日本語を学びましょう～ Let's Learn Japanese

ようこそ、日本語学校へ
Youkoso, nihongo gakkō he!
Welcome to my Japanese course!

日本語の先生をさせていただきます。
よろしくお願いいします!
Nihongo no sensei wo sasete itadakimasu. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu.
I'll be your Japanese teacher. Let's enjoy this together!

~~~

In Japan there are three different alphabets, four to be precise: kanji, hiragana and katakana (and rōmaji).

You can see all the three in the same sentence. Here's an example.

ファンタを飲みます。
I drink fanta.

ファンタ: katakana
を、みます: hiragana
飲: kanji

As you can see, hiragana has a round and soft shape. Do you know why? Take a guess!
It's used to write Japanese words which aren't covered by a kanji, conjunctions and okurigana (the "mimasu" in nomimasu, to drink. In other words, the parts which are outside the kanji).

Katakana uses the same sounds as hiragana, but each letter is sharp. It's used in writing foreign nouns.

Kanji are a torture. They are made of many lines, similar to each other, difficult to remember... each has its own meaning and at least two different ways of reading.
Excited to learn them? Me neither.
Anyway, no matter how I dislike them, they're a work of art. Each represents its meaning (the kanji of the mountain would look like a mountain, the fire like a fire and so on), were it a verb, a noun or an adjective.

Rōmaji are the foreign alphabet (a, b, c...). You can see them on the road signs, on the English books... Literally, it means "Romanian letters".

I hope l didn't scare you! Anyway, l want you to know that nothing is impossible and that I have some trick to make learning easier. So, shinpaishinaide (don't worry, guys).

Now, let's get started with today's lesson! The topic is:

Hiragana、ひらがな

- There are mainly 46 signs
- It's a syllabic alphabet, except for the vowels and "n"
- It's the basis, the first thing that kids learn and what will make you able to survive in Japan (at first I had to rely on hiragana only).

Here is the alphabet!
I will show you how to remember them easily later.

あ(a)、い(i)、う(u)、え(e)、お(o)

か(ka)、き(ki)、く(ku)、け(ke)、こ(ko)

さ(sa)、し(shi)、す(su)、せ(se)、そ(so)

た(ta)、ち(chi)、つ(tsu)、て(te)、と(to)

な(na)、に(ni)、ぬ(nu)、ね(ne)、の(no)

は(ha)、ひ(hi)、ふ(fu)、へ(he)、ほ(ho)

ま(ma)、み(mi)、む(mu)、め(me)、も(mo)

や(ya)、　　　ゆ(yu)、　　よ(yo)

ら(ra)、り(ri)、る(ru)、れ(re)、ろ(ro)

わ(wa)、　　　　　　　　を(wo)

ん(n)

☛ First rule to remember hiragana: write it down! ☚

☛My suggestion for the order is to make a table like this, and to memorize the first line and the first column.