1. Speak to me on Vent to hear the word or ask someone else who knows Japanese
2. I recommend having a mic so I can hear you getting it right or wrong.
3. Check back to previous lessons to make sure there’s nothing new or fixed (if something was wrong).
4. I will start putting how to pronounce a word also and will upload a sheet of Katakana, Hiragana, and Kanji.
1st Lesson.
Normal Vowels
A makes a ahh sound or a in father
E makes a a(english) sound or e in edge
I makes a e(english) sound or i in macaroni
O makes a oo sound or o in ocean
U makes a o sound or u in truce
Double Vowels (these are held twice as long)
aa, a-
ee, ei, e-
ii, i-
oo, ou, o-
uu, u-
But also watch out for some words that are Double Consonants and are not a
Double Vowel
such as kk, pp, tt, cch which must be stressed more than a single consonant
as in
roku= 6
rokku=rock (music) (sounds like Rok-ku)
Forms of Writing in japanese
First form you learn is Romaji (Ro-ma-ji,
pronounced Ro-ma-je)
Romaji was created using the romanization of Japanese basicly taking the latin alphabet and converting
it to Japanese. All kids from 1st to 4th grade spend all their time learning it.
Second form you will learn is Katakana (Ka-ta-ka-na)
Katakana is characterized by short, straight strokes and
angular corners, and is the simplest of the Japanese scripts. Originally
considered men's writing, Katakana script has more angular strokes. Like
Hiragana, the characters represent only sounds and individually do not convey
meaning. These days Katakana is mainly used to write foreign words and names.
Third form you will learn is Hiragana (He-ra-ga-na)
Hiragana was developed in the Heian period by women. A
flowing, cursive style originally used by women where each character represents
a syllable. For example, Karate would be written with three characters:
KA-RA-TE. On their own Hiragana characters do not represent any meaning, just
the sounds.
Last form and hardest you will learn is Kanji
The Japanese adopted these Chinese-style characters
around the fifth century A.D. Each kanji character conveys a particular meaning
and, depending upon the context, can have various pronunciations. While the
characters at first appear similar to Chinese, many have evolved in sound and
style, and the meaning can actually be quite different in Japanese.
Putting it in words of English.
Romaji is a word form of writing you learn in 1st- 4th grade and is the easiest.
Katakana is a cursive style of writing that you learn to
write faster.
Hiragana is a more cursive style of writing used by
females. It looks pretty but if used your called girly.
Kanji is a box style of writing that is VERY VERY hard to
learn and there are 1000s of characters you can make.
Subject: Teaching Japanese 
Sat Mar 21, 2009 2:20 pm
