Lesson 2 continuation: Japanese Alphabet Part 3: Kanji

Kanji: This writing system is the hardest out of the three Japanese writing systems because of the stroke order and the overall difficulty to master a writing system where a character can have several different meanings. The japanese term Kanji literally means Han characters or Chinese characters.

Lesson 2: The Japanese Alphabet Part 1: Hiragana ( ひらがな)

Hiragana: one compenent of the Japanese writing system along with Katakana, Romaji and Kanji. The first step to learning how to read Japanese, is to learn the 46 Hiragana characters. By starting with the first character that you see on the chart.

** This is all the property of Learn Japanese Free at www.learnjapanesefree.com/japanese-hiragana.html**

The Hiragana language is used for native words from which no kanji is used.

Fun tips to help you in learn Japanese

Although the basis of studying a language is usually memorizing vocabulary, speaking regularly, writing practice and listening intently. You can learn more vocabulary by simply doing other things that help you to learn a language like:


***If you have trouble finding any of these resources, here are some good sites or places to find them.


1. Listening to Japanese music.

• Utada Hikaru
• Ayumi Hamasaki

2. Reading Japanese Manga or children's books.

• Barnes and Noble
• Books a Million

3. Watching Japanese Anime and Dramas.

• Youtube.com
• Mysoju.com-there are also many other asian dramas besides Japanese dramas and all the dramas are english subbed.
• Viikii.com-another good site that is a lot like Mysoju.com

Itazura na Kiss

Vampire Knight

   






































If you have trouble finding any Japanese Anime to watch, here are some that you can start with:

1. Vampire Knight
2. Itazura na Kiss
3. Fruits Basket
4. Mermaid Melody

4. Japanese Dramas

• Hana Yori Dango*
• Mei-chan no Shitsuji*
• Ohitorisama*

*These Japanese Dramas are worth watching! They're so funny,romantic, and the storyline to each of these gets boring while watching but for the most part it can really get you motivated to learn Japanese.

5. Speaking to native Japanese speakers.

Lesson 1: Greetings

The first day of Japanese 1 Class, I learned the Greetings. Greetings are important because that's the first word that comes out of a person's mouth regardless of what language that person speaks. 

*There are two forms of words when it comes to Greetings: polite and familiar form. The polite form is used when talking to people who are older than you or a superior. If you want to know more about the polite forms of the Japanese language this is a good site to read. http://kimallen.sheepdogdesign.net/Japanese/polite.html

Polite Form                Japanese              Romaji                    

Hello/Good afternoon      こんにちは               Konnichiwa

Good morning              おはようございます         Ohayoo gozaimasu

Goodbye                   さようなら              Sayoonara

Good Evening              こんばんは               Konbanwa

Good night                おやすみなさい            Oyasuminasai  

*Thank you                ありがとうございます        Arigatoo gozaimasu

*The extreme polite form of Thank you very much is Doomo Arigatoo gozaimasu (どうもありがとうございます). 

Familiar                  Japanese            Romaji    

*hello/good afternoon     こんにちは           Konnichiwa


Good Morning              おはよう             Ohayoo


*Goodbye                  さようなら           Sayoonara              
*Good Evening             こんばんは           Konbanwa


Good night                おやすみ             Oyasumi


Thank you                 ありがとう           Arigatoo


*These words remained the same. 

Hello!

Hi, my name is Rebecca Lee and I am a rising junior in high schoool. I decided to create a Japanese Language blog to help other japanese language students or anyone who is interested in learning japanese. Although I'm only going to be a japanese level 3 student, I will use the knowledge I have gained from my teacher and help others like me. So if you have any comments feel free to ask me any questions. However, I might not be able to answer all the questions you have regarding the japanese language but I will try my best.