Language forum Trial Thread

[Kookie]

Alright, so a few of you know that I've been trying to create 'Beginners Japanese' lessons to put up in this forum for a few weeks now.

I do apologise for the incredibly long wait, but my life has been amazingly hectic, so I haven't had as much time to dedicate myself to it as I planned.

However, I have made some teaching material while you were waiting, so I'm going to use this thread to put some stuff up here as a sort of example of what my lessons will look like. Feel free to critisise and make comments and suggestions, so that I can improve them for the 'real thing'.

Now, when I say the 'real thing' I am referring to what I hope will be a new opened sub-forum in the general discussion area, dedicated to languages. Please vote in the poll if you would like to see that happen. There is no guarantee that it will, but perhaps if I put a little pressure on the admin staff, they will let me become mod for such a sub-section in the future.

Right, here we go.

 

[~Anubis~]

you've a nice thought so i say yes .

 

[Kushan]

nice....

 

[Sade]

Alright, so a few of you know that I've been trying to create 'Beginners Japanese' lessons to put up in this forum for a few weeks now.

I do apologise for the incredibly long wait, but my life has been amazingly hectic, so I haven't had as much time to dedicate myself to it as I planned.

However, I have made some teaching material while you were waiting, so I'm going to use this thread to put some stuff up here as a sort of example of what my lessons will look like. Feel free to critisise and make comments and suggestions, so that I can improve them for the 'real thing'.

Now, when I say the 'real thing' I am referring to what I hope will be a new opened sub-forum in the general discussion area, dedicated to languages. Please vote in the poll if you would like to see that happen. There is no guarantee that it will, but perhaps if I put a little pressure on the admin staff, they will let me become mod for such a sub-section in the future.

Right, here we go.

For me ,you should submit the "teaching" threads,see if they are doing well,and if peaple are reacting and stuff,and later you should be in charge for this sub-forum,if it is going to created,from thread to subforum...

But this is how I can see the things...But anyway,well done Kokkie^^

 

[Kookie]

Trial Lesson 1. Three Writing Systems: hiragana, katakana and kanji​

What throws a lot of Western people off at first when they start to learn Japanese, is that, unlike us, who have one alphabet, the Roman one, the Japanese use three different systems for writing. If you want to use Japanese properly, you will have to make some effort to understand these three systems, so let us talk about them, to begin with.

Hiragana: hiragana is the written language that is used for sounds only, i.e. it is a phonetic system, similar to our Roman alphabet. This means that each symbol, or kana, represents a sound, rather than a word. You can then use these sounds to put together words. This is the written system that children first starts to learn in primary school in Japan. See below for more details.

Katakana: katakana is also a phonetic system, and its set-up is the same as with hiragana. Hiragana and katakana contains the same sounds, but their kana are different. You use katakana to represent a word that is originally not Japanese. See for details and examples in post about katakana below.

Kanji: Kanji is the tricky one. It derives from the Chinese writing system. Instead of representing a sound, each kanji represent a word, and idea, an expression etc.. Using a specific kanji by itself, can have a different meaning if you use that same kanji with other kanji. There is also a lot of them, several thousands, infact, so it can take a lifetime to memorise them all. Even today, a Japanese adult may have to refer to a kanji dictionary at times.

But do not despair. We will start with the two easiest ones, hiragana and katakana. Please see lessons below.

 

[Kookie]

Ok, next lesson (Lesson 1a: Hiragana) will be up later today. Got to go now..

Please look forward to it!

 

[Kushan]

Ok, next lesson (Lesson 1a: Hiragana) will be up later today. Got to go now..

Please look forward to it!

Thanks...

 

[Lili-Chwan]

*looks forward to it*

 

[Hot.Tendo]

good luck I voted yes

 

[Kookie]

Trial Lesson 1a) hiragana​

As explained before, hiragana is the first writing system that Japanese children start to use, and so we shall begin with that. As each kana (individual character) represents its own sound in the Japanese language, this writing system is pretty straightforward to learn. Once you have memorised each kana you can actually start to write your first sentences in Japanese. This is how it works:

The name 'Uzumaki Naruto' contains 7 syllables all together, in accordance with the Japanese phonetic system:

U-zu-ma-ki-na-ru-to

Each of these syllables is represented by a kana. Let us write his name in hiragana:

u う zu ず ma ま ki き na な ru る to と = うずまきなると


Let us try with another word. 'Konohagakure' have 6 syllables, each represented by a kana. If we write it in hiragana it would be:

ko-no-ha-ga-ku-re = ko こ no の ha は ga が ku く re れ = このはがくれ


There are in total 109 kana in the hiragana charter. The first 51 are the basic ones, while the rest are modifications of these. To download the full hiragana charter, please click here:

You must be registered for see links

It is a good idea to try and memorise all the kana in the hiragana charter as soon as you can. Do it step by step, perhaps by practising 5 a day. This way you will get used to the writing system in Japanese, and you will also be able to quickly recognise the sounds in the Japanese language.

Gambatte kudasai! がんばってください！= Please do your best!

 

[Kookie]

P.S. I am aware that some of you may not be able to see the kana. That is because you need to change the language settings on your computers so that it can read oriental script. Not to worry; a tutorial will be posted here in how to set up your computer for this.

DL-link will be fixed soon; in the meantime, please look forward to the next lesson where we will look at the use of katakana.

Have a nice day/evening!

EDIT: oh, and feel free to criticise, comment and ask questions about the lessons so far. No question is a stupid question!

 

[Lili-Chwan]

We can translate english or other languages words into hiragana, or do we need to actually learn japanase?

 

[Kookie]

We can translate english or other languages words into hiragana, or do we need to actually learn japanase?

Hi Lilliana.

Great question! And the answer is no. That is what katakana is for, which will be the topic of our next lesson. Please look forward to it!

 

[Lili-Chwan]

*looks forward to it*

 

[Akamochi]

im jpnese so no need LOL あほおおお！！

 

[Lord of Kaos.]

nice

 

[Lili-Chwan]

My name can only be writen as Ririana

 

[Sal]

I say yes.
I look forward to learning some Japanese

 

[Kookie]

Trial Lesson 1b) katakana​

Katakana is the symbolic system used to represent foreign words. It contains all the same sounds as hiragana, and as you will notice soon enough, a lot of sounds used in English do not exist in that system. Sounds like 'see', 'too' and 'wee' is not used in modern Japanese, and neither is the 'l'-sound. So how do we write names and words that contain foreign sounds, in Japanese?

First, you have to 'convert' the word into Japanese phonetic syllables. Let us try with the name 'Alice'. Remember, katakana represent how the word sounds, not the way it is originally spelled. We need to find the phonetic syllables that are most similar to the word's pronounciation:

A (ae) = Jap. a

l+i (lee) = Jap. ri

c+e (s') = Jap. su

The name Alice is converted to arisu in Japanese. We use katakana to distinguish it from actual Japanese. Let us try:

a ア ri リ su ス = アリス

There are in total 109 kana in the katakana charter, again, they represent the same sounds as in the hiragana charter, and you will find that the set-up is also the same. For a download of the full katakana charter, just click here (this link is broken, but will be fixed soon!)

Good luck with memorising the katakana! Why don't you try converting your own name into Japanese syllables? Feel free to write the result below. Don't worry if you can't write the katakana with your keyboard yet, just type with Roman letters for now

 

[Kookie]

My name can only be writen as Ririana

Liliana has got how it works already! Well done

Kookie = ku-(k)ki

(my nick would contain a double consonant when spoken in Japanese, but don't worry about that for now. It will soon be explained in a later lesson.)