Learning Hiragana

Konnichiwa! :) I have recently purchased Rocket Japanese (and I am pretty impressed with the software quite frankly :) ) and I was wondering if anyone could give me any quick tips on learning Hiragana. I am wondering how to approach the characters. Is there a specific way to learning to read and write them? Should I perhaps memorize them or try to recopy them? I am not far in the audio lessons, however I would very much like to expand my knowledge in the same time as I go through the lessons. Any insight is appreciated! Sarah

Konnichiwa Sarah san! We are delighted to hear that you have joined us (the Rocket Japanese team) to learn Japanese! The best way to learn hiragana is writing them - over and over again. And, of course, say the sounds out loud as you do so. Write あ saying "A" then い saying "I" and so on. This is the way we all learned the alphabet! Copy the shape of the example. Now, since there are 46 basic hiragana characters, you can try memorizing 5 a day - and in 9 days, you'll have them all! - of course, it's not as easy as it sounds... You can keep adding one at a time as well. So start with あ, master this one, then next day add い to your list. Master both あ and い. At this point, you can even write the word "love" which is あ い. Then, the following day, go for the う. Now you can say "to say" いう. In this way you can add vocabulary as well! I am sure that with your great attitude toward learning, you'll have the hiragana's mastered in no time. Any questions, don't hesitate to ask us at Rocket Japanese! Gambatte ne! :D

I have a question concerning this as well! Does Hiragana, or Katakana for that matter, have more then one font? Of course there will be variations from peoples handwriting. But say from a computer or word processor, are there various styles or fonts of the characters? For an english example you could say "Arial" which is a standard font that is a basic print and easy to read, espcially in text documents, versus something like "Vivaldi" which makes it look like its more cursive and someone not familar with English may not be able to match up the same letters with the different fonts. I ask because I notice when reading some Japanese characters from different websites or books, they do seem to be differences in the same characters. But since they are printed, I can't say this is due to their handwriting. Thank you! Roger

Konnichiwa, I, too, have noticed that different websites seem to use different fonts. Also, when trying to learn how to write out the various kana, I was uncertain as to how to write each symbol. However, I have found a wonderful website for learning how to write Hiragana with proper stroke order; it reminds me of how my young nephew is learning to write English in school right now. What's more, I really like the author's handwriting much better than computer fonts. It's at http://japanese.about.com/library/blhira.htm I hope that helps!

Konnichiwa, That seems much easier to deal with, vary clear and concise. Arigato gozaimasu.

Minnasan Konnichiwa! Regarding the Japanese fonts... just as the roman alphabet has numerous fonts to choose from, so does Japanese! If you go to the site below, it gives you an idea of the various fonts that exist: http://www.wazu.jp/gallery/Fonts_Japanese.html Best of luck! :lol:

yo :] Which of the fonts do you think is the most accurate for the average writing? In English, the font (in Vista) Modem seems to fit the more accurate average writing of a person...of course it does depend on the person too. But it is just what I see often written. As for the "a" the letter changes when typed out or written out for most people. Is there hiragana that are similar?

Konnichiwa! A child's writing would probably be similar to the second one listed on the URL above: "aquafont" While a grown person's writing may be similar to the last one listed: "moon"

Yes Writing them over and over again helps a lot. Its just a matter of nailing them into your head. However, when I originally learned hiragana in school, my teacher had pictures for each of the hiragana that helped us to remember them and it worked pretty well.

Kendo-san, That's a great idea- to have pictures for each hiragana may be not only a good way to get them in your head but also FUN! :lol:

[quo]*Quote from * Sarah Konnichiwa! :) I have recently purchased Rocket Japanese (and I am pretty impressed with the software quite frankly :) ) and I was wondering if anyone could give me any quick tips on learning Hiragana. I am wondering how to approach the characters. Is there a specific way to learning to read and write them? Should I perhaps memorize them or try to recopy them? I am not far in the audio lessons, however I would very much like to expand my knowledge in the same time as I go through the lessons. Any insight is appreciated! Sarah[/quo] I just started yesterday writing Hiragana and boy I wish I started that from the beginning. What I did was I bought a binder with tons of paper and in each page and I write the english letter of the hiragana I'm trying to write at the top of the page so I can remember what it is. And below it, I write the Hiragana of that word 50 or over one hundred times like we all did in kindergarten when we learned how to write letters. It sounds alot but it actually works for me. I will try to learn 5 hiragana letters everyday. Also, some of the hiragana words are the same to eachother so its somewhat consistent. For example, the word Ka is written the same as Ga except in the word Ga you write these two little lines at the top right of that letter. I'm doing this method. Hopefully it will work for you.

Yeah... As far as hiragana and katakana goes, I can thoroughly read them to the extent almost as if I'm reading english/romaji... Every once in a while I might get stumped by one that I've forgotten... However I can't remember what they all are when I try to write by hand in hiragana... which is why i'm having to take a notebook and just writing a full page of them to practice the stroke order as well! Will probably have to do the same for kanji...

Konnichiwa! :lol: Did you know that *Hiragana* and *Katakana* are derived from Kanji characters?? - Sayaka

[quo]*Quote from * Sayaka Konnichiwa! :lol: Did you know that *Hiragana* and *Katakana* are derived from Kanji characters?? - Sayaka[/quo] That would make sense as I see them all the time in different kanji's I attempt to read... -Derek

Here are the first few... (some obviously are quite different!) *安*　あ *以*　い *宇*　う *衣*　え *於*　お *加*　か *幾*　き *久*　く *計*　け *己*　こ さやか　 :lol:

幾　き Just wtf?... I know you said some are obviously not the same.... but dude that is a totally different level of not being the same... -Derek

remember, those kanji symbols are probably not for the syllable alone. It is a combination in a word to create that picture. kuruma is pronounced differently when adding it to japanese car, nihonsha. So the symbols have different sounds and are used differently depending on the word. Electric + Car = Train = densha

[quo]*Quote from * K73SK remember, those kanji symbols are probably not for the syllable alone. It is a combination in a word to create that picture. kuruma is pronounced differently when adding it to japanese car, nihonsha. So the symbols have different sounds and are used differently depending on the word. Electric + Car = Train = densha[/quo] I was looking at it purely from an aesthetic standpoint... I can't read 幾 as of yet... Although I'm assuming its read as き :lol: Ok probably not...

Derek-san, and fellow Rocket Japanese learners. 幾 is actually a Kanji that is read いく _(iku)_, meaning "some, several, many" as well as asking "how many?", "how much?" For example, 幾つ? _(ikutsu?)_ is used in asking regarding an amount (how much, how many, etc.) :P

Ah, so yeah that kanji is definitely completely random for the origin of き.

i think the hardest one of the system is kanji anyone agree with me?