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10-20-2010, 01:19 AM
So the stroke is like where one letter is columnized and the other letter is on the row line and they connect together to make the vowel sound if I'm right? Like as an example, there are A I O U E but there are KA KI KU KO KE and more others but with differount sounds.
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10-20-2010, 02:01 AM
Romaji are Japanese words written with English letters. It's not really used in Japanese language.
Example of Romaji: Houyouryoku Hiragana is the Japanese alphabet. Words that have no Kanji, particles, and other things are written in Hiragana. There are 46 Hiragana characters plus things called "smalls". Sometimes you will see small Hiragana characters above Kanji, so you can see how it is pronounced. this is called Furigana. Hiragan is very important because it is the Japanese alphabet. I really suggest you learn this one first. You need to learn and practice exactly how to write it and pronounce each one. Example of Hiragana: つづきます Katakana is Japanese characters used to write foreign words. If you were to write your name in Japanese it would be in Katakana. It's also used for onomonopeia or to kind of make something look fancy. This is the second alphabet you should learn after Hiragana. You need to learn and practice exactly how to write it and pronounce each one as well. Example of Katakana: スピード Kanji are characters borrowed from Chinese which can have different readings and meanings. Japanese even have a few of their own. Each Kanji has an "on" reading which is from Chinese and a "kun" reading which is Japanese. Kanji is the hardest one because there are about 2,00 Kanji that Japanese learn each with multiple readings. Even native Japanese speakers aren't able to read all Kanji until high school. Kanji is really important if you want to be able to read things in Japanese, and if you stay committed you will learn! It's important to learn the stroke order, number of strokes and both types of readings. Example of Kanji: 震動 Good luck! And don't give up. Japanese can seem overwhelming a lot of times but if you try hard and practice a lot you will learn!
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10-20-2010, 02:20 AM
Whoa, a lot of explanation that helps me understand more why Hiragana is very important! Thank you so much guys! I really appreciate your support toward me.
So far I've done 15 hiragana and still working on reaching to know 46 hiragana ^_^
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10-20-2010, 02:57 AM
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About romaji, I'd say that it is indeed used in Japanese language. For starters, typing Japanese on a keyboard requires knowledge of romaji (for the record there are many different types of romaji... some of them work better for computer input). Another place where you will see romaji is on street signs (like 青カン, or "blue signs" that you'll see on roads that help give you an idea of where you're going. This romaji is even important for Japanese to understand as kanji for town names can be hard to read and there isn't any "furigana"). Another use is on store signs. Most major stores have their store names written in romaji. The truth is though, that romaji is only important for computer input for most people as far as I can tell. About hiragana- those "smalls" are called "furigana". Furigana are used to show the reading of kanji (and unfortunately sometimes "English"). Sometimes they are there and sometimes they aren't. It depends on what you're looking at and the age level it was made for (you won't usually see furigana on top of basic kanji unless you're reading something for elementary school kids). Likewise, you will sometimes see "furigana" written for katakana words (I've only seen this in material that was for 5-6 year olds). Katakana is unique to hiragana in that there are certain sounds that you can express with it that would otherwise be hard to do. You'll see certain character combinations that you would normally not see in hiragana (which is to be expected as katakana is frequently used for foreign words). I'd like to give a tip to you ShinJon. Learn the sounds of the hiragana you are practicing. This is the most important part. I can't tell you of a place to hear them... so hopefully someone has some advice there. I think that saying the hiragana as you write them will help you remember them a lot. However, saying them incorrectly will help you learn them incorrectly. I think that fixing that kind of mistake is pretty hard, so it's better to get it right the first time. I think that is the problem with learning "romaji" first. You see letters that you are familiar with, so you assign sounds that you are familiar with. They are two different langauges, so even sounds that sound similar ought to be recognized as being different. The earlier you can recognize this, the better. People will often say that you pronounce Japanese as it is written... while that is true to an extent, it is also misleading. There are many situations where you wouldn't read a word exactly as the hiragana suggests. Here's an example: がっこう vs ちゅうがっこう Those two words both share が, but the two がs are pronounced differently. To put it simply, if you can get some kind of audio to practice vocabulary/phrases with as a reference, I think it would do you a lot of good.
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10-20-2010, 03:04 AM
Steve, I have been given a tip from someone else that gave me a website that helps me read and write hiragana and even listen to the sounds. I was practicing listening to these sounds, but somehow the -u sounds are hard to hear cause it is quiet if I am right?
Example: -u う , su す, ku く And, thanks for the head-up advice..I am going to work on listening to these sounds so I can actually remember it as I write along. Thanks 
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10-20-2010, 03:26 AM
I think this goes for all "vowel" sounds in Japanese, but I've noticed it particularly for the う sounds... English speakers have a tendency to drag out the vowel sound too much. If anything, the う sounds should be almost inaudible. So if you are having trouble hearing it, then maybe that means you've found a good source for your listening!
For example です has a す at the end, but many people don't even bother saying the う portion of the す and it ends up being like でS, if you get what I mean. (although I get the feeling that following through with the す sounds more polite). おはようございます is another example (of a couple of things I've been talking about, actually). To be more specific, the す at the end can be said as an "s" sound. Some people drag that "s" out quite a bit. Another feature of it is that most people don't say the whole phrase. Think of it as English speakers saying "G'mornin'!" or "'mornin'" or something like that. I've even heard Japanese people jokingly say "はざす" very clearly instead of おはようございます. A lot of people say おす, as well. It's not really polite, but it can be used at pretty much all times of the day. But yea, your ears are you friend. Learn to trust them. Go by what you hear more than by what you see. By that I mean, don't say a word the way it is written, say it the way you hear it. If you have the means, record yourself and listen to the playback! You might be dissapointed with the resutls, but it's a good way to practice (as it's also a good way to practice singing or playing an instrument). Disclaimer: I know I said learn to use your ears instead of your eyes... but that is in regards to going from written to spoken language. Using your eyes is EXTREMELY important with Japanese. I'll give you a few examples of using your eyes. One example would be to watch peoples' mouths. This is a part of listening. You can learn to kind of lip read (although I think it's a lot harder in Japanese than in English). You can also study peoples' mouths to see how they "shape" their words. You can check your own "shapes" with a mirror in the privacy of your home later on. Another thing about "speaking" Japanese is that gestures and mannerisms and when and where to say things is very important. So watching people and what they do is a very important aspect of the language. This is not an option for a lot of learners of Japanese though. In the end though, you can't think of this stuff ALL THE TIME, so you should just review this kind of stuff every now and then to keep it in the back of your mind. If you worry too much about every little thing, you'll never get a word out... and that's the most important part!
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10-20-2010, 03:42 AM
this might help aswell, you'll hear the "the japanese r sounds like l,d and r but somewhere inbetween" its usually not described very well by what that actually means...
when you ra notice where your tongue is in your mouth, then say la and da...notice how your tongue hits the roof of your mouth? when pronoucing the japanese R sound your tongue should be somewhere inbetween were your tongue makes the L and D sounds hope that helps ^___^
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10-20-2010, 06:03 AM
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10-20-2010, 06:23 AM
OK, I apologize. I misinterpreted what you said. In that case, it would fall under "hiragana". In the case of hiragana, though, you only see certain "small" kana.
As far as I know, you only see っ (small tsu), ゃ, ゅ, and ょ. Sometimes you'll see things like ぁ, but that would be for things like わぁ～, which isn't exactly a word, persay. "じぉうし", as far as I know, should probably be written as "じょうし”. This is an area where hiragana and katakana differ. With katakana, you'll often see a lot of "small" kana that you'd normally not see in hiragana. (Sometimes you'll see "katakana words" written in hiragana. In fact, old video games do this a lot. Here are some examples of using small katakana in situations where you wouldn't usually do it with hiragana. ジェット ジェスチャー チェキ パーティー スティーブン/スティーヴン (notice the "ten ten" on the ウ, which would be unusual for hiragana) トゥーズデー (as opposed to チューズデー) Incidentally, although it may be different from what is "normal" you sometimes see English words "transcribed" into katakana with the use of "small" kana. フレンド This would indicate to the reader that you shouldn't pronounce the vowel end of the ド. I imagine that most people aren't famliar with that though. I've also seen it done with a small ッ written at the end of the kana (this might actually be less uncommon).
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10-20-2010, 07:03 AM
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And I also want to make a point that Katakana is sometimes used for Hiragana words but I didn't explain it really in my first post because I was mainly talking about it's basic use. I've seen people mix up Hiragana and Katakana in a normal Japanese sentence just to make it look cool. I've seen song titles that have Japanese names but it is written in Katakana just to make it look nice. It's hard to explain the exact little situations where Katakana replaces Hiragana and I think it's just something people have to learn on their own. Like I did. So we just have to expose ourselves to Japanese writing a lot to be able to understand it.
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