Friday, November 28, 2014

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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