I would love to learn Japanese...
too bad this looks too hard for me, lol.
I would love to learn Japanese...
too bad this looks too hard for me, lol.
glad im in spanish
Help learning Japanese..?
I wanted to just learn a bit, but I got confused. Im curently just learning a bit from apps on the iPhone. Whats the difference between Hiragana and Katakana? Isnt there just one main one that most people use?
Some quotes bout me.
Good question Haryer. It is a common question for people learning japanese.
Japanese is a phonetic language. The language really only has about ~80 sounds that never change. A japanese alphabet character is made to represent ONE sound. The sounds do not change like English. So it is not like "a" is sometime pronounced differently. It is always pronounced the same. Japanese phonetics are almost identical to Spanish phonetics.
Japanese use 3 different "alphabets" to express the sounds they use. Each "alphabet" expresses all ~80 sounds.
Hiragana expresses all 80 sounds
Katakana expresses all 80 sounds
Romaji expresses all 80 sounds
The Hiragana alphabet is used for native japanese words.
The Katakana alphabet is used to emulate foreign sounds.
The Romaji are used so that the sounds can be somewhat read using english alphabet characters.
This is Romaji: Nihongo (Ni-hon-go, it means japanese language)
This is Hiragana: にほんご (ni-hon-go)
This is Katakana: ニホンゴ (ni-hon-go)
Hiragana sounds can be condensed into Kanji. Kanji are the special characters they use. For example, the kanji for にほんご (Nihongo, japanese language) is 日本語. Or the kanji for ねこ (Neko, Cat) is 猫. Notice how the 2 Hiragana were condensed into ONE kanji character. There are over 100,000 different kanji characters in the japanese kanji dictionary. But the average Japanese person only read about 3,000-4,000 kanji and can only write about 1,500 kanji.
Hiragana is the most widely used alphabet in Japan as it relates to native japanese words. Katakana is used to express foreign sounds, so it is used less. Romanji is never used. It is only used for street signs so that foreigners can pronounce the sounds without having to know the hiragana or kanji.
Katakana is used to copy foreign sounds or used for emphasis on a japanese word. For example, Let's say America. In Romaji America is Amerika (A-me-ri-ka). In Katakana it is アメリカ. Or, coffee. In Romaji coffee is Ko-hi-. In Katakana coffe is コーヒー. As you can see, Katakana tries to copy or emulate foreign word sounds. Katakana exists because the japanese language has no word for "america" or "coffee". Katakanba is also used for empahsis. Say for example a Japanese person is frustrated because their co-worker friend wants to practice English on them. The Japanese person may text them and say "ニホンゴで話してください!!? Please talk in Japanese!!! Notice how the ニホンゴ was not put in Hiragana OR Kanji. It was written in Katakana for emphasis.
Last edited by japanpimp; 03-06-2011 at 11:51 PM.
Thanks to Boleslav for the Afro Samurai Signature series.
I have made a few video guides that may help you.
Please read the link below.
My Evony Videos
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