Basic Japanese Writing: Lecture Notes

Introduction

• Instructor: Raisa
• Platform: JapanesePod101.com
• Focus: Mastering the Japanese alphabet

Overview of Japanese Scripts

1. Hiragana: Basic Japanese alphabet, each character represents one syllable sound.
2. Katakana: Also represents syllables, used for foreign words, written differently from Hiragana.
3. Kanji: Characters represent words or concepts, has thousands of characters with different readings, essential for understanding Japanese.

Learning Hiragana

First Five Characters

• あ (A): Resembles an apple.
• い (I): Looks like two eyes side by side, common suffix for adjectives.
• う (U): Imagine a boxer getting punched, saying "U".
• え (E): Energetic ninja, used often as a suffix.
• お (O): Resembles a UFO, used to imply politeness.

Next Five Characters

• か (Ka): Resembles a blade cutting a stick.
• き (Ki): Looks like a key.
• く (Ku): Think of it as a cuckoo’s beak.
• け (Ke): Looks like a cake.
• こ (Ko): Resembles two koi fish swimming.
• Dakuten and Handakuten: Additional marks that can change the sound of these characters (e.g., か (ka) becomes が (ga)).

Following Characters

• さ (Sa): Resembles a sad face.
• し (Shi): Looks like a fishing hook.
• す (Su): Resembles a pistol in a glass.
• せ (Se): Looks like an M facing sideways.
• そ (So): Resembles a zigzag sewing stitch.
• Dakuten: Can change these characters to z-sounds (e.g., さ (sa) to ざ (za)).

More Characters

• た (Ta): Looks like a small letter 't' with a hoop.
• ち (Chi): Resembles the mirror image of 'sa'.
• つ (Tsu): Think of a tsunami wave.
• て (Te): Looks like a dog.
• と (To): Resembling a tornado.
• Small つ (Tsu): Used to prolong consonant sounds.
• Dakuten Changes: Adds a d-sound (e.g., た (ta) to だ (da)).

Continuing Characters

• な (Na): Resembles a nut.
• に (Ni): Think of a knee.
• ぬ (Nu): Looks like chopsticks holding noodles.
• ね (Ne): Imagine a snail behind a nail.
• の (No): Looks like a no sign, also denotes possession.

H-Column Characters

• は (Ha): Imagine it as an