I'm having trouble reading Hiragana!

[zakkusufea]

I started 3 days ago and I have a bit of studying to do before I can memorize all 40-some characters, but I decided to try and 'decode' some picture books written in Hiragana. I'm trying to understand 'Issun-bōshi'. My translation of the title itself came out to Itsusunbaushi, strangely enough.

Anyway, I don't really know how to derive English from Hiragana without converting the Hiragana to Romaji, so the first sentence of the story went like this; "mukashi mukashi kodomoga inai ojiisanto obaasanga kamisamani onegai o(<--- subject particle) Suruto koyubikuraino otokonooga umaremashitao"

There may be some errors. But honestly, I don't know what part of what words to convert. Like with "Kodomoga" do I translate "Kodo" and "Moga" or what? How do I know which parts to seperate? Also, each word has several different meanings. I started translating that and got "A long long time ago children moth inside of grandfather door grandmother moth god".

How can I translate without converting to Romaji? Also, how do I know where one word ends and one begins? I'm sorry that I'm so nooby. Thanks guys.

[ryuurui]

it's simple, you need to learn the words. First learn the hiragana, and then learn Japanese words. It is "kodomo ga", not "kodo moga". "Kodomo", in hiragana こども, means "a kid".
Japanese is a homophonic language, meaning, various words may sound identically. This is why we have kanji in Japanese. You learn them after you are done with learning hiragana.

[zakkusufea]

Originally Posted by ryuurui

it's simple, you need to learn the words. First learn the hiragana, and then learn Japanese words. It is "kodomo ga", not "kodo moga". "Kodomo", in hiragana こども, means "a kid".

Thank you! I feel foolish for having to have asked! Good day, kind person!

[steel]

To memorize kana in under 3 hours each, get this book:

"Remembering the Kana: A Guide to Reading and Writing the Japanese Syllabaries in 3 Hours Each" by Jim Heisig .... (linky - Amazon Japan)

Interview with the author:
"Adventures in Kanji-Land: James W. Heisig and the Birth of Remembering the Kanji" Based on an interview with James W. Heisig

[delacroix01]

I don't think it's a good idea to rush at the beginning. That will just put more strain on your brain. Learning just a few characters a day would be okay. I recall that it took me one month to completely memorize all the kana, and I started with katakana since it's easier to remember the strokes.

Also, as ryuurui stated, learning vocabulary will help you develop your ability to know where to split a sentence in your brain. It takes time and it can be very frustrating sometimes, so patience is very necessary when learning.

[IssuAga]

Patience is the key. If something doesn't make sense to you at the beginning, just stick with it and take steady progress. Eventually you will be able to find the answer one way or another.

[hitokiri679]

The first couple of things I thought of when I read your post were these:

1) The extra "tsu" you read wasn't really a "tsu" at all, but a "small tsu" (compare つ and っ). This represents a "doubled consonant" in Japanese, which takes an extra mora (syllable) 's worth of time. There is also a small ya, yu, and yo (ゃゅょ), which are used to create syllables like "kya" and "ryo".

Focus on learning *all* of Hiragana before you start trying to read anything. Go as fast as you can, I'd say, since it's just brute memorization (googling "hiragana flash cards" might be a good idea), but don't get ahead of yourself. Also, be on the lookout for look-alike characters - you mixed up ば 'ba' with ぼ 'bo'.

2) Trying to read children's books is a great idea, once you know at least a little Japanese grammar and you can identify particles like は、が、を、に、で and so on. I do agree that starting Kanji ASAP is a good idea as well. At your stage though, "fake Japanese" example sentences might be more helpful than authentic text.

If you want to go the immersion route, though, grab the Firefox addon "rikaichan", a pop-up dictionary (make sure to download the dictionary file too), and try exploring the web as well.

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by hitokiri679

The first couple of things I thought of when I read your post were these:

1) The extra "tsu" you read wasn't really a "tsu" at all, but a "small tsu" (compare つ and っ). This represents a "doubled consonant" in Japanese

Technically, it's not a doubled consonant. It's closer to a glottal stop (really, it's only not a glottal stop when followed by さ-column sounds, and the occasional wird ベッド or whatever). It just so happens that [i]in English[i] doubled voiceless consonants (p, t, k, ch,) are preceded by a glottal stop. In Japanese,

あっ！

is 100% correct orthography even though there's not a consonant at all in it! It means あ followed by a glottal stop. In essence, your voice/breath stops at the っ.

I know I've seen Japanese natives here wondering aloud "why do you think it means 'double the consonant'?" Just getting technical, though. For beginners who are native English speakers, it's a good-enough explanation (for now). It will confuse people once they're intermediates and encounter stuff like what I wrote above.

[hitokiri679]

Very true, "doubled consonant" is an inaccurate simplification. Thanks for that catch.

I suppose the only place where the consonant is literally lengthened is with the sa-gyou:

っさ ssa
っし sshi
っす ssu
っせ sse
っそ sso

Since the 's' and 'sh' sounds can be held indefinitely.