EPTLesson 005 - Kana pt4
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Cultural goodness
Manga, the “comic book” of Japan, is incredibly popular. Even a large number of adults read manga. Their content ranges from childish girly teenage dramas to full on monster porn that will burn your eyes.
I read manga to help improve my Japanese, but to be honest, I might read it anyway. Crayon Shin-chan is some really funny stuff.
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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/I2ddXtj.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/I3Z8qFg.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/AQub80G.jpg)
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平仮名 Hiragana
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/xdp3yVi.png)
+ Show Spoiler [Chart description] +
The pronunciation of each character is written underneath in romaji (Phonetic spelling of characters using the Roman alphabet). The stroke order of each character is denoted by the blue numbered arrows. ゐ and ゑ are no longer used and will be skipped
Today we'll be looking at ま through よ
Pronunciation: All of these begin with a typical M sound as in, moment or maybe, followed by the vowel sounds.
ま → ma
み → mi
む → mu
め --> me
も --> mo
Stroke order
ま+ Show Spoiler +
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/GpibWM7.gif)
み+ Show Spoiler +
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/acONE6W.gif)
む+ Show Spoiler +
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/PMYI8RE.gif)
め+ Show Spoiler +
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/KWrMUk7.gif)
も+ Show Spoiler +
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/KtWOuD0.gif)
Pronunciation
The や column uses the Y consonant, like yacht or yawn, followed by the vowel. There are only three characters in this group.
や → ya
ゆ → yu
よ → yo
Stroke Order
や+ Show Spoiler +
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/LSVCVuO.gif)
ゆ+ Show Spoiler +
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/js7n2Bo.gif)
よ+ Show Spoiler +
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/sJVnik3.gif)
On pronouncing “long vowels”
This is probably a good time to include this because there are two fewer characters to learn, and it coincides with the Japanesepod101 videos I’ve been including with the kana learning.
First let me explain a bit about japanese syllables and how to count them. In English we count syllables based on how the word sounds. Let’s take a word from the video as an example to compare it to Japanese. High school. In English it has two syllables, it has two distinct sets of sounds. こうこう (高校). In Japanese, four syllables. It’s tempting to say this word has two syllables because of the way we count them in English, however there really are four. Japanese syllables are counted based on the number of kana it takes to write the word.
So, こうこう = 4 hiragana characters = 4 syllables.
かてい = 3 characters = 3 syllables
とけい = 3 syllables
ちいさい = 4
What does this have to do with long vowels?
Well, you can think of each syllable as representing a unit of time, like a musical note on a staff. Each syllable should receive it’s own equal amount of time when speaking. Of course this amount of time varies depending on how fast you talk, but that’s the general idea.
ああ should sound twice as long as あ.
There are a number of ways to write the long vowels, and which way you should use depends on the word. Just like English, there are multiple ways to write the sound for “F,” you just need to memorize when to use the letter F and when to use the letters PH.
Writing long vowels:
Normal vowel → Long vowel
あ → ああ
い → いい
う → うう
え → ええ OR えい
お → おお OR おう
おう and えい are not always long vowels and follow regular pronunciation of ou and ei instead of the long versions oo and ee. If you are unsure, look it up!
Vocabulary introduced in this lesson (not really important at this point): Kana (Kanji) - Meaning
くま （熊） - bear (animal)
つよい （強い）- strong; powerful
はやい （早い） - fast; quick
ふゆ （冬）- winter
まち （町） - town
まめ （豆） - beans
みそ （味噌） - miso; bean paste
みせ （店） - store; shop
むし （虫） - bug; insect
むかし （昔） - olden days; former
め （目） - eyeball; eye
もの （物） - thing; object
もも （桃） - peach
やすみ （休み） - rest; vacation; day off
ゆき （雪）- snow (not John Snow of Winterfell, but precipitation)
よこはま （横浜）- Yokohama city
Side notes
I’m currently in the thought process of deciding how to present resources you may need in your studies. I think the best solution would be a standalone blog entry that contains everything I mention in the lessons, as well as resources suggested by others. I think that this type of consolidated list will make resources you need much easier to find. I’d of course contain a link to this “resource blog” with the previous lessons spoiler at the top of each lesson so it’s easy to find. I started a thread in General discussion on language learning tools but it has long been dead. We could use that, if you want to take a look, it can be found here. It already contains a nice compilation of materials for learning.
Any thoughts/suggestions on how to present a multitude of resources?
Please practice writing! I’ve written a fairly decent amount of Japanese and my friends tell me that my handwriting still looks like a child’s! It will also help later if you choose to correspond with someone via snail mail. Learning to write all the characters will make it much easier to read them. Especially when it comes to kanji!
Feedback over the course of these entries will be much appreciated, and I will try to tweak future lessons to everyone’s liking.
Only one hiragana lesson to go!
