The first (and only) course in this first part which serves as a preamble to this first season, today begins your adventure in the universe of the Japanese language.
You will learn everything you need to know about Japanese language writing. For now, in this preamble, we will simply lay the foundations, I will give you a small overview of all these writing systems (in the plural because there are many !), I will present several important terms to know by heart and which I will then detail in each of the courses; and as you progress, the plan for this first season will be introduced to you.
No shortcut, no ease, it will be long but I assure you that you will be unbeatable at the end of this first season.
Let’s start without delay.
If you’ve ever read (or rather tried to read) manga, you quickly realized that Japanese people have a very different writing style from us westerners. A writing that has absolutely nothing to do with ours.
In fact, the Japanese use another writing system. To be exact, they use two writing systems : kanji and kana.
Kanji are ideograms, they are drawings – you may have already seen them when going to a Chinese restaurant – formed by lines and each drawing represents an idea. Kana, on the other hand, are syllables. These are characters that represent not sounds like our letters in our occidental languages but syllables. To give you an example, let’s take the word « katana ». We have three syllables : « ka », « ta », « na ». These are Japanese syllables. In the word « himawari », we have four syllables : « hi », « ma », « wa », « ri ». In the word « niwatori », we also have four syllables : « ni », « wa », « to », « ri ». So how many Japanese syllables are there? There are a little over fifty that we will see in more detail in the courses to come. For now, remember that these syllables are called kana.
And kana are divided into two syllabaries, that is to say in two different forms : katakana and hiragana. It’s exactly the same alphabet but each syllable will be written in two different forms, each letter will exist in two versions. So, remember that the word « kana » includes katakana and hiragana.
Kanji, on the other hand, are NOT phonetic syllables. They correspond well to a word with a meaning. That being said, I will give you an example to illustrate. Take a look at this kanji below :
田
It is the kanji of « the rice field ». This kanji alone means « the rice field ». Understand that as a word and as an idea, this kanji represents « the rice field ».
I give you other examples below :
木 . the tree
口 . the mouth
北 . the north
鳥 . the bird
So, you can see that there are kanji to represent a lot of different things, whether it is something concrete like a tree, a part of the body like the mouth or a concept more abstract like a cardinal point – above « the north ». There are also kanji to represent animals like the bird and many other things.
Now let’s see what kana looks like. For example, I give you the following syllables below with the pronunciation in rōmaji :
か . ka
み . mi
な . na
り . ri
These kana above are hiragana. I give you now exactly the same syllables but in katakana, again with the pronunciation in rōmaji :
カ . KA
ミ . MI
ナ . NA
リ . RI
Here. You have understood that these syllables exist in two versions : hiragana and katakana. If you pay close attention to the two syllabaries, you will already notice that there are some similarities and some differences between the two. Remember what I told you at the start. The kana, hiragana and katakana, are the same alphabet but in two different forms. We will see in the following lessons what these differences are and how each of these syllabaries is used. For now, remember that.
So, all of this, where does it come from ? Japanese has long been only an oral language, without any written medium. It was not until the 4th century AD that Chinese writings passed through Korea until they reached the Japanese coast. And this is how the Japanese discovered the principle of writing. And we are talking about Chinese texts here because, in fact, the kanji come from China. This is why, when you go to a Chinese restaurant, you find them everywhere on the dishes, on the menus, on the banners… When they arrived in Japan, they were slightly modified – we will see in more detail in which measure – but for now, remember that the kanji come from Chinese.
The Japanese therefore recovered the kanji, these Chinese ideograms – which, moreover in China are called « hanzi » – and from these ideograms, they therefore created the kana system : the hiragana and the katakana, which are therefore an exclusively Japanese invention. I will come back in more detail later on how the hiragana and the katakana were created but, to put it simply, the Japanese quickly copied a few pieces of kanji to create their famous syllables with much less lines for more simplicity and put their own pronunciations on these newly created syllables.
I give you below some examples of hiragana which are simplifications of kanji :
安 . あ
心 . し
計 . け
代 . む
毛 . も
Well, with a little imagination, you see a little – really a little ! – that there are similarities. Then for katakana, it’s a little bit different. In fact, katakana are small pieces of kanji that have been recovered.
I give you below some examples of katakana which are recoveries of small pieces of kanji.
今 . フ
江 . エ
佑 . イ
加 . カ
夕 . ク
So, from kanji which were the first writing system that the Japanese discovered, they created their two syllables : hiragana and katakana. For now, we’re just laying the groundwork, we’re not going into details, we’ll see that later.
Today, the Japanese have recovered two other writing systems : rōmaji and arabiasūji. These two writing systems, you know them well because they are the two writing systems used in many occidental languages. Rōmaji is the Japanese name for the Latin alphabet, and arabiasūji is the Japanese name for Arabic numbers. These are the two systems that we use every day, nowadays they are used in Japanese. We will see more details about them later ; what is their place in the Japanese language? how are they used ?...
All these terms that we have just seen are to remember, it is very important. You will find them in practically all courses in all seasons. They will be useful to you all your life so learn them. I take this opportunity to recap what we said about each of these terms. Yes, I’m repeating myself but it’s important !
– Kanji are sinograms.
– Kana are alphabets of syllables, Japanese have two syllabaries : hiragana and katakana. It’s the same alphabet but in two different forms.
– Rōmaji are the Latin alphabet.
– Arabiasūji are Arabic numerals.
From now on, we will study everything. Kanji, kana, rōmaji, arabiasūji. The next courses will be a detailed presentation of each of these writing systems. I will give you all the details, all the rules of use because there are precise rules to respect in order to be able to fully exploit and completely master all these writings. I will also teach you to count in Japanese but also to write in Japanese, first the hiragana and the katakana and then the kanji. I’ll take you writing on paper because I think it’s the best way to learn.
I also invite you to get the Kanji To Kana, the reference book for all those who want to seriously learn Japanese. You can get it in English either by ordering it online, or by finding it in a specialized bookstore if you are lucky enough to have one near you. The complete name is Kanji & Kana: Handbook and Dictionary of the Japanese Writing System. This book is an imperative, learning the Japanese language without this book may be very difficult so you have to get it. You can possibly order it online on sites like Amazon.
I will also give you lots of exercises so that you can put what you have just learned to the test and you are asked not to cut it. There is no point in taking the courses if you don’t bother doing the exercises. As I indicate in the FAQ, the exercises are available via a Google Sheet link. You will get exercises to do for ALL the courses, so do them. I guarantee you will progress if you do everything right.
I can reassure you right away because I know there are some who are generally anxious about this idea. You are not there to be tried ; it doesn’t matter if you’re wrong in an exercise or exam. You revise your lessons and repeat your exercises until you get there. And you will get there, I believe in you ! Don’t stop at failure, don’t stop for a few mistakes. It’s okay to be wrong and try again until you succeed.
Once you have mastered Japanese writing to perfection, we will be able to approach Japanese grammar with more serenity where we will see sentence formation, particles and many other things. I’m so happy just to think about it…
With that, I will leave you with your very first exercise, a very simple questionnaire, which broadly covers everything we have just seen. I just ask you to answer the questions, just to see if you have correctly integrated the Japanese terms that we saw in this course and their definitions.
I hope you are ready and motivated for the future and I am waiting for you for the next lesson.
Note : you may have noticed, but I don’t put a « s » in the words « hiragana », « katakana » and « kanji » when I speak in the plural. This is because these are typically Japanese words. It will be the same from now on.
Introduction