LAST - Some finishing touches

PRACTICE AT THE HIRAGANA FLASHCARDS PAGE

• There are only 5 vowel sounds
• All other characters (except n) are made of a consonant sound and one of the 5 vowel sounds.
• The not-so-logical-pronunciation letters are chi, tsu, and fu. BE CAREFUL
• The R letters are pronounced somewhere between the R and L sounds of English - Click here for more
• n cannot be used to start a word
• You cannot 'ten-ten' vowels
• Combinations are formed using only ya, yu, and yo 'helpers' and the i column (ki, shi, chi, ni, hi, mi, ri)
• A small tsu causes a slight pause or break between syllables.  For example in English we say a slight pause after "book" in "booK Club"
  Here are two examples in Japanese where the small tsu can clear up / cause a lot of problems!
  gakki - musical instrument [with a slight pause]  3.2k MP3
  and
  gaki - brat, annoying kid [without the pause] 2.1k MP3

FUN WITH HIRAGANA

A cute drawing made from hiragana is called Henohenomoheji

The name sounds impossible to learn, but it is simply reading the Hiragana that makes the character. The eyebrow is 'he.' The eye is 'no.' The nose is 'mo.' the mouth is 'he.' And the face is made by 'ji.'(ji = shi + ") Do you see it?

BOOKS: These books are great especially if you are a learner who needs something to encourage you. What's best?  Well, I don't know.  Depends on your studying style and tastes. Follow the links and read the comments by people who have used the books.  Have fun learning! If you buy something after clicking through my pages, I will receive a small commission from the sales. :)

Let's Learn Hiragana
by Yasuko K. Mitamura

Beginner's Kana Workbook : Practice Drills for Writing Hiragana and Katakana
by Fujihiko Kaneda, Masaya Katayama

Remembering the Hiragana : A Complete Course on How to Teach Yourself the Japanese Syllabary in 3 Hours
by James W. Heisig, James W. Heising (Introduction)

Easy Hiragana : First Steps to Reading and Writing Basic Japanese
by Fujihiko Kaneda, et al

Want more? Click here or go to Amazon.com

For a page of Hiragana reference charts

Thank you very much for using www.thejapanesepage.com. I hope this has been useful to you. If so (or if not) please email me and tell me about it. I am looking forward to hearing from you!