The Japanese Alphabet Part Two - Katakana

Before this lesson begins, it's quiz time! Below, you will see a Japanese word written in Hiragana. See if you can translate/pronounce it. Ready? Don't scroll down until you have the answer.

こんにちは

You should have gotten "konnichiha," which is pronounced "kohn nee chee wah," with the emphasis on the first syllable. But wait, isn't the last symbol "ha" and not "wa?" Well, technically you're right. But in Japanese, when "は" is used as a particle, it is always pronounced "wa." What is a particle, you ask? Well, that's for a later lesson. Right now, we focus on learning to read and pronounce.

Katakana

After finally deisolating their country from the world, Japan soon found out that there was a significant language barrier. Words from latin-based languages could not be written in Japanese! So, a system was devised to transcribe foreign words into Japanese. For example, the word "bed" is transliterated in Japanese as "beddo"(ベッド).

Below is the chart for the Katakana syllabary. Use the same method I recommended for learning Hiragana: notecards and reading text. Personally, because of similarities between certain symbols, I find that Katakana is more challenging to learn that Hiragana, but it is definitely manageable.

Study up! There'll be another quiz next lesson. ;)

Next time, we'll be learning the basic grammar structure of Japanese. Stay tuned!

The Japanese Alphabet - Hiragana

In Japanese, there are many words or particles that have no Kanji, or Chinese symbol, associated with them. Therefore, Hiragana was developed to express these words. The closest thing we know to Hiragana is an alphabet, but that it is not. Hiragana is a syllabary, which represents entire syllables instead of consonants and vowels. It may seem intimidating at first, but once you learn to read and pronounce Hiragana properly, learning the Japanese language really takes off. You'll find it makes learning much more convenient.

Below is a chart representing each Hiragana symbol with its respective sound. In Japanese, vowels are pronounced very similarly to Spanish. "A" is pronounced "ah," "e" is pronounced "eh," "i" is pronounced "ee" (like free), "u" is pronounced "oo" (like shoe), and "o" is pronounced "oh." As you start learning, you'll find that Japanese pronounciation of words rarely deviates from normal pronunciation, unlike in English, where there are many letters that remain silent, like in the word "weigh." Also, most of the Japanese consonants are pronounced just the same as English, except for "r," which is pronounced, once again, much like the spanish "r." The sound is sort of between the English "r" and "l". To make "r" sound, start to say "l", but make your tongue stop short of the roof of your mouth, almost in the English "d" position.

The best method I have found is using notecards to practice learning each symbol. When you get somewhat proficient, you can start practicing by reading Japanese text as fast as you can, until you can read fairly well. NOTE: ALWAYS read outloud when you are practicing. This will help you when you start speaking IMMENSELY!

The next lesson will be on Katakana, the more modern Japanese syllabary. Study up now, there'll be a quiz!