From the many threads that are in existence, I find that there are many people who are really interested in learning the Japanese language, either as a second language or simply to have a better understanding of Jdramas or watching Anime.
My friend, HydeNobuyuki, has started a Basic Japanese lessons for this reason. With his gracious blessings, I will post part of the lessons in this forum for anyone who is interested to learn the basics of Japanese.
Lesson 1: bootstrapping? starting from scratch
Welcome
Much of this will be to encourage people to practice japanese, learn points, help study, etc... but you've got to start somewhere... So, if this is your first time studying Japanese we'll start with some of the basics.
For new learners, I recommend you get a course book, such as the Genki Series books or Japanese For Busy People (kana edition).
For more information on specific topics, you can always try reading wikipedia but remember not to accept it as absolute truths.
First and foremost, it is very important to learn how to read and write (or read & type) kana. Kana is the basic Japanese writing system. In this lesson we will use both the romanized version and the kana version of Japanese writing so you can get used to it; however, once you have learned how to use the kana please use it as much as possible. Using kana will positively reinforce your kana skills while using the romanized alphabet will be very detrimental to your learning.
Let's look at the writing systems used in Modern Japanese:
ROMAji (ローマ字)
This is a romanization of Japanese so that people can read Japanese without learning how to read Japanese or Chinese characters. In the modern day, it is also widely used on signs, marketing materials, etc.
hiragana (ひらがな)
Hiragana is the most widely used type of kana. All grammatical phrases and markers use hiragana.
Hiragana is made by simplifying chinese characters into what was considered a women's writing system (a long time ago). For more information on Hiragana, please see the wikipedia:
Hiragana - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
KATAKANA (カタカナ)[/b]
Katakana is predominantly used for modern loan words (words taken from other languages, in particular english, german, and french). Sometimes it is used to make words look cooler though.
Katakana is made my simplifying chinese characters into what was considered a men's writing system (a long time ago). For more information on Katakana, please see the wikipedia:
Katakana - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
kanji (漢字)
Kanji are adapted from a small part of china several hundred years ago. They convey meaning because many words would be spelt the same in kana. For example: ki is both 気 (kinda like health and well-being) and 木 (tree) among other meanings
Perhaps about 20% of text is kanji
How writing systems are used
Words can often be written in more than one writing system and often (if not almost always) phrases will mix writine systems together. But before you fret, it's not as bad as it seems. The different writing systems actually make it one of the easiest languages to read (once you can read kanji and understand japanese). Meaning is usually conveyed with kanji, foreign words with katakana, and grammar with hiragana.
Let's take the phrase "Joe, be careful"
JOsan、ki wo tsukete
ジョさん、き を つけて
ジョさん、気 を つけて
Here, we have JO (ジョ) in katakana because it is a foreign word.
ki can be written in hiragana き or in kanji 気.
However, writing it in kanji means there is less confusion over which of the many many "ki"'s
everything else is written in hiragana.
As you can kanji always ways of writing it in hiragana
for example: to eat 食べる = たべる (taberu)
Here that kanji for eating 食 can be written as た (or numerous other ways if the situation is appropriate)
Well, this is only LESSON ONE. You may want to go to
Asian Vee^^ Community :: aznV.NET 2005 (v4.2) for continuing lessons.
>>>Note: Just in case that you can't get in the forum, just register yourself and you'll get there.
Have fun.