Enjoy Japanese: They Have Cute Characters

If you're new to learning the Japanese way of writing, know that there are four types of writing that is used in Japanese: Kanji, hiragana, katakana, and Romaji, which is the Latin alphabet that we all already know. Hiragana and katakana altogether is referred to as kana.

If I were to pick which one of these four that I enjoyed learning the most, it would definitely be hiragana. Mostly because of their aesthetic appearance, and how they're just so distinctly Japanese. So hiragana is what I'll be featuring in this post.

I learned these the generic way too - PRACTICE. Really, I too wished I had an amazing shortcut to store all these characters in my head at once.

Well, without further ado, let me expose you to the wondrous characters of hiragana!

Understand that kana characters are arranged in the vowel order (knowing this order will also be helpful when trying to text message in Japanese).

Say hello to the adorably curly-curly hiragana: 

あいうえお (A, I, U, E, O)

かきくけこ　(KA, KI, KU, KE, KO)

さしすせそ　(SA, SHI, SU, SE, SO)

たちつてと　(TA, CHI, TSU, TE, TO)

なにぬねの　(NA, NI, NU, NE, NO)

はひふへほ　(HA, HI, FU, HE, HO)

まみむめも (MA, MI, MU, ME, MO)

やゆよ (YA, YU, YO)

らりるれろ (RA, RI, RU, RE, RO)

わをん (WA, WO, N)

The ones that look alike:

さ and ち

わand れ and ね

め and ぬ

た and に

Exercise caution when recalling these because it's easy to get them mixed up at first :)

To discourage you: Think hiragana is hard? This is only the beginning of the journey to just be able to read Japanese. There are 46 Hiragana characters, 46 Katakana characters, and thousands of delightful Kanji (traditional Chinese characters), many of which have different readings when paired with different characters.

Hey, at least you already know 26 Romaji alphabets :D

To encourage you: Storing in your brain 96 exciting Kana characters? It's not hard. You CAN do it within days, maybe even hours, of dedicated practice. And for Kanji, sometimes they will have furigana (their readings in hiragana, usually written above them) to save us Kanji-illiterate gaijins*.

I was first introduced to Japanese through this Nintendo DS game called "My Japanese Coach". If you have a DS, I really recommend this game as it is effective and enjoyable. I have learned so much from this game that it's safe to say that it built me a great foundation for me to expand my knowledge of the Japanese language without a lot of confusion. Had I not have had this game, I would probably never have persevered in learning the kana.

みんなさん、がんばってください!

アリシア

Now listening: GReeeeN - あいうえおんがく♬ (Listen to this to get the hang of the kana vowel order!) 

* Gaijin （外人） = foreigner