Hi everyone. Hope you had a great holiday with your family. We are now starting a beginning of the new year! Let’s get learning more about Japanese. \u00a0This month, along with topics such as, culture, cuisine, music, travel, and holidays, I will be introducing you to reading aspect of Japanese. By learning the writing styles, you will be able to read & write more in Japanese. \u00a0You will be building your vocabularies as well for sure!<\/p>\n
As you might know already, in Japanese, there are 3 different symbols available. The basic one that you need to learn first is Hiragana (\u3072\u3089\u304c\u306a), and the next style is called Katakana (\u304b\u305f\u304b\u306a), and lastly, we have Kanji (\u6f22\u5b57), which is very similar to Chinese characters.<\/p>\n
Hiragana (\u3072\u3089\u304c\u306a) &\u00a0Katakana (\u304b\u305f\u304b\u306a) are used to\u00a0represent one syllable, and they do not have much meaning other than the representation of sound. The important thing to know here is that Katakana (\u304b\u305f\u304b\u306a) is used to represent the word that is foreign origin. Many of the English words are expressed in\u00a0Katakana (\u304b\u305f\u304b\u306a). Once you know more about each symbols, you will be able to mix\u00a0Hiragana (\u3072\u3089\u304c\u306a), Katakana (\u304b\u305f\u304b\u306a), and Kanji (\u6f22\u5b57) within each sentence.<\/p>\n
So, with that said, let’s start learning Hiragana\u00a0(\u3072\u3089\u304c\u306a) first. \u00a0I will cover Katakana (\u304b\u305f\u304b\u306a), and Kanji (\u6f22\u5b57)\u00a0in later articles.<\/p>\n
Here is the chart that shows Japanese\u00a0Hiragana (\u3072\u3089\u304c\u306a). \u00a0These are the basic 48\u00a0Hiragana’s. (\u3072\u3089\u304c\u306a) However, these days\u00a0we normally do not use \u3090 & \u3091 below under w~.<\/p>\n
Photo from Wikipedia.com<\/p>\n
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Let’s practice some of the words below. \u00a0See if you can read these based on the chart above.<\/p>\n
\u3044\u3059<\/p>\n
\u3075\u306d<\/p>\n
\u3064\u304f\u3048<\/p>\n
\u305d\u3068<\/p>\n
\u3064\u304d<\/p>\n
\u304b\u3044<\/p>\n
\u3042\u305f\u307e<\/p>\n
\u3068\u308a<\/p>\n
\u3044\u308f<\/p>\n
\u3044\u3057<\/p>\n
\u304b\u3081<\/p>\n
You will be reading each word like this:<\/p>\n
\u3044\u3059(isu) – chair<\/p>\n
\u3075\u306d(fune) – ship<\/p>\n
\u3064\u304f\u3048(tsukue) – desk<\/p>\n
\u305d\u3068 (soto) -outside<\/p>\n
\u3064\u304d(tsuki) – moon<\/p>\n
\u304b\u3044(kai) -shell<\/p>\n
\u3042\u305f\u307e(atama)-head<\/p>\n
\u3068\u308a(tori)-bird<\/p>\n
\u3044\u308f(iwa)-rock<\/p>\n
\u3044\u3057(ishi)-stone<\/p>\n
\u304b\u3081(kame)-turtle<\/p>\n
Lastly, here is a cute video for your Hiragana review!<\/p>\n