Newbie the alphabet

[scarmar]

Hi I'm newbie here and I started to learn Japanes few days ago, I'd like ask a question, what alphabet I have to learn? Kanji Hiragana oe katakana? could you explain me when I have to use one or another? Thanks

[astaroth]

Ciao scarmar,
short answer: all of them. There's no way around you need the two syllabaries (hiragana and katakana) and the kanji to read Japanese, but as a starter I'd suggest you study hiragana first, then katakana and once you master those two start tackling kanji.

Comunque ... benvenuto nel forum ed in bocca al lupo nei tuoi studi!

[scarmar]

thanks a lt, maybe you are italian also, but what's the main difference? I guess Kanji is one simble one word? one simble to say home?

[astaroth]

Yup Italian too.
I guess you meant the difference between the two syllabaries (hiragana and katakana) and the kanji. The short answer is that hiragana and katakana represent syllabic sounds, that is か is ka, け ke and so on, while kanji are ideogram so "they represent concepts" though this is quite reductive as few words are represented by just one kanji. For instance river is 川 while brook is 小川 (sort of literally little 小さい river 川).

[Hyperworm]

Another important difference is that while a hiragana or katakana character always represents the same sound, the pronunciation (reading) of a kanji can differ depending on the word it's in. For instance, 頭 is read "atama", but in the word 頭脳/zunou it's read "zu". In the word 冒頭/boutou it's read "tou".

You might think that this makes things pretty difficult, but you can think of reading kanji like trying to pronounce unfamiliar words in English, which can be just as tricky. Who could come across words like enough, cough, through, bough for the first time and immediately know how to pronounce them? The pronunciation of the symbols "ough" differs wildly and there's no readily discernible pattern.

To get over this problem, first you learn how to say those words, then you learn they're spelt with "ough" - or, you learn the spelling and the pronunciation of the words at the same time.

You can handle kanji like that too; either you learn the words "atama" and "zunou" and "boutou" and later memorize that they all contain the kanji 頭 - or you learn 冒頭 and its reading at the same time.

[scarmar]

thanks averybody, another question how can I type the Japanese simbols on my keyboard?

[phreadom]

thanks averybody, another question how can I type the Japanese simbols on my keyboard?

http://thejapanesepage.com/w/index.php? ... y_computer

[scarmar]

thanks, how much time I have to spend to work on japanese for beeing fine? It's just couple days that I started it's tough at starting! I'm using an assimil's book

[astaroth]

"Rome wasn't built in a day" (...「ちりも積もれば山となる」でしょうか)
It takes years to master any language, a bit more for something as alien as Japanese. Though the grammar is pretty straightforward and no declinations, almost no irregular verbs. Take one step at a time ...

[Yudan Taiteki]

"Rome wasn't built in a day" (...「ちりも積もれば山となる」でしょうか)

ローマは一日にして成らず

[astaroth]

ローマは一日にして成らず

[Yudan Taiteki]

Of course that's taken from Western languages but it should be in most Japanese dictionaries.

[Ben Bullock]

Hi I'm newbie here and I started to learn Japanes few days ago, I'd like ask a question, what alphabet I have to learn? Kanji Hiragana oe katakana? could you explain me when I have to use one or another? Thanks

Most people learn hiragana first. You might be interested to find out about how Japanese children learn their language to get a hint.

[nukemarine]

Just to be contrary, I think one could learn Kanji first (writing and recognition in one's native language), but one can also learn both the kana sets at the same. Recommended path is the "Kanji Lite" variant of Remembering the Kanji (essentially the JLPT 2 kanji and supporting kanji), plus Remembering the Kana. It's about 100 hours of effort, but it does pay off quickly as the kanji in Kanji Lite list account for 89.7% of Kanji used in the Japanese Wikipedia, (based off scans from a few months ago) and likely 100% of whatever early learning material you'll use.

[Yudan Taiteki]

And you can find more information about RTK Lite, SRS, and other helpful stuff over at forum.koohii.com if you choose to pursue that route.