Welcome to another exicitng section of JAL. These lessons are intended
to teach you how to read, write, and pronounce words written in Katakana,
one of the three written syllabaries of the Japanese language. These symbols
are especially used when writing the names of popular anime shows on
LDs, CDs, video games, pencil boxes, etc. Some examples are Evangelion,
Escaflowne, and Macross to name a few. By the end of these lessons, you
should be able to write, read, and pronounce any Katakana word that you
see. Of course, comprehension of what it is will come later (unless you are
up on your French, Spanish, German, and any other foreign languages).
Katakana is primarily used for writing two types of words. The first is any foreign word that Japanese people like to use (and they like to use a lot). The second place that you'll see katakana used is when writing slang words of the Japanese language. This appears in manga predominantly and is used for words like anta (slang for anata <you>) or baka (idiot).
Enough talk. Let's begin the lesson starting at the top two rows of the Japanese alphabet.
aiueo.wav
Here's is the first row of the Japanes alphabet. Starting from
the left and going right is A, I, U, E, O.
We'll now take each character and look at it closely. I'll also tell you
how it's pronounced and in later lessons, we'll use it in constructing
certain words.
How to write A
a.wav
Stroke order is very important.
What you see above is a step-by-step way of drawing A. This is how it will
look from now on. The first picture is the entire syallable. Next, is the
first stroke with the tiny arrow indicating which way you should go. The
proceeding blocks are given to writing the other lines in the correct order.
Other previous lines will be left in so you know where to place the next
one. The last picture will be the final product.
NOTE: You may want a lot of paper to practice writing these out. Also, flash cards are good for this stuff. That's how I learned them. Also, rusty red letters are the Japanese romanization of the Katakana and blue is for English words or pieces of English words in the pronunciation section.
Pronunciation: A is pronounced like the "a" in car but shorter.
How to write I
i.wav
Pronunciation: This I
is said like "ee"
as in meet but
not lengthened like that.
Combinations: When you combine A+ I, you get a sound like i as in ice. For a good sound of this, CLICK HERE.
How to write U
u.wav
Pronunciation: The U
is said like "u"
as in hula.
How to write E
e.wav
Pronunciation: The E
is said like the a
in ace or "e"
in get.
Combinations: E
+ I gets
you a sound like the a in
ray, e.g. Magic Knight Rayearth.
CLICK HERE FOR A SOUND EXAMPLE OF EI.
How to write O
o.wav
Pronunciation: The O
is like the o
in or but
shorter.
Did you get through those okay? Good. Keep practicing them. That's all that it really takes. Soon, I'll be able to show you some examples of how these syllables are put together to form English words. Coming up, the second row of the Japanese alphabet.
How to write KA
ka.wav
Pronunciation: KA
is pronounced like "ca"
in car but shorter.
How to write KI
ki.wav
Pronunciation: KI
is said like the "kee"
in keep but shorter.
How to write KU
ku.wav
Pronunciation: KU
is spoken like the "ku"
in Kuwait but
shorter.
How to write KE
ke.wav
Pronunciation: KE
is pronounced like the "ke"
in keg.
How to write KO
ko.wav
Pronunciation: KO
is orated like the "co"
in core but shorter.
Examples
There are actually examples for this
lesson. Try to figure them out before peeking at the answers. The answers
are found at the end of the lesson.
CLICK
HERE TO HEAR WHAT THIS SOUNDS LIKE
With this example let me introduce a new concept. As you've probably noticed,
all Japanese vowels are short. So, when writing words in Katakana, a long
dash is used to indicate that you hold the vowel for one beat more or just
a little longer than normal. For example, the word above would be pronounced
as "kaa." Can you guess what this
English word is?
HINT: Ted Kennedy says it like this.
Help on Writing your own Katakana
words
I've added this help section to pass on a couple of tips
that I've learned from taking English words and putting them into Japanese.
Just check the various lessons and I'll try and get some up. They may pop
up sporadically, so be patient. OR you can just email me with a problem.
1. To get an "ar" or "er"
sound, just use a prolonged A-.
2. To get an "oy", use OI.
3. "Q" is made with KA,
KI, etc. in Japanese.
How was this lesson? Burn through a couple pencils? Ja, ganbatte yo. Mata ne.
Answers: CAR, ACRE, CAKE, COCOA
