LESSON 1

• Hiragana - used for native Japanese words
• Katakana - used for words borrowed from other languages.
• Kanji - are Chinese characters used to simplify a word so you don’t have to spell it all out.
• Hiragana - is the system students are supposed to learn first.
• Hiragana - used to write native Japanese words or to spell words or part of words that don’t have their own Kanji symbol.
• Hiragana - The rounded, curvilinear characters used for native words
• Hiragana - The essential building blocks in learning to read and write Japanese.
• Katakana - Japanese writing system use to write foreign and borrowed words.
• Katakana - originally considered as "men's writing"
• Katakana - use in abbreviation
• Katakana - For mimetic words like wanwan – bowwow
• Katakana - Use as to English as italics or boldface
• Katakana - Name of plants and animals in academic reports
• Kanji - Characters that were created in China
• Kanji - Introduced to Japan via Korea more than 1,500 years ago
• Kanji - There are 50,000 characters
• Kanji - 3000 employs for Japanese newspaper and magazines
• 1945- commonly used kanjis (Jouyou kanji)
• 1006 –taught at the elementary school level (kyouiku kanji)
• Romaji - The use of Roman Alphabet
• Romaji - Introduced by Yajiro
• Romaji - Intended for foreigners living in Japan
• Tome - (means “stop”). You bring your pen to a complete stop at the end of a stroke.
• Hane - (means “jump”). You end the stroke with a slight flick/hook
• Harai - (means “sweeping”). This is the broad sweep at the end of a stroke.
• a - あ
• i - い
• u- う
• e - え
• o - お
• DAKUTEN - are the two small strokes that

  change the sound of symbols.
• ‘k’ sound becomes a ‘g’ sound
• s sound becomes a ‘z’ sound
• t sound becomes a ‘d’ sound
• h sound becomes a ‘b’ sound
• HANDAKUTEN is a small circle that changes ‘h’ to ‘p’.
• long sound - i and u sounds are extended.
• double consonant sound, small tsu is added to consonant.
• nasal sound - N is pronounced as M if it follows B,M and P.