If you have read it already, then great I will get started.
There is a great trick I have noticed since learning Hirigana - Almost everything sounds the same.
Well it sounds completley different, but if you can learn the 5 basic Vowels then almost every japanese phonic after that includes a Vowel. Once we get started you will know what I mean.
The first phonics to learn when learning Hirigana are the 5 vowels I mentioned above.
These are the same as in english - A E I O U
Let's get started - I will set it out like this from now on:
Japanese Hirigana / Romanji Letter/ Pronounciation
あ / A / Like you would pronounce the A in fAther
え / E / Like you pronounce the e in bEar. Like saying the word there quick. A Very Short "Eh" sound.
い / I / Like you would pronounce the ey in kEY or the e in Cheese
お / O / Like you would pronounce the o in cOugh or pOt
う / U / like you would pronounce the u in jUpiter.
Sorry, I did have pictures for the characters, then blogger decided to not show them, so I had to make do.
So they are the 5 main vowels and how to pronounce them. There are hundreds of youtube videos telling you how to pronounce the vowels if my words are not clear.
Now you will start to see what I mean:
Hirigana is segmented into what I call Series'. The above syllables are the A series. Next in line is the K Series which consists of;
Ka / か
Ke / け
Ki / き
Ko / こ
Ku / く
All pronounced exactly like the vowels were, but with the addition of a K at the beginning.
There is a Hirigana Chart below to check how the rest of the Syllabary looks. For now I will write the series and the hiragana from my iPhone.
The S series (this includes an exception to my trick)
Sa / さ
Shi / し
Su / す
Se / せ
So / そ
The T series (another exception)
Ta / た
Chi / ち
Tsu / つ
Te / て
To / と
The N Series
Na / な
Ni / に
Nu / ぬ
Ne / ね
No / の
The H series (which had the exception of Hu/Fu - it can be pronounced both ways)
Ha / は
Hi / ひ
Hu/fu / ふ
He / へ
Ho / ほ
The M Series
Ma / ま
Mi / み
Mu / む
Me / め
Mo / も
The R series (which is pronounced by placing your tongue in between where you would for a D and an L sound)
Ra / ら
Ri / り
Ru / る
Re / れ
Ro / ろ
There is a couple other hirigana characters. Three Y's - Ya Yu Yo (やゆよ)
The N - ん
Two W's - Wa Wo (わを)
They are something to look into further at a later date.
For now read over the series and get a little understanding of it.
I would recommend (if you have an iPhone) to go into your settings and add a Japanese keyboard to it.
That can be done by going to Settings > General > International > keyboard.
This is what it will look like..
From left to right you have the A series then the K, S, T, N, H, M, Y, R, emoticons, w and N and finally all punctuation marks.
With this try making some simple words using the hirigana above and your iPhone keypad.
Start with these words and then try to find your own; [almost all of these words will have a kanji but ignore that for now)
I will start of by combining the characters Su + Shi;
Sushi - すし
Katsu (A form of Japanese curry) -
Sake -
And if you want to be really adventurous..
Konnichiwa -
(That last one is pretty difficult so if you think you have it/ want clarification/ or just want the answer then give me a shout on twitter)
There is a lot more to discuss, a serious amount more. But this is at most the very very basics and a good starting point.
Here is the Hirigana Chart:
Once again I can't thank you enough for reading. I know there was a lot of information in that post, I really can't stress how little is actually there.
I hope it helps in some way or another.
I understand my writing style and teaching methods are a bit wild and scattered. So excuse me for that.
As I said above, if you want to get me on twitter then follow @turnchapanese
Please also share this blog around. It's building slowly. I'll keep putting the effort in as long as you put the time in to read it.
Thanks again guys.
Dan
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