To get you started I’ll kick you off with a quick explanation of some of the more popular terms.

Rōmaji

Rōmaji (ローマ字), often mis-spelt as romanji or rōmanji, is where Japanese words are written in the Latin alphabet. For example, konnichiwa rather than こんにちわ.

Rōmaji is mostly used in Japan where tourists need to be able to read signs such as a railway station, hotel, airport or restaurant. The further you get out of the major cities, the less rōmaji you’ll see.

It is also frequently seen in Japanese dictionaries and textbooks for use by Japanese language beginners.

Rōmaji is commonly used to input Japanese characters into computers. Japanese keyboards mostly look exactly the same as Western keyboards. So to input a Japanese word, the user must type in the romanised version of the word (konnichiwa rather than こんにちわ) and the computer will do the rest.

I am not a fan of rōmaji for serious Japanese students as I feel it is better to learn kana and kanji than to rely on rōmaji. Use whatever you feel works best for your situation and level.

Furigana

Furigana (振り仮名) is the small hiragana or katakana printed next to or above a kanji character to explain its pronunciation. It is mostly found in children’s books or Japanese textbooks for beginners.

Furigana is especially helpful when you are making the transition to learning kanji and don’t yet know the many readings needed to be fluent at Japanese.

Hiragana

Hiragana is the first of three writing systems (hiragana, katakana and kanji) taught to Japanese children and most books for kids are written purely in hiragana. As they move in to grade one, kanji is gradually introduced and hiragana mostly removed. A typical university graduate is expected to know over 2000 kanji!

Although hiragana is used by children and replaced by kanji in grade school, it remains a very important part of Japanese as it is commonly found in the grammatical endings of nouns, verbs and adjectives, as well as for particles like が or から, and many other Japanese words that have no kanji equivalent.

Each hiragana is either an individual vowel or a consonant followed by a vowel. The exception, and there always is one, is “n” (ん).

Find out more about hiragana and download free worksheets here

Katakana

Katakana (カタカナ) is the second component of the Japanese writing system and is generally learnt alongside or after hiragana.

While a beginner may not initially be able to tell Katakana and Hiragana apart, with a little practice they are distinctively different.

Katakana is generally more angular and has short, straight strokes while hiragana is rounded and more cursive. The difference is much like in the English language where we start off writing in a printing-style before learning cursive writing as we move through school.

Katakana is predominately used to write foreign or loan words in Japanese.

In the photo above you can see the city and country names from around the world, which are all written in katakana as they are loan words.

Kanji

Kanji (漢字) are the characters that are used in the Japanese writing system along with hiragana and katakana. They were imported from China around 500AD although the timing of its use in Japan varies substantially.

Kanji are taught to Japanese children after learning hiragana and katakana and the Japanese government has strict sets of kanji that are to be learnt at each grade level. By the time a typical Japanese student finishes university they will know approx. 2000 kanji!

The list of 1,945 kanji that must be learnt be all Japanese students is known as Jōyō kanji.

Japanese school children learn 1006 kanji characters from grades one to six and a further 939 kanji characters in secondary school.

There are changes taking place in 2010 that will see the number of official “must-know” kanji move to over 2000.

The total kanji figure is debatable but is said to be around 50,000. Let’s be thankful we don’t need to know all of those!

Readings

Kanji readings fit into just two categories, On (On’yomi – Chinese reading) and Kun (Kun’yomi – Japanese reading).

The difficulty for beginners and advanced students alike is that most kanji have more than one reading. So on top of having to learn the approx. 2000 Jōyō kanji there are also multiple readings of each kanji that you must know.

Also, when you add two or more kanji together their meaning might change or expand making the concept different.

For example the kanji for “outside” is 外. This kanji has the On readings – ガイ (gai),  ゲ (ge) along with the Kun readings – そと (soto),  ほか (hoka),  はずす (hazusu),  はずれる (hazureru),  と- (to).

So when 外 is used in the context of “outside” on it’s own you might pronounce it – そと (soto). However when it is used in 外国 (gaikoku), which means foreign country (eg outside country) then you can see the ガイ (gai) reading is used along with こく (country).

The general rule is that kanji that are on their own are typically read using their kun’yomi, as in the そと (soto) example above.

Kanji that occur in compounds, which are two or more kanji together as in the 外国 (gaikoku) example above are generally read using on’yomi.

These are only general rules and there are many exceptions but that is beyond the scope of this article so I won’t confuse things too much. ^_^

Stroke Order

In Japanese, a stroke order refers to the order in which the strokes of a kana or kanji character are written.

As a general rule, strokes are written from top to bottom and left to right. When there are upper and lower parts of the kanji, the upper strokes are written first, then the lower.

It is debatable that you need to focus heavily on learning the exact stroke order for each kanji. My personal view is that it is a good discipline to have but if you are fluent with the rest of your Japanese, not knowing the stroke orders isn’t going to hold you back too much.

Kana

Kana is the word used to refer to both hiragana and katakana. When you hear someone say that you need to learn the “kana” when starting Japanese, that just means that you need to learn hiragana and/or katakana.

That’s all for now – I hope this has helped to clear up any questions you may have had about these terms. Please leave a comment if you want to know more or let me know if I have missed anything.

• Learn Katakana: The Starter Kit
• Learn Kanji: The Kanji Starter Kit
• Book Review: Jimi’s Book Of Japanese
• Hiragana: The A Line
• Hiragana: The T Line

We’ll be going through the N line of the hiragana table, which returns us briefly to the standard aiueo order of the earlier hiragana rows.

The N line consists of na (な), ni (に), nu (ぬ), ne (ね) and no (の). There are a few important hiragana in this line that you’ll frequently see in any Japanese sentences.

N Line Particles

Aside from its general use as part of word like こんにちは (ko-n-ni-chi-wa), ni (に) is also used as a particle. The use of ni (に) in a sentence can indicate place, destination, date and time or who/what an action is directed to.

The other hiragana particle in the N line is no (の) and if you ever visit Japan or read any Japanese, you will see this particle used a lot and (perhaps) primarily to show possession.

• Hiragana: これ は わたし の かさ です。(kore-wa-watashi-no-kasa-desu)
• Kanji: これは私の傘です。
• English: This is my umbrella.

To save confusion at this point, I’ll leave any further particle discussions for another article. Google “japanese particles” to find out more if you’d like to jump ahead.

ne (ね) is a hiragana you may tend to hear more than you actually read on a daily basis. If you listen to any casual Japanese conversation for a short period of time you will hear ne (ね) at the end of a lot of sentences.

A popular example would be: そう です ね (so-desu-ne), which sounds like “so dess nay”. This phrase has many meanings but it’s generally “yeh, that’s right” or “yeh, you’re right”.

N Line Examples

As you move past the kana (hiragana and katakana) and on to kanji, your use of Hiragana will be less and less, however there are certain words that do not have a kanji equivalent and always appear as hiragana.

Hiragana is also used to add on to the end of kanji for other reasons, which we’ll get to much later. Suffice to say you need to know hiragana ^_^

Hiragana In The Wild

To see real world usage of hiragana, try visiting a site such as Yomiuri Online, a popular Japanese news site, and read through as many stories as possible, pick out the hiragana you know and make a note of your progress. It’s exciting as a beginner to realise that you are improving your Japanese skills and can identify some actual real-life Japanese.

Please don’t ever be discouraged by how much you don’t know in terms of kana or kanji – just get excited about the ones you do know.

Learn Not Burn

As I mentioned in previous articles, I see a lot of students that think they can learn the hiragana in a day. While this may be true, the retention of this quick learning may be fairly short. We have all crammed for exams before and a week later remember none of it.

There’s no doubt some people can learn things very quickly but I prefer to take it slowly and make sure I am actually learning what I am reading rather than just cramming and forgetting.

I find the best practice is to read as much hiragana text as you can even if you don’t understand what the words mean. You want to get to the point where you can read it as quickly as your own alphabet and while this seems a mile away at the moment – it will become reality as long as you put in the hours to make it happen.

Practice

I have included below a na-ni-nu-ne-no (な-に-ぬ-ね-の) worksheet for you to practice writing and memorising the characters plus a full hiragana worksheet.

• Download Hiragana (na-ni-nu-ne-no) Worksheet »
• Download Full Hiragana Worksheet »

Also check out:

• Wikipedia’s Hiragana page »
• Real Kana – Free online kana quiz game »
• Tangorin – Free Online Dictionary with Example Sentences »

• Hiragana: The S Line
• Hiragana: The T Line
• Hiragana: The K Line
• Tenses: Past and Present
• Hiragana: The A Line

Welcome to the fourth instalment of our hiragana lessons on zonjineko.com – the hiragana T line.

I’ll be stepping you through the fourth line of the hiragana table which, if you’ve read through my first few hiragana line lessons, brings in a couple of changes outside the standard aiueo order of the earlier hiragana rows.

The T line consists of ta (た), chi (ち), tsu (つ), te (て), to (と) and the changes to the aiueo rule happen in two places. The first difference comes with chi (ち), which replaces the expected “ti” and is visually a mirror image of さ (sa) so don’t get confused there.

The other change is tsu (つ), which comes in place of what you may have assumed would be “tu”.

Not to confuse things but the “tsu” also comes in two varieties – small and normal (the one we’re learning today). I won’t double up on the explanation of them both as I have already written a detailed explanation here for your viewing pleasure.

Also just to clarify, there is no such hiragana as ti or tu – they simply do not exist. Like any language there are rules to the exceptions and the hiragana has a few of its own such as these.

As you move past the kana (hiragana and katakana) and on to kanji, your use of Hiragana will be less and less, however there are certain words that do not have a kanji equivalent and always appear as hiragana. Hiragana is also used to add on to the end of kanji for other reasons, which we’ll get to much later. Suffice to say you need to know hiragana ^_^

Hiragana In The Wild

To see real world usage of hiragana, try visiting a site such as Yomiuri Online, a popular Japanese news site, and read through as many stories as possible, pick out the hiragana you know and make a note of your progress. It’s exciting as a beginner to realise that you are improving your Japanese skills and can identify some actual real-life Japanese.

Please don’t ever be discouraged by how much you don’t know in terms of kana or kanji – just get excited about the ones you do know.

Learn Not Burn

As I mentioned in previous articles, I see a lot of students that think they can learn the hiragana in a day. While this may be true, the retention of this quick learning may be fairly short. We have all crammed for exams before and a week later remember none of it.

There’s no doubt some people can learn things very quickly but I prefer to take it slowly and make sure I am actually learning what I am reading rather than just cramming and forgetting.

I find the best practice is to read as much hiragana text as you can even if you don’t understand what the words mean. You want to get to the point where you can read it as quickly as your own alphabet and while this seems a mile away at the moment – it will become reality as long as you put in the hours to make it happen.

Practice

I have included below a ta-chi-tsu-te-to (た-ち-つ-て-と) worksheet for you to practice writing and memorising the characters plus a full hiragana worksheet.

• Download Hiragana (ta-chi-tsu-te-to) Worksheet »
• Download Full Hiragana Worksheet »

Also check out:

• Wikipedia’s Hiragana page »
• Real Kana – Free online kana quiz game »
• Tangorin – Free Online Dictionary with Example Sentences »

• Hiragana: The S Line
• Hiragana: The N Line
• Hiragana: The K Line
• Hiragana: The A Line
• Download: Free Kanji Graph Paper

If you spend any time reading around the interwebs this time of year, you’ll notice the great unwashed coming out of their caves and denouncing the JLPT as a waste of money and/or time.

While it is true that neither JLPT N4 or JLPT N3 are going to get you a job labelling life-saving pharmaceuticals in Japan, they do provide a consistent and relative summation of your Japanese skills. You take exactly the same test as everyone else in the world – it doesn’t get much fairer than that.

Of course, the JLPT on all levels is clearly lacking in some areas – particularly speaking and writing – but it is the best that is available outside of Japan so we can’t be too picky.

There’s really no simple answer as to why you should (or shouldn’t) take the JLPT, as everyone has a different reason for putting themselves to the test.

If you’re like me, you need a solid goal to get your arse in to gear.

As a full-time member of Procrastinators Anonymous, a tight, immovable deadline coupled with the fear of being mocked by my peers for coming up short would be reason enough for me to take it and to do well.

Perhaps your motivations are far less self-centred than mine, you may actually be looking at the JLPT certification for something important, like a job in Japan.

If you’re trying to secure any type of professional job, your employers will require at least JLPT N2 and more than likely JLPT N1.

Depending on the company, they may waive the JLPT requirement if you can prove in an interview that you are fluent. However, having that JLPT certificate in your hands confirms, at least on paper, that you have the required skills.

In a recent job ad on www.dannychoo.com, the ubiquitous Mr Choo posted his requirement for a new developer as:

You need to be well versed in Japanese – at least JLPT level two or equivalent speaking/reading and writing skill. If you can read most of the Japanese version of this post then you qualify for this requirement.

While JLPT N2 was used in the ad to set a benchmark that most understand, in reality if you knew your stuff and could prove your Japanese fluency then the job was yours. Unfortunately it counted me out of the race on both counts (^_^).

As with most things in life, it is best to do what you think is best for you and your future and not what others believe is best.

If you want a piece of paper hanging on the wall to tell your friends and family that you know 100 kanji and that your Japanese rocks, then do it.

If you’re eyeing off a future that includes well-paid employment in Japan then do it.

Take it for what it is, a simple test of skills. If you find the idea abhorrent then don’t apply.

What have you got to lose?

It’s a few hours out of your life and costs less than you’ll spend on beer at the pub this Saturday night.

• Do you have a J-CLUE?
• Learn Kanji: The Kanji Starter Kit
• Use Twitter To Improve Your Japanese
• Review: My Top 5 Kanji iPhone Apps
• Download: Free Kanji Graph Paper

Welcome to the third instalment of our hiragana lessons on zonjineko.com – the hiragana S line.

We’ll be stepping through the third line of the hiragana table which, if you’ve read through my first two lessons for the A line and K line, you may assume would just be as simple as adding a “s” to the front of the vowels (aiueo) but on this occasion that does not hold true.

The S line signals the first of what will be many rule-breaker moments that you’ll experience as you learn Japanese. It consists of sa (さ), shi (し), su (す), se (せ), so (そ). The changes to our aiueo rule happens with shi (し), which takes the place of what would be “si”, however the rest of the line remains as is.

As you move past the kana and on to kanji, your use of Hiragana will be less and less, however there are certain words that do not have a kanji equivalent and always appear as hiragana.

One of those is です (de-su), which as you may have noticed from reading any Japanese text, forms an integral part at the end of sentences.

Example: 犬が欲しいです (I want a dog)

To see real world usage of hiragana, try visiting a site such as Yomiuri Online, a popular Japanese news site, and read through as many stories as possible, pick out the hiragana you know and make a note of your progress. It’s exciting as a beginner to realise that you are improving your Japanese skills and can identify some actual Japanese.

Please don’t ever be discouraged by how much you don’t know in terms of kana or kanji – just get excited about the ones you do know.

Learn Not Burn

As I mentioned in my A line article, I see a lot of students that think they can learn the hiragana in a day. While this may be true, the retention of this quick learning may be fairly short. We have all crammed for exams before and a week later remember none of it.

There’s no doubt some people can learn things very quickly but I prefer to take it slowly and make sure I am actually learning what I am reading rather than just cramming and forgetting.

I find the best practice is to read as much hiragana text as you can even if you don’t understand what the words mean. You want to get to the point where you can read it as quickly as your own alphabet and while this seems a mile away at the moment – it will become reality as long as you put in the hours to make it happen.

Practice

I have included below a sa-shi-su-se-so (さ-し-す-せ-そ) worksheet for you to practice writing and memorising the characters plus a full hiragana worksheet.

• Download Hiragana (sa-shi-su-se-so) Worksheet »
• Download Full Hiragana Worksheet »

Also check out:

• Wikipedia’s Hiragana page »
• Real Kana – Free online kana quiz game »
• Tangorin – Free Online Dictionary with Example Sentences »

• Hiragana: The T Line
• Hiragana: The N Line
• Hiragana: The K Line
• Hiragana: The A Line
• Book Review: Japanese Graded Readers

Today I’ll be taking you through the second line of the hiragana table, which adds a “k” to the front of the vowels (a-i-u-e-o) that we’ve already learnt to end up with ka (か), ki (き), ku (く), ke (け), ko (こ).

The great thing about hiragana (and katakana) is that for the most part it follows the a-i-u-e-o pattern you learnt in your first lesson, which makes things easier to grasp as you move forward eg one less thing to remember!

Here’s a left-fielder for those that like to jump ahead. The Japanese word for soap (せっけん – sekken) makes use of the tricky small tsu (っ), which doubles the first letter that follows it. In this case that is “k” from け (ke). So you remove the small tsu and replace it with the k to get せっけん (sekken).

I have included below a ka-ki-ku-ke-ko (か-き-く-け-こ) worksheet for you to practice writing and memorising the characters.

As I mentioned in my “A Line” article I see a lot of students of Japanese that think they can learn the hiragana in a day. While this may be true, the retention of this quick learning may be fairly short. We have all crammed for exams before and a week later remember none of it.

There’s no doubt some people can learn things very quickly but I prefer to take it slowly and make sure I am actually learning what I am reading rather than just cramming and then forgetting.

I find the best practice is to read as much hiragana text as you can even if you don’t understand what the words mean. You want to get to the point where you can read it as quickly as you can your own alphabet and while this seems a mile away at the moment – it will become reality as long as you put in the hours to make it happen.

• Download Hiragana (ka-ki-ku-ke-ko) Worksheet »
• Download Full Hiragana Worksheet »

Also check out Wikipedia’s Hiragaga page »

• Hiragana: The S Line
• Hiragana: The T Line
• Hiragana: The N Line
• Hiragana: The A Line
• Romaji Is Evil

In this lesson we’ll be going through the first five hiragana characters, which are equivalent, in terms of letters, to the vowels in English eg a, e, i, o, u. The first difference you’ll notice is their order, which can be confusing for English-speaking beginners as we are so used to the English vowel order but over time the Japanese way becomes second nature.

The Hiragana vowel order is a (あ), i (い), u (う), e (え), o (お). The table below shows the five Hiragana plus basic examples to see how they are used in real life.

There is no special secret to learning hiragana – you just have to spend the time going over these and eventually they will stick in your brain. You can then move on to katakana, which uses the same vowel order and lastly, kanji.

One thing that I read all the time on the interwebs are people berating others on Japanese forums by saying that they learned the entire hiragana in one afternoon or in 10 minutes or overnight.

While I am sure there are people with extraordinary language and memorisation powers, the rest of us will probably need a little longer so please don’t get bogged down by comparing yourself to others. Work at your own speed and get it done your way. If you still haven’t learned the hiragana after a year then yes you may have a problem but otherwise don’t worry about it.

For now it’s important you nail these first five hiragana as the pattern of letters is the basis most of the rest of the hiragana and katakana.

I have included a basic worksheet for you to practice writing and memorising the characters. The full chart lists all of the basic Hiragana on one page with the romaji on one page and writing practice on the other so you can test yourself.

• Download Hiragana AIUEO Worksheet
• Download Basic Hiragana Chart

Also check out Wikipedia’s Hiragaga page for a more technical background of the Hiragana.

• Hiragana: The T Line
• Hiragana: The K Line
• Hiragana: The S Line
• Hiragana: The N Line
• Book Review: Jimi’s Book Of Japanese