Introduction to Japanese for Beginners......

As a beginner to japanese language you may know that there are three type of letter in japanese language.

1. Hiragana
2. Katakana
3. Kanji

To learn the language easily and quickly you should follow the above order of three type of letters.

Hiragana

Hiragana  letters usually have  phonetic sounds.These are basically used for particles, words and part of words. This express 46 different sounds used in the japanese language.when practising hiragana letters you will be able to pronouns japanese letters properly,read and write.If you learn hiragana first it will be easier to learn katakana next.

Katakana

These letters are basically used for foreign words.Katakana is a phonetic alphabet.Katakana was developed in the 8th century by simplifying the form of kanji symbols. Katakana and Hiragana represent exactly the same set of sounds.

Kanji

These are chinese characters and used for the stem of words and convey the japanese language.

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As a beginner you should learn how to write and pronounce vowel letters in hiragana alphabet.

 Above letters are in the order of English Vowels A, I , U , E, O.

After practising vowel sounds in hiragana alphabet you should try following letters.

• Try the following exercise after practising above letters.

1. aka (red)
2. ao (blue)
3. aki (autumn)
4. ie (house)
5. koe (voice)
6. kao (face)
7. ue (on top)
8. kaki (permission)
9. eki (station)
10. okii (big)

By : Pramodi Samaratunga  - University Of Moratuwa 

        Madhusanka Edirimanna - University Of Moratuwa