How does acquaintance with the Japanese language traditionally begin? Hiragana is the first thing a beginner should learn. For a person who sees hiragana for the first time, the task seems very difficult.

What is hiragana

The study of the Japanese language has recently become popular, many manuals, materials, techniques, paid and free courses, and sites have appeared. Almost all textbooks have one thing in common - one of the first topics will be "Learning the Japanese Hiragana alphabet."

Memorizing the syllabic alphabet is an important stage in the study. A beginner who picks up a table in his hands thinks with horror: “How to learn hiragana in a week? I won't remember everything in a month! "

What is Hiragana? This is a syllabic alphabet, which means that each symbol does not mean a sound, but a syllable. Forty-six hiragana characters are used to write conjunctions, endings, postfixes. And small children first learn to write in hiragana, and only then begin to learn kanji.

You can start learning Hiragana right away. Methods and tools can be combined and combined. For example, at home to study from a textbook, writing symbols in a notebook, and in a free minute outside the home, use an application for a mobile phone (in transport, in a queue, at recess) or check what you have learned using a computer program. The main thing is to practice daily, and then you can easily learn Hiragana in less than a week!

The old fashioned way

The traditional method of learning the syllabic alphabet is through textbook exercises. We take a book, a notebook in our hands and patiently prescribe each squiggle, observing the rules of writing and speaking to ourselves. In a row, like letters in the first class. After every five signs, we do oral and written exercises. How do you learn Hiragana in a week in this way? Plan your time and stay on schedule.

Quite frankly, doing the exercises, especially the written ones, will take a lot of time. But if you are learning a language for your own pleasure, then you can devote more time to classes and learn the perfect outline of the signs.

Advantages of this method: visual and mechanical memory works at the same time, memorization is quite fast. And most importantly, the knowledge gained in this way settles literally for years. Even if you pause learning a language for a while, then, starting again, you will remember everything very quickly.

Cards

This method complements the previous one perfectly. Cut 46 cards out of cardboard, write the hiragana symbol on each (you can write katakana on the back). Shuffle all the cards, pull out one at a time and name. A kind of test, which also contributes to memorization. You can study almost from the very beginning of training - just remove the sign cards that you have not yet studied. Or you can improve your knowledge of symbols that are poorly remembered - remove the cards that you know best, and train with the most difficult ones.

Programs, games and mobile applications

You can do without drawing tablets and take advantage of the benefits of civilization, namely, programs for studying hiragana. How to learn Hiragana in a week using the program? Download one of them and install it on your computer. It can be:

• "Canonization", which combines several modes;
• script for "Vord", replacing Russian syllables with hiragana;
• kanu game in which you need to find the meaning of signs;
• Easy Kana program, which works on the principle of cards and allows you to both learn new and repeat signs.

Online trainers can be found on sites for Japanese learners.

Don't forget about computing power in your own pocket. There are many mobile apps to help you learn hiragana. These are all kinds of learning tables, cards, games. One "but" - all programs are in English, but it is not difficult to understand the most popular ones. These are JA Sensei, Kana, Obenkyo, Kana Mind and many others, most of them are free.

The advantage of learning with programs is speed. You will not ask how to learn hiragana in a week, the signs themselves will be remembered in a couple of days of use, it is easy and pleasant to learn. But they are also forgotten in the moment. In addition, there may be problems with reading books and writing. It is better to look into the textbook to perform the exercises at least orally. A huge plus of mobile applications - you can study anywhere, for example, on the subway or at a boring lecture.

Associations

Finally, a little trick. If some signs are poorly remembered (this happens especially often at the end of training), resort to the help of your imagination. Come up with associations for some signs (if you wish, you can also for the whole table). For example, the symbol "ゅ" definitely looks like the letter "y" and sounds the same. And "う" looks like an ear, "ふ" - it's better to come up with your own associations. Now you know how to learn Hiragana in a week. You will succeed!

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Everyone has different opinions about the Japanese language. Some consider it devilishly complex, while others, on the contrary, very simple. From my own learning experience, I can tell that at the beginning it seems very simple. But, of course, everything is not so simple. Only later it turns out that Japanese also has many complexities and subtleties, like any other language. But if you start to study it correctly, it will seem easy, and this will be an incentive to study further and further.

If you nevertheless decided to study this mysterious Japanese language, then I wish you success on this difficult path. Be persistent, do not be discouraged if something does not work out - do not give up, continue to study and do not take long breaks in learning the language, and then you will definitely succeed in achieving good results!

The main thing is not to put everything on the far shelf. If you keep thinking “Someday I'll start learning Japanese”, or “Someday I’ll teach hiragana, but now I don’t have the time / mood, - laziness, etc ...” - don’t think that you have really something will work out. If you want to be able to speak Japanese, get started now!

If you do not know where to start learning, I will be happy to help you with my lessons. Homework will be given after each lesson. You can execute it and send me a private message (- Adellie), after which I will definitely check it and fix any errors. Don't be upset about the mistakes you make. Your work is not needed to assess the success achieved, but for the individual correction of the learning process, this is necessary for everyone, even with independent learning.

So, first you need to familiarize yourself with the Japanese script. There are three types of writing in Japanese: two syllable alphabets (hiragana, katakana) and kanji (hieroglyphs).
Hiragana is used to write grammatical particles and mutable parts of words. You can also write a word with hiragana if, for example, you do not know how to write a given word with a hieroglyph. Katakana is used to write foreign names and loan words. For example, the word basu (from the English bus) - "bus" - will be written in katakana.

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Distinguishing between hiragana and katakana is quite simple - hiragana signs appear rounded with curls, while katakana signs are more angular.

To start learning Japanese, the first step is to learn Kana (the so-called hiragana and katakana together).
Kanji will need to be studied throughout the entire learning process. By the way, this is not an easy task. For some, they are very poorly given, and, moreover, there are a lot of them. More than 3000 hieroglyphs are used for the literary text. But in fact, for everyday use you need to know much less - about 1945 hieroglyphs. By the way, the average Japanese person recognizes somewhere between 1500-1800 kanji.

And here is hiragana itself :)
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By adding a diacritical mark in the form of two slashes to the right of some kana characters (nigori), we are syllables with voiced consonants (see the picture below for more details).
If we add to the right of the signs ha hi fu he ho small circle diacritic mark (hannigori), we get the following syllables: pa pi pu pe po.
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If after the signs denoting syllables with vowels [and] (for example: [ki], [si], [ti]), write the reduced signs of hiragana y y yo, we get the following syllables:
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Vowel lengthening:
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Some more important points:
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Written version of hiragana:
It is not necessary to write this way, you can do it as in the table presented above, or maybe even better.
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And so that hiragana is always at hand, and you can look into it when you forget any sign, I advise you to print, if possible, the full hiragana template and hang it over your desktop C:
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Homework for 1 lesson.

Write down the following words in hiragana:

1.dochira __________ 9.byo: ki __________
2.kyu: kei __________ 10. Hokkaido: __________
3.tamago __________ 11. sho: gun __________
4.kaisha __________ 12. daigaku __________
5.sanbyaku __________ 13.do: zo __________
6. okashi __________ 14. sanpo __________
7.samurai __________ 15.jitensha __________
8.gakko: __________ 16.shippai __________

Do your homework in a notebook, preferably in a box, but it doesn't really matter.
To send it to me, you can take a picture even on your phone, it doesn't matter, the main thing is that it is visible and readable :)
You can send it absolutely at any time, regardless of how long ago this lesson was downloaded and how many of them are already at the moment.
You can also ask questions on the topic of the lesson, if you misunderstood something, I will explain everything in detail.
And most importantly, do not hesitate, I will be glad to everyone who sends their work.
(Just do not forget to indicate the number of the lesson for which you completed the assignment)

If you liked the lesson, write it in the comments, I will be very pleased ^ - ^

P.S. The next lesson will be in katakana, so take your time and calmly teach hiragana: 3
And yes, I will post it when at least 3 people send homework for this lesson ..

RESOURCES

To begin with, I will list the sites, books, and programs I have used while studying hiragana and katakana. I must say, I shoveled a lot of resources, but here I am listing only those that I could recommend to others. In each category, I have arranged the items in descending order of their usefulness (for me).

On-line resources for learning Kana

1. Teach Yourself Japanese is the main resource I used. The writing of the kana symbols is shown without any curls and bulges, but as we write with a pen or pencil. Explanations of the nuances of sounds are given, there are audio files. There is additional information about the language. In addition, all this can be downloaded to disk and used without an Internet connection (there is a link to zip-s on the main page).

2. Self-study book of the Japanese language - here the most concise and sensible explanation of the sound of kan is given (see lesson 12), but I did not take the writing from here. There are a couple of exercises with answers. In my opinion, reading the lessons on this site is the best way to get in touch with Japanese for the first time before seriously learning it.

3. Japanese online - on this resource there are recipes for the language, if you are too lazy to make them yourself, and you can see the location of the kan in the cells of the spellings. There is voice acting, but it seemed inconvenient to use it. (!) The order of writing the traits of the two kangs is not the same as in most other sources.

4. Learn The Kana - the most convenient resource for listening to the kan sound - when you click on the icon, you just hear the sound, nothing opens in the pop-up window, and, moreover, the sound file does not need to be downloaded for listening. In addition, this resource offers 1-2 mnemonic rules for each kana (albeit aimed at an English-speaking audience) and there is a section "Similar Hiragana / Katakana", where attention is focused on the differences between similar kana.

On-line resources for testing kana knowledge

5. David Hallgren "s Japanese Page - I liked more than all the others that I came across. Here you can test the knowledge of both alphabets or each separately, or even certain rows. I type blindly, so I pass this test at the speed of a machine gun.

6. Real Kana - the same as No. 5, but there are some brakes in the test.

7. Henrik Theiling "s Script Teacher - here you can practice your kana skills using several different fonts. A couple of fonts change the appearance of icons almost beyond recognition, so it is useful to prepare yourself for how they might look in different texts.

8. Learn Japanese - I found it especially useful to practice without romaji, but only hiragana<->katakana.

Offline resources

9. "A guide to learning Hiragana and Katakana" by Henshall and Takagaki - from this book I used only the exercises, as well as a description of additional kan sounds and various nuances of kana writing.

10. "Hiragana and Katakana Worksheets" (Meguro Language Center) - also used only for exercises. There are answers, but they are in a separate file.

11. "Remembering The Kana" (Part 1 - Hiragana, Part 2 - Katakana) by Heisig - this book is of interest to me because it contains mnemonic rules for memorizing a kan, but very few of them are suitable for Russian-speaking people.

Soft (programs)

12. Let "s Learn Japanese - Hiragana and Katakana
Pros:

• no need to search for a value in the list
• practice is very quick and easy, especially if you can type in English blindly. That is, this program is similar to resources # 5 and # 6, only the Internet is not needed.

• no voice acting
• trains only recognizing the canals, not playing them

• there is a voice acting for all kan
• configurable test (you can turn off romaji, leaving only audio, but it is better not to turn off, otherwise half of the sounds cannot be heard)
• trains the recollection of kan by sound + romaji (most tests train the recitation of kan by their image)

• it takes too long to find answers
• it is very difficult to distinguish some sounds (chi-ji, k-g, h-b-p, re-be, dzu sounds closer to du or ryu)
• mitigations (kya, mea, etc.) are not tested
• writing kang with a mouse is a perversion, this part of the program can be safely omitted

• you can test a truly complete alphabet, including mitigations

• no voice acting
• there are a lot of answer options, and the test is against time, so it takes a lot of time to find the answer in the list; it would be better if there was a complete alphabet, and always in the same order.
• tests only reading kan (kana -> romaji), not remembering (romaji -> kana)

15. Printed copybooks and a pen - "saw, Shura, saw!". When I learned each new kana, I wrote at least one line of this symbol. And if it didn’t work, then I wrote a few more lines until it began to work out.

16. Hiragana and Katakana Flash Cards - before I came across programs and online tests, cards (I printed them on plain sheets, not cardboard) were very helpful. But it is clear that with programs it is more reliable.

PROCESS

First, I came up with mnemonic rules for memorizing each kana from one or two rows, which I planned to learn that day. For this I used resources # 4 and # 11 - in search of inspiration :). I then used resources # 1, 2, and 3 to study the writing and sounding of each kana. After that, go ahead and with songs # 15. Then I asked someone close to me to dictate to me in no particular order all the kana that I already know.

All the other points described above were for testing, I used them only after studying the entire alphabet, and at the same time I read additional information about the various nuances of writing and sounding kan (mainly resources # 9, 1 and 2).

Wow, I didn't realize how many resources I was using until I listed them here. And how much time did I spend on choosing them from many others - it's even scary to imagine! As the saying goes: "Hunting is worse than bondage." :)