Week 1, Hiragana 1

The first and most important step to learning Japanese is to learn the basic hiragana.  We will learn 10 new hiragana each week.  I have created flashcards on a Quizlet Account called Basic Japanese, and provided practice sheets you can save to your computer as .jpg images, and also links to the PDF files from the original source page, that you can save and print out full-size.

1) Writing them down "drill style".  You can practice writing the hiragana down individually, while saying the sound they make over and over to yourself as you write them.  Personally, I found this method extremely effective.  The stroke order is IMPORTANT so please pay close attention to it.   There are links to practice sheets below.

2) Flash cards - You can use flash cards to try and memorize the hiragana.

I have created a set of Flash Cards, with pronunciation available (hover over the hiragana and click the audio symbol to hear it pronounced on Quizlet.  You can find them here under the name Week 1 Hiragana Flash Cards, and the account Basic Japanese. To go through the set, simply click on the 'learn' tab above the list.  You can also choose only certain flash cards to display by clicking on the star next to the ones that you want shown to you.

3) You can also try to come up with memory aids to help you.  For instance, I always remember ki because the character き almost looks like a key that unlocks a door if  you turned it sideways.  U う　looks like the letter U if you turned it sideways, etc.,  You will find and discover various memory aids as you go along and think to yourself 'hmmm this looks like this kind of', and that can help it to stick.

For the  A あand O お, that look so similar, I remember them because the 'O' charcter looks more like a rounded letter 'o' on the bottom, where the 'a' character has what almost looks like an upside down A on the bottom.  I hope that helps! :D

This week, we will be learning the vowels and the K series.

The vowels are:
A  あ
E  え
I   い
O  お
U  う

Find and download/print out larger PDF version of a practice sheet here.

And the K series are
Ka  か
Ke  け
Ki  き
Ko こ
Ku く

Find and download/print out a larger PDF version of a practice sheet here


If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments below.

I encourage you all to practice these for about 15 to 30 minutes each day, and in no time, you will have them down.  

Next Monday, I will be posting a Quiz to help you track your progress.  I hope that you will answer the quiz questions without any peeking, as we have to go by the honor system here, but just remember that cheating and peeking at the answers before you've answered all the quiz questions will hurt no one but yourself.  The quizzes are not meant to give you anxiety, but only to let you personally know where you still need to study more.  If you cheat, it will only be YOU who doesn't learn Japanese.

Ganbatte, watashi no gakusei-tachi. <3  (Do your best, my group of students!)