Hiragana 9

Ah, laziness. You make my world go round. And by round I mean in circles that get you nowhere.

Today we have RA. RA is one of those special cases in Japanese that will confuse the bejeebus out of English speakers. Why? Because RA is pronounced something like "la". It is supposedly more complicated than that, but I haven't exactly figured it out yet. Just keep in mind that RA sounds more like LA and try to sound smart. This applies to all of these R- Hiragana.

Actually the full lesson link has some more info on pronunciation, I encourage much practice on this one. I'll be practicing as well.

Full lesson:
http://japanese-lesson.com/characters/hiragana/hiragana_drill/hiragana09.html

ら (ra)

り (ri)

る (ru)

れ (re)

ろ (ro)

Remember always to practice writing them on paper. They are fun to write, so enjoy it. Practice recognition as usual at http://www.realkana.com/.

Hiragana 8

I love the Y Hiragana set.

Full lesson here:
http://www.japanese-lesson.com/characters/hiragana/hiragana_drill/hiragana08.html

や (ya)

ゆ (yu)

よ (yo)

You may be wondering what happened to "yi" and "ye". Well, Japan decided that yi and ye were simply too complicated and that having i and e in their place would be better. So on a chart of Hiragana you may see an i and e in the blank spots. Since there is already both an i and an e there was no reason to make a new character for them.

Why do I love the Y set? Something about it makes it easy to remember. よ looks kind of like "YO" written in some kind of sideways cursive. や kinda reminds me of a Y too. ゆ...looks like a fish, I have no idea how that makes it easy to remember but whatever.

As practiced many times, make sure to write the Hiragana repeatedly, and practice your virtual flash cards at http://www.realkana.com/.

Hiragana 7

M is our daily letter today. No surprises this time!

Full lesson here:
http://www.japanese-lesson.com/characters/hiragana/hiragana_drill/hiragana07.html

ま (ma)

み (mi)

む (mu)

め (me)

も (mo)

You get to practicing! Write it. Recognize it. http://www.realkana.com/

Love it.

Hiragana 6

H time! This is about halfway through the Hiragana!

Full lesson:
http://japanese-lesson.com/characters/hiragana/hiragana_drill/hiragana06.html

は (ha)

ひ (hi)

ふ (fu) !!!!

へ (he)

ほ (ho)

As per usual, practice writing and recognition (http://www.realkana.com/).

FU!

Hiragana 5

Today's lesson is brought to you by the letter na. Try saying that to someone on the street, and admire the baffled look.

Full lesson:
http://japanese-lesson.com/characters/hiragana/hiragana_drill/hiragana05.html

な (na)

に (ni)

ぬ (nu)

ね (ne)

の (no)

Practice practice practice...until you're blue in the face. Write it on paper. Use http://www.realkana.com/ for visual practice.

Remember to pace yourself when learning the Hiragana for the first time. It's a lot to take in at once. I wrote these lessons to be gone over with at least a day's time in between. If you rush through you're likely to not remember anything. This would be counterproductive, so don't.

Hiragana 4

Today's post will be about the wonderful world of TA. In TA world there lives TA, TI, TU, TE, and TO.

Comfortable?

Good. I lied. TA world actually consists of TA, CHI, TSU, TE, TO. These are the other 2 exceptions to the pattern that I mentioned previously...and hey I might even be lying about that too. Same as the last time, the reason the pattern is different is only because of how they are actually pronounced.

By the way, if you aren't using the links I am providing you are only getting half of the story. I write these instructional posts with it in mind that you will visit the links and study what is there.

Full lesson:
http://www.japanese-lesson.com/characters/hiragana/hiragana_drill/hiragana04.html

た (ta)

ち (chi) - as in "cheese"

つ (tsu) - as in "tsunami"

て (te)

と (to)

Make sure to practice writing on paper, and practice recognition at http://www.realkana.com/. Any questions or comments are welcome. My e-mail is at nihonnotes [at] gmail [dot] com

Hiragana 3

Today I'll list off the SA line of characters. You should be seeing a pattern at this point. It is easy to remember what sounds are in the Japanese language. You just have to associate those sounds with the letters, which is obviously the hard part. Again, if you are having trouble remembering them, I can't say enough how much I love the book Remembering the Kana.

Full lesson here:
http://japanese-lesson.com/characters/hiragana/hiragana_drill/hiragana03.html

さ (sa)

し (shi)

す (su)

せ (se)

そ (so)

Whoa! That doesn't follow the pattern! No need to worry. There are only 3 exceptions to the a, i, u, e, o pattern. し by all means is "si"... but in spoken Japanese it is pronounced SHI. So thus we romanize it shi. Just keep calm and take it all in slowly. Now go practice at http://www.realkana.com/. Remember to practice writing it by hand too.

I haven't mentioned how important stroke order is yet. In the full lesson link they teach you how to write the character, they also show you proper stoke order. You NEED to write it in this fashion. I am not sure why, but I am fairly sure if you don't, a にんじゃ will be at your house in a couple minutes to show you his かたな.