragana. How the letter sounds can be determined by saying the work following the hiragana.
a あ f(a)ther listen
i い f(ee)t listen
u う f(oo)d listen
e え h(A)te listen
o お n(O) listen
I practiced this by writing the hiragana for the 5 letters above 30 times each. I then reviewed them all in different orders. You have to practice to remember which sound goes with each letter!
Tomorrow, we will learn five more hiragana, and review the ones we just learned.
Hiragana is used for consonant-vowel sounds like ka, mo, ta, te, shi... Words that use Katakana are Tokyo, Kyoto, Hirigana..... Katakana is used for sounds that cannot be expressed in consonant-vowel.
Before beginning, I must give The Japanese Page credit, as they are the source I am learning from. I highly recommend you visit their site!
Hiragana, Lesson 1: a-i-u-e-o
This works as follows:
The Romanji is written, followed by the Hiragana. How the letter sounds can be determined by saying the work following the hiragana.
a あ f(a)ther listen
i い f(ee)t listen
u う f(oo)d listen
e え h(A)te listen
o お n(O) listen
I practiced this by writing the hiragana for the 5 letters above 30 times each. I then reviewed them all in different orders. You have to practice to remember which sound goes with each letter!
Tomorrow, we will learn five more hiragana, and review the ones we just learned.
Humble Beginnings
If you can read the Japanese under the title of this website you are probably in the wrong place! And if you can't read it, well you either don't know how to read Japanese, or you simply don't have East Asian language support enabled on your computer. Let's address that last one, in case you fall into that category.
If you use Windows and you can't see any of the Japanese on this site:
How to Install Asian Languages in Windows 98/2K/XP and Vista
For Linux users:
Japanese Text Support In Linux
Since that's out of the way, let's address the other situations:
If you can read the Japanese text below the title of the site, then you should leave me a comment letting me know that it does indeed say: "one language is never enough." As of the time of writing of this post, I cannot read this, and picked it off a webpage. It would be great to verify it does indeed say that!
If you can't read the Japanese text below the title of the site, then you are in the same boat that I am in. Well, let's hope. My boat is heading to Japan! I can't read it either. But that's what this blog is all about. --->
This blog is about learning Japanese! I am going to update this blog everyday with the progress I have made self-learning Japanese. If you want to be along for the ride, hop aboard! From here on out, every post is going to be about what I am currently studying, and how you can study too!
The most important thing, though, is setting goals. I think it is important to have short and long term goals. Possibly medium term goals as well, depending on the proposition. Let me outline my long term goal first:
In three years from this date, give or take a few months, I am going to travel to Japan and stay there for a good amount of time. The details are a little vague, but you should know that I am going to do this. My mind is set. Once I set my mind on something, I don't give up. This is an example. When I arrive in Japan, I want to be able to communicate in Japanese. I don't expect to be perfectly fluent, but I will be able to read and write Japanese well enough to hold a conversation, and hopefully stumble through a newspaper.
My short term goal:
In a week from this date, I want to know Hiragana. I want to know it nearly as well as I know the English alphabet. Learning Hiragana is the first step to learning Japanese. Hiragana is where my journey begins. To keep things clean, we'll talk about Hiragana on the next post.
If you use Windows and you can't see any of the Japanese on this site:
How to Install Asian Languages in Windows 98/2K/XP and Vista
For Linux users:
Japanese Text Support In Linux
Since that's out of the way, let's address the other situations:
If you can read the Japanese text below the title of the site, then you should leave me a comment letting me know that it does indeed say: "one language is never enough." As of the time of writing of this post, I cannot read this, and picked it off a webpage. It would be great to verify it does indeed say that!
If you can't read the Japanese text below the title of the site, then you are in the same boat that I am in. Well, let's hope. My boat is heading to Japan! I can't read it either. But that's what this blog is all about. --->
This blog is about learning Japanese! I am going to update this blog everyday with the progress I have made self-learning Japanese. If you want to be along for the ride, hop aboard! From here on out, every post is going to be about what I am currently studying, and how you can study too!
The most important thing, though, is setting goals. I think it is important to have short and long term goals. Possibly medium term goals as well, depending on the proposition. Let me outline my long term goal first:
In three years from this date, give or take a few months, I am going to travel to Japan and stay there for a good amount of time. The details are a little vague, but you should know that I am going to do this. My mind is set. Once I set my mind on something, I don't give up. This is an example. When I arrive in Japan, I want to be able to communicate in Japanese. I don't expect to be perfectly fluent, but I will be able to read and write Japanese well enough to hold a conversation, and hopefully stumble through a newspaper.
My short term goal:
In a week from this date, I want to know Hiragana. I want to know it nearly as well as I know the English alphabet. Learning Hiragana is the first step to learning Japanese. Hiragana is where my journey begins. To keep things clean, we'll talk about Hiragana on the next post.
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