Sunday, February 13, 2011

Lesson 2

Now, for everyone who still hasn't given up, running scared of the difficulty of the Japanese language, here comes Lesson 2. And if you thought we're gonna start learning words or grammar now, you're wrong - we're still not done with the writing systems. No, we're not starting Kanji or anything, we're still at Hiragana and Katakana :) Is there anyone who's memorized them by any chance? Didn't think so. I'm kidding of course, feel free to boast about your accomiplishments in the comments. Today's lesson is going to be short and easy. Did I hear someone say "hurray"?


In today's lesson we're gonna  learn how to get some additional syllables that aren't in the tables. That's pretty simple - just add two little strokes (or just dots, as my Japanese teacher did) and the sounds change as follows:

K  becomes G,
S      --->     Z
T      --->     D
H      --->     B

This way the kana ka, ki, ku, ke, ko become ga, gi, gu, ge, go and so on. It looks like that.

 か  =>  が 
  => ぎ 
く   =>  ぐ  
け   =>  げ 
こ  =>  ご 


There are a few exeptions however. When you put two dots on SHI, instead of ZI, it becomes JI, and both SU and TSU become ZU. Usually, the ZU sound is represented by SU with two dots.


Only for the kana starting with H there is another way you can change them, and that is by adding a small circle in the place of the two dots. Then H changes into P. (example: ha => pa)

 は  => ぱ

This way of changing the kana applies to both Hiragana and Katakana.

Since I said this lesson was going to be short, and it turned out a little longer, I'm going to stop here to make sure I don't overload your brains with new information. For everyone who still hasn't given up: 

Good job, see you again next time!


51 comments:

  1. Great Lesson! Thanks for the advice!

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  2. those lessons are coming fast, can't keep it up!

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  3. Do you know if anywhere sells Kana or Kanji keyboards? Using the on-screen keyboard is really annoying!

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  4. Still working on the memorization of Hiragana, haha. Gotta add the g, z, d, b, and p syllables to my flash cards eventually. Good lesson, nice review.

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  5. cool concept, keep up the good work of teaching us japenese! ^^

    http://skybluetrading.blogspot.com/

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  6. @Gracie Flaming

    Hm, onscreen keyboard? If you simply use the Japanese font that comes with Vitsa/ Win 7, you can write in latin letters and it automatically changes it into kana, for the kanji you have to cycle through with spacebar, but then again, kanji won't be able to fit on any keyboard.

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  7. I'll try these out tonight. Also an explanation of why Japanese people have such trouble pronouncing english "L" sounds would be pretty interesting.

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  8. The explanation was in the previous post, but what the heck, here it is again - they simply don't have the L sound in their language, so they pronounce both the words with R and with L using R. So when they start learning English they either keep using R instead of L, or the opposite - start substituting every R they see with L. You can rarely see a Japanese people who can speak proper English.

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  9. Nice i think i am getting the hang of it now

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  10. This isnt as hard as i thought itd be

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  11. Again another excellent post for the learning.

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  12. I really really like this blog ill practice before your next post

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  13. Now the most difficult part of every language starts: grammar

    I will try to keep up. Unfortunately I have a busy week ahead.

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  14. Hey, nice one. How about getting your followers some homework? Like 'memorize katakana in a week' ;) Regards.

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  15. good efforts. I'll get working hard and then when I visit Japan I'll have something to say :)

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  16. Trying to follow, but man is this a hard language.

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  17. Would it be possible at some time in the future for you to embed a YouTube video with the proper pronunciations? Writing is fine, but speaking is MUCH better.

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  18. to understand my psp truely.. this comes in handy

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  19. If you keep this up then I won't have to take that japanese course

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  20. helpful stuff, hoping to do to Tokyo soon this might help.

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  21. Helpful, my friend who wants to study japanese actually reads this blog on a daily basis I think.

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  22. I am actually starting to get the hand of this.... amazing job!

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  23. Awesome lesson. I'll try to keep up with you.

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  24. awsome advice... cant wait until next lesson

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  25. You;re a great teacher, it's not so hard when broken down the way you do.

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  26. I might send this blog link to a friend who has been studying Japanese.

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  27. Love your posts, but how'd you get so good at Japanese?

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  28. I still try to comprehend this but learning all this would take too long for me. Guess i have to keep trying!

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  29. Loving these lessons, waiting for more, thanks a lot!

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  30. I can't memberize the symbols :p. Need to put more time in this one.

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  31. i have to write this down, awesome post like always!

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  32. Japanase is indeed really hard. Thanks for this quality post man.

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  33. Watashi wa tabete imas. thats all i got so far.

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  34. You really know your stuff! Keep this coming - will be fluent in no time ;)

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  35. thanks a lot, really well prepared! keep it up :)

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  37. That's a great idea to share that kind of lessons !

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  38. wow this is an awesome idea for a blog!
    good luck from secretpctips.com

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  41. Great lesson bro but it was not easy as you promised. JK :)

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