Learning Hiragana and Katakana

Learning Hiragana and Katakana

There are 3 Japanese writing systems,Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji.

This post will focus on Hiragana and Katakana, I will explain them a little before I dive in to showing different ways to learn them.

This is hiragana, ひらがな。
This is katakana カタカナ

They look rather different. Hiragana is more rounded and friendly looking where as Katakana is more angular and pops out more like our capitals, like this hiragana KATAKANA. You defiantly notice the Katakana more.

ひらがな、is used for Japanese words, words that are originally Japanese like the Japanese word for cute, which most people know to be kawaii uses hiragana. かわいい。You can write things in Hiragana that could be wrote in Kanji as well so it is a good stepping stone.

These are pictures to the hiragana and katakana charts that I found online, I will also include links

It is by a girl on devientart here is a link, it is so cute :)
kaoyux.deviantart.com/art/Stroke-Order-Hiragana-and-Katakana-284288421



So this is one of the techniques I used to learn hiragana. The technique is called mnemonic, yes it is a rather funny word but it is a memory device, I used stories and pictures to help me although mnemonics can have many different uses

In one of my earlier posts for learning kanji I would make up little stories to help me remember the radicals, but at this stage you don't have to worry about radicals.

So the mnemonic technique I used at first is turning the hiragana in to pictures I highly suggest learning the pronunciation first. You can do this with youtube and apps what ever suits you.

I will show you my notebook from when I was learning Hiragana, its a bit messy but I want to show you.










There that is a lot of images but it just to show about learning hiragana, what I did was draw the character and then I drew what I thought it looked like or could be turned in to then I would read them a few times, and then practice underneath and then later on I would practice them again and again until I knew them and then I would test myself later again and if I get it right I will move on, to the next set which this repeats. Try to keep it fun and if it is too stressful wait a day, but don't forget about it, then all will be okay.


I did something different with my katakana one which you can do for hiragana as well, I found this a lot more fun. I look up on the internet a Japanese song I like in romaji (they can even be English songs that have been translated to Japanese, their will be lots of Disney songs)

So I get my katakana or hiragana chart, then online look up Len super hero romaji lyrics which is a song I listed to constantly a while back.



Then I click on different web pages to find a lyrics page. (you can also use YouTube to find lyrics)




Then I hide my chart upside down, get my notebook or paper and then try to write the song of I can't remember one I look at my chart and write it down, after a while of this I pick things up and as I do I felt really happy.



You can do this with other songs as well.




Here are some other examples.






You can also take hiragana and katakana quizzes, You can make up you'r own quizzes using a note book or you can simply find them online.

Here are some websites that you can use for quizzes.
simplemedia.org/kana/

www.easyjapanese.org/kanaquiz.html

www.japanesepod101.com/member/lockout.php?page=kana_practice&back=%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dkana%2Bquiz%26client%3Dms-opera-mobile%26channel%3Dnew%26gws_rd%3Dcr%26ei%3DOgR5VOS0K9XraqeVgkg

You can also play games and use flash cards.

iteslj.org/v/j/ss-01.html . FC

www.learn-hiragana-katakana.com/
Game

www.learn-hiragana-katakana.com/japanese-alphabet-typing-game-katakana/ Game

www.easyjapanese.org/memory.html Game

learnjapanesepod.com/kana-invaders/ Game


genki.japantimes.co.jp/self_en

And right here we have a whole lot of stuff going on with this websites.

Of course there are many ways to learn Japanese hiragana and katakana these are just some of the ones I liked from my experience and my friends experience, feel free to leave a comment with you'r method or if this has helped you in any way even helpful links for other users, have fun

Another little hint I would learn to write you'r name in hiragana an katakana you're brain seems to remember this really fast. :)

ありがとう。
A ri ga to u.
Thank you, every one

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New app to help learn languages.

I was browsing Google play as I do in the education section, I thought Google was telling me how bad my English was because loads of learn English for beginner apps came up and a SATS test vocabulary app, this make me laugh, it was when I was there I came across this little app called Linqapp.

Linqapp is a fun little app do you remember my previous post about apps and websites on it, if so you may remember Italki which I adore but unfortunately there is no app for it which makes it a bit hard to use on my phone, well this app is beautiful for some of the basic components found in Italki.

You can ask and answer questions on it, you can also message people that you find using the find people function, this app is so user friendly.



You can then click on them and see information about them, you can then choose to follow them or message them.





This is the side menu and it tells you plainly what each option does so yay.



This is the notification menu when some one posts a question in your native language you will get a notification in you'r top bar and that will take you to here, you will also get notifications when some one follows you, and when you get a message you will get a notification in the top bar but not in this place.










This is showing the question pages it is really easy to search for things but some times you get no answers at all or only a really bad answer but it is still not that well known yet so that is acceptable.







These options shows all the answers you have. Answered and asked open and closed questions.





For the more competitive there is a leader board so you can try and get better than other people around the world, it can really keep you motivated.


I will probably write some thing like this about Linqapp again when I get to know it better, but so far it seems really good and its nice and quick.

I know I said about my radicals being done soon but I lost my pencil case on the bus that takes me to college every day, they cant find it so I had to re buy a multi-coloured pen I will also invest in some gel pens and this time I will be.more careful.

Have fun and cąm oń.

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Recently... (update)

Recently I have slowed down with my language learning with the first hetic month of colege but im mostly on track with that now so I hoping to start right back up tomorrow, slowly though but still a start *high five* okay its not just college its also my cute little tamagotchi, im obsessed at the moment I guess, just a little...



And also this one which is on the google play.



They are both so cutteeee. I can't help it I guess I like cute things.

Back to the matter at hand I just need to push these radicals through which I this is what making me a little reluctent to do things because im so close to finishing, but as planned I still learn my vocabulary slowly, but it still happans slow and steady wins the race. This is just a little progress report belive me I will be done my radicals soon I will make sure of it.

Thank you for reading this mini update. ありがとうみなさん。cám ơn.

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Apps and websites to help along the learning process

Hello again how is everyone today. I have been pondering all day, what to blog about and how I would present the information, but yay I realized this phone can take screen shots so yay for that.

So im going to be talking about one of the well known app/computer application thing.

Anki or AnkiDroid I can only comment on the app, which is a flashcard app and it is free!!!!



So these are some of the decks I have made all for Japanese but you can get shared decks among other things and it works offline so its quite handy. Although it looks bland ita effective and it achives what it wants to do. I did get confused at first with the layout and how I was ment to do things.

The thing I dont like is I have to see the card to delete it or edit it, because sometimes the image dosn't work. its really good and I would give it a shot. You could also just make your own flash cards which will be more personal.



I will talk about Memrise which I have used both the website and the app which I love both.

Its simple to use and I find it more entertaining I love fun things because they get me to learn while thinking i'm just messing on with a game, the leader board system really adds to this esspcially if you'r a bit more competitive.




The app doesn't show you a leader board but it still has the game element to it, there are also a lot of languages on there.


App image


Website image

What I like also is the water the plant process it makes me feel like im acomplishing something.






Italki is another website I love I have heard its similer too Lang8



You can talk to people from other countrys via messages, write notebook entrys and get corrections. You can also ask questions about languages and get answers. You can also start a discussion with the wider community.








I recently discovered  tunein radio again I have only used the app though so far.

So I listen to lots of Japanese radio on this and its amazing I have the free version so I get adverts but the adverts are not bad they pop up but the cross is big. I have only accdntly clicked it once.

There are loads of stations to listen to you can also listen to podcast and the news. Its user friendly and I haven't had much trouble with it.







I like these two websites for reading the first one for sound and second one for reading and some new vocabulary.

hukumusume.com/douwa/betu/index.html

life.ou.edu/stories/








There are a few more sites and apps I need to talk about so watch out for that.

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