Writing
Japanese has 3 different writing systems plus rōmaji (latin alphabet):
kanji 漢字 (Chinese characters)
Hiragana ひらがな
katakana カタカナ (used only for foreign loan words, like my name, Fiona フィオナ)
All three systems are intertwined in a sentence.
テレビを見ます
Katakana Kanji hiragana
Terebi wo mimasu
I watch television
You begin with hiragana and Katakana. Words that are normally expressed with a kanji character can also be written in hiragana (so instead of見ます I learn みます).
The process of learning is by translating English into romaji, then romaji into hiragana, and eventually some hiragana into kanji.
Japanese has a relatively small sound inventory. The language is syllabic, the sounds are expressed in both hiragana and katakana. The pictures on top are hiragana and the ones below are katakana.
My favourite hiragana is mi み like a dog.
I have funny ways of remembering them. ‘ni’ is easy に because it’s shaped like a knee… きki because it looks like a kite. This is pregnant sueす ‘su’. の ‘no’ is like a no entry sign. Some help you out a bitた ‘ta’ speaks for itself. Some are a lot more far-fetched than others. For example this is ‘ke’ け, so that’s Barbie on the left and ‘Ke’n on the right and ‘ho’ ほis Father Christmas.
Usually the words in Katakana are taken from English. Here are a few favourites:
ハム Hamu (ham), ビール biiru (beer), チーズ chiizu (cheese), haabu tii (herbal tea), ポテトフライ chippsu (crisps), ミネラルウォーター mineraru wootaa (mineral water), ウェートレス ueetoresu (waitress), ジーンズ jiinzu (jeans), タクシー takushi (taxi)…
Grammar
Although writing is complicated, the grammar is quite simple. There is no gender; there are no plural forms; no articles ‘the’ or ‘a’; personal pronouns are rarely used; and verbs only have past and present forms.
The Japanese sentence elements are marked with particles that identify their grammatical functions. Like wa は toと heへ wo を ni に.
My homework
らいしゅうわたしはともだちといざかやへしょうちゅうをのみにいきます。
raishu watashi wa tomodachi to izakaya he shochu o nomi ni ikimasu
Next week I will go to a party with a friend and drink shochu.
Next week I will go to a party with a friend and drink shochu.
Japanese word order is classified as Subject Object Verb. So my above sentence reads as:
Next week I friend with party shochu drink go.
せんしゅうわたしはともだちとすいぞくかんへさかなをみにいきました。
Last week I went to the aquarium to see some fish with a friend.
あさってわたしはおとうさんとりょかんへばんごはんをたべにいきます。
The day after tomorrow I will go to a ryokan to have dinner with my dad.
きのうわたしはいもうとととしょかんへほんをよみにいきました。
Yesterday I went to the library with my little sister to read books.
せんげつわたしはおとうととえいがかへえいがをみにいきました。
Last month I went to the cinema to watch a movie with my little brother.
