Lesson One - Hiragana and Katakana

The two most basic forms of Japanese writing are the hiragana and katakana, and you'd do yourself a favor by learning them first. ^^; Romanized japanese (japanese written in roman letters) is alright to go by if you're just learning to speak the language, but if you'd like to be able to read it as well, you need to know the characters. ^-^; (By the way, I scanned these out of my dictionary and stuck letters on them. o.o Please don't sue. ::Sweatdrop.::)

Hiragana

• Hiragana is used for writing native Japanese words and sounds.

Katakana

• Katakana is used for writing foreign words and sounds, and when a word is stressed (think italics), it's written in katakana.

Some Notes On Pronounciation • The Japanese language (without taking kanji into consideration) is actually very easy to read, because all of their vowel sounds sound the same all of the time. "A" - is pronounced "ah", "I" - "Ee" (as in "ear"), "U" - "ooh", "E" - "eh", and "O" - "oh".

• The "ra" group is probably the most difficult to pronounce for most people. "R" is a sort of combination between an "R" sound and an "L" sound,and it takes some practice to get right. ^^; The tip of your tongue should touch the top of your mouth when you're saying them.

• "Wa" and "ha" - ^^; Okay. When the "wa" sound appears in a word (say.. "watashi" (I or me)) it's written as the "wa" on the far left of the chart. However, when "wa" is used as a particle ("Watashi wa neko desu" ("I am a cat") ^^;) it's written using the character for "ha".

• "Wo" and "o" are pronounced exactly the same. However, like above, "wo" is used as a particle ("Hon wo yomimasu" - "Read a book") and "o" is used within words ("Ocha" - "Tea"). Get it? Good. ^^;; (More on particles in a future lesson, anyway.)

Today's Lesson Within A Lesson
(Got a scanner? Feel free to send me your stuff to look over. I'll be more than happy to. ^^;)

Write your name in Japanese! It's easy. ^^* You just need to pick out the sounds that most closely match your name from the Katakana chart above (unless your name happens to be Japanese, in which case I assume you know how to write it already ^^;;;). For example:

• Sarah - "Sa" + "ra"
• Mark - "Ma" + "ku"
• Erin - "E" + "ri" + "n"

^^; Some names, though, are going to require you to use "little" characters to make the right sounds. (For example.. "Julie" would be written "Jyu" + "ri"). How do you make the "Jyu"? Take the character "shi", and add accent marks to it. ^^;;; (Accent marks are two little lines next to the character that gives it an accent. I would scan this in, but I'm lazy, so use your imagination. I'll put a diagram up next week. ^^;). Sticking the accent marks next to "shi" turns it into "ji". Then stick a little miniature "yu" next to it, and you have the sound "jyu". 6.6; I guess I should mention accents now... There are only certain characters you can add accent marks to (..well, and still have them readable, anyway.).

• "Ka" "Ki" "Ku" "Ke" "Ko" - Become "Ga" "Gi" "Gu" "Ge" and "Go".
• "Sa" "Shi" "Su" "Se" "So" - Become "Za" "Ji" "Zu" "Ze" and "Zo".
• "Ta" "Chi" "Tsu" "Te" "To" - Become "Da" "Ji" "Zu" "De" and "Do".
• "Ha" "Hi" "Fu" "He" "Ho" - Become "Ba" "Bi" "Bu" "Be" and "Bo".

But that's not all the fun to be had with accents. ^^; You can also add a little circle to a few of these (think º) to change the accent in a different way:

• "Ha" "Hi" "Fu" "He" "Ho" - Become "Pa" "Pi" "Pu" "Pe" "Po".

^^; The accents apply to both hiragana and katakana in exactly the same way.

And that's officially the end of the first lesson, because I'm tired of typing, so. :P Tune in next week.