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So you are new to Hiragana? First read through this page to get a feel for what Hiragana is about. Then take a closer look. If you study 10-30 minutes a day learning 5 new Hiragana and then reviewing past Hiragana, I believe you will be able to read ALL of the Hiragana in 2 weeks AND begin reading Japanese the first day! There are tons of FREE resources on the web. I encourage you to use them. At the bottom of this page are a few links to pages elsewhere on the web that introduce the Japanese writing system very well. Also at the bottom there are links to books on hiragana. Enough of the introduction! I wanna get down to business. (GO TO HIRAGANA LESSONS)
Let's learn the first of the three
Japanese 'alphabets.' Three?!! You mean there's more!?!
Yes, but before you run for the aspirin, know that hiragana
is perhaps the most useful and it can be mastered
(to a slow, but readable degree) in less than 2 weeks!
Hiragana's sister is Katakana.
Once you learn Hiragana, you will notice how similar
Katakana is. The third 'alphabet' isn't an alphabet at
all. It is kanji - characters originally from
China. But more on that later...
Originally mainly women wrote in hiragana and men wrote in Chinese. So the oldest Japanese literature was mostly written by women. Today all three alphabets are used together. As a rule, most words (of Chinese or Japanese origin) are written with kanji + hiragana. And foreign loan words are written with katakana.
Most sounds in Japanese are found also in English. Unlike in English, the 'letters' in Japanese only have one sound, with three exceptions that will be mentioned later on. Please click on the sound files to get a feel for the sounds. The most important to master are the vowels (the first row). The sounds are all found in English. Please repeat the sounds many times. If you spend a few moments looking at the chart, you should be able to see a clear pattern (each column has the same vowel sound and each row has the same consonant sound.). The 4 letters in red are the only ones that deviate from the pattern.
These are all the basic hiragana letters. The rest are simply combinations of two hiragana. (For Example: to make the 'sha' sound - add し(shi) + や (ya) = しゃ (sha) - Notice how the second letter is smaller; but we will look at this latter) We will look at about 5 'letters' a
page. Do one a day and in no time you will be reading
real Japanese! 1. a-i-u-e-o FUN WITH HIRAGANA A cute drawing made from hiragana is Henohenomoheji
BOOKS: These books are great especially if you are a learner who needs something to encourage you. What's best? Well, I don't know. Depends on your studying style and tastes. Follow the links and read the comments by people who have used the books. Have fun learning! Let's Learn Hiragana Beginner's Kana
Workbook : Practice Drills for Writing Hiragana and
Katakana Remembering the
Hiragana : A Complete Course on How to Teach Yourself the
Japanese Syllabary in 3 Hours Easy Hiragana : First
Steps to Reading and Writing Basic Japanese Want more? Click here or go to Amazon.com LINKS FOR MORE ON THE WEB!:
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The name sounds
impossible to learn, but it is simply reading the
Hiragana that makes the character. The eyebrow is 'he.'
The eye is 'no.' The nose is 'mo.' the mouth is 'he.' And
the face is made by 'ji.'(ji
= shi + ") Do you see it?