Japanese Reading and Writing Self Study Courses

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Japanese characters are then beautiful and circuitous that it can experience overwhelming when yous attempt to tackle the task of reading and writing Japanese quickly. Just because there are over l,000 kanji characters doesn't mean you lot need to learn them all. Most native Japanese speakers only know the two phonetic scripts and around 6000 kanji characters. While it may still take years to quickly read or write Japanese, you lot tin larn bones Japanese relatively quickly if you know how to prioritize your studies.

1. 1

   Start reading Japanese texts written for children. Instead of diving into a complex text that will require a vast command of the kanji, begin with books that volition help you to grasp the hiragana and the katakana first.

   • You can get-go with translated versions of books similar Disney or The Very Hungry Caterpillar. This way you can easily compare the translation to the original text to assist grasp the sentence structure.
   • Look for books by Mari Takabayashi while yous learn hiragana. Her children'due south books are written entirely in hiragana, only will challenge your mastery of the script.
   • Guri and Gura are likewise a very famous serial of Japanese children'southward books that y'all can try as you go more than avant-garde. They can assistance to build your basic vocabulary.
   • Try manga. One time you feel comfortable with children's books, try moving up to some manga as a gateway to more than advanced reading.

2. 2

   Focus on bones Japanese grammar and sentence construction. Japanese can seem confusing to read at first because at that place are no spaces between the characters.

   • Japanese judgement structure follows subject-object-verb format, every bit opposed to the subject-verb-object structure that English uses. Whereas an English judgement might be "I potable h2o", the Japanese equivalent would interpret literally to "I water drink" (私は水を飲みます).
   • Japanese distinguishes parts of a judgement with particles - for instance, は or が oft denotes the subject field, を indicates an object, で indicates the location of an event, に indicates direction or time, and and so along. These particles are placed straight subsequently the words they refer to.

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3. 3

   Tackle one subject at a fourth dimension. Information technology can be frustrating to go by the first page of a book in Japanese, but stick with it. As you go through a text, many words volition exist repeated afterwards in the document. The more yous read and encounter the same words, the faster your reading will go as they become more familiar.^[i]

   • Choose subjects yous like. If you are interested in music, get books that are at your Japanese reading level for that subject. If the topic interests yous, you lot stand a much better hazard of pushing through the reading and picking up more than of the language.

4. 4

   Don't spend time learning to speak the language. If your goal is simply to learn to read and write Japanese fast, you volition merely slow yourself downwardly if you get an audio learning class or take a class where you will practice conversational Japanese. It is possible to learn the linguistic communication without having to speak it. Since kanji uses characters to stand for meanings, it doesn't thing whether you know how to pronounce the words out loud. All that matters that yous know what a symbol means and how to correctly use it in a sentence.

   • Instead of practicing speaking, spend all your study fourth dimension building your kanji vocabulary, learning grammar, and practicing writing.

5. 5

   Turn on Japanese subtitles. Endeavour putting on a television testify or movies in your native language, and plow on Japanese subtitles. As you begin to build your reading speed and vocabulary, you lot can mute the volume so you have to read the Japanese subtitles. It might be hard to go on up at start, only y'all can use the images on the screen to help you lot assemble the context along with the words.

6. half-dozen

   Build your vocabulary by studying the Jōyō Kanji. Virtually of the words in Japanese are kanji characters borrowed from Chinese. The Jōyō Kanji are a listing of 2136 Chinese characters that the Japanese regime promotes every bit most useful to understanding the linguistic communication.^[two]

   • Continue a kanji weblog every bit you larn. It tin can take many months or even years to learn kanji. Having a weblog makes it easy to look back and review the words you have learned.^[three]
   • Be patient. It will take a expert bargain of time and repetition to learn Kanji.

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1. i

   Memorize the hiragana script. Hiragana is the phonetic script used in the Japanese language. Since it accounts for every sound used in the language, it is possible to write everything in hiragana.

   • There are 46 characters in the hiragana script.^[4] Each of them represents a vowel (a, due east, i, o, u) or a consonant (k,s,t,n,h,m,y,r,west) + vowel.
   • Use hiragana script to write participles and expressions, or words that are uncommon and might not exist known by your reader.^[5]
   • Make flashcards of each of the hiragana characters with the phonetic sound they represent on the backside. Practise by going through them in one case or twice a day past saying the phonetic sound that goes with each character. Then try looking at the phonetic sound and writing the respective hiragana grapheme.

2. 2

   Report the katakana script. The katakana script is composed of 46 symbols that create the same phonetic sounds and the hiragana script but are used for words that originated from another linguistic communication. This tin be useful when yous want to talk about things similar America, Mozart, or Halloween.

   • Since at that place are no long vowel sounds in the Japanese language, all long vowels in katakana are denoted by a long dash "⏤" following the character. For example, "ケーキ" is how you say "cake." The nuance indicates the long "a" audio.
   • The hiragana and katakana scripts can be learned in just a couple weeks if you practice them for a couple of hours each mean solar day.

3. 3

   Study the characters in a handwritten font. Just as the letter 'a' appears different on figurer fonts than when it is handwritten, many typed Japanese figurer fonts appear different than the handwritten fonts.

   • Memorize. A expert style of learning is to spend about a half hour to an 60 minutes a day memorizing and writing characters.
   • Quiz yourself. To test if you're remembering hiragana and katakana, endeavour to write a certain group of sounds from retention. If you tin't do information technology, become over it again. Make a chart of all the Japanese sounds, then effort to fill them in with the corresponding hiragana or katakana scripts. Continue trying daily until yous can do all 46 for each script.

4. 4

   Use kanji, but but when you demand to. Learning kanji tin can aid to shorten your writing significantly, but it is used sparingly, even by native speakers. Y'all oft need to be sure that the reader is going to recognize the kanji y'all use. If y'all know how to say a word, but practice not know the kanji, you lot can spell information technology out phonetically using hiragana.

5. v

   Practice the proper stroke order. ^[6] Stroke order may non seem of import, only it can exist necessary to distinguish one character from another, especially with kanji. Additionally, it actually helps yous write much faster, whether it'south hiragana, katakana or kanji.

   • Write characters pinnacle to lesser, left to right.
   • Make your horizontal strokes before vertical strokes.
   • Make shapes in the middle doing strokes on the sides.
   • Dots or smaller strokes should come up last.
   • Learn the proper angles for each stroke.

6. 6

   Exercise writing sentences. Yous don't need to start off with anything complex, only writing in Japanese volition improve your writing speed and help you lot memorize the stroke order of the characters.

   • Write in hiragana unless some of the words are imported. You lot can cull to either write information technology horizontally (in which instance yous'd write left to right, every bit in English) or in the more traditional vertical fashion (in which case you'd write peak to lesser, right to left).
   • Write nouns, adjectives and verbs using kanji. Nigh of the words in Japanese are kanji characters that have been borrowed from the Chinese linguistic communication.^[7] In one case you start writing kanji, make certain that you're using the proper kanji, since some kanji have the same reading, but different meanings.

7. seven

   Do not write in romaji. While information technology may seem easier to simply use romanization to capture the syllables, romaji is non used past Japanese people and your writing may just stop up confusing the reader. Since there are many homonyms in the Japanese language, romaji is not a very efficient manner to write or read.

8. 8

   Write in semi-cursive or cursive to write faster. Once y'all have mastered the stroke order, you tin can brainstorm to write characters in semi-cursive or cursive. Practice writing sentences and words while removing the brush or pencil as piffling every bit possible from the page. Since you have learned the proper stroke gild, you tin can just apply less pressure in betwixt the strokes and produce characters seamlessly.

   • Just like in other languages, certain characters can be simplified slightly in the writing to write quickly.^[eight] While you lot don't desire to make your characters illegible, usually the context of the writing will help the reader to understand a sloppily written grapheme.

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1. 1

   Say hello. こんにちは means "hello" in Japanese. Y'all pronounce it Konnichi wa.

   • おはようございます means "Proficient morning." You pronounce information technology like, Ohayo gozaimasu.
   • こんばんは means "Proficient Evening." Pronounce it similar, Konban wa.
   • お休みなさい means "Proficient night." Pronounce information technology like, Oyasumi nasai.
   • さようなら means "Adieu." Say, Sayonara.

2. 2

   Say thank you lot very much. ありがとうございます means "Thank you very much" in Japanese. You pronounce it Arigatou gozaimasu.

   • If someone thank you you, say you lot're welcome. どういたしまして means "You're welcome." Pronounce it, Do itashimashite.

3. iii

   Ask how someone is doing. お元気ですか means "How are you?" You lot pronounce information technology Ogenki desu ka?

   • If someone asks how y'all are doing, let them know you're fine. 元気です means, "I'm fine." Pronounce it genki desu.

4. 4

   Introduce yourself. 私の名前は means, "My proper noun is..." Pronounce it Watashi no namae wa.

5. 5

   Larn directions. ^[9] Information technology's important to know how to become where yous're going.

   • まっすぐ(massugu) means directly.
   • 右(migi) means right.
   • 左(hidari) means left.

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Add New Question

• Question

  I am attempting to decipher an artist's name, from the early office of the 20th century, or possibly belatedly 19th century. Is there a way to accept a picture and translate?

  

  The Google Translate app allows you to accept photos of an item, and volition translate it to your desired language.

• Question

  What is the easiest way to learn kanji?

  

  You need to know full general stroke order in order to get a head kickoff on learning kanji. Once you lot have that downwardly, you lot can look up online guides, or you tin can search for ''"kyoiku kanji"'', which is the order of kanji taught to Japanese children and linguistic communication-learners.

• Question

  Is katakana or hiragana used more in Japan?

  

  Hiragana is used most often, and is oft used in combination with kanji. Katakana is used just for imported words, such as names or things that don't really have an official Japanese term (e.g., the word "cake", which is written as ケーキ).

• Question

  Can I write in Japanese if I am writing right-to-left?

  

  Typically, correct-to-left writing is used for when you're writing vertically instead of horizontally. If you're writing horizontally, stick with left-to-right, equally otherwise your words volition nearly probable be read backwards.

• Question

  Is the an easy technique to remember Hiragana characters?

  

  There is no universal trick for all characters; still, if yous can adhere a movie or pregnant to the characters then they become easier to retrieve. Use simple words with 1 or two characters at most.

• Question

  Is information technology easy to learn Japanese?

  

  No, it is actually ane of the hardest languages to learn. Don't let that stop you from learning the linguistic communication, though!

• Question

  Will information technology help if I enroll myself in a class to learn Japanese?

  

  Learning any linguistic communication in any grade will exist fourth dimension consuming, just information technology tin be much easier if y'all accept a class. Having an teacher to assistance you tin can be very beneficial, so yes, I would recommend enrolling in a local Japanese course.

• Question

  What are the techniques to learn hiragana and katakana most easily?

  

  All you have to do is to be dedicated, focus, and remember that practice makes perfect.

• Question

  What is the easiest way to acquire sounds and numbers?

  

  For numbers, brand a long set of digits such as pi into your iPhone password. Then whenever y'all experience y'all take the relevant number down, add together a few new ones and larn those ones. If more than than one number, make it computer password as well, or other passwords. For sounds, you tin relate the sound to a picture, equally pictures are like shooting fish in a barrel to remember.

• Question

  How can I remember hiragana and katakana while learning Japanese?

  

  Memorize and do them, read and write them oftentimes. A adept manner to memorize them easily is to acquaintance each character with a give-and-take or pic that will assist you memorize the audio of that character.

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• Japanese apps can help you as well.

• Endeavor to study in an environs that does non distract you lot.

• Check out your local bookstore or library for books.

• Find your 'time'. Some people find it best to acquire in the morning, others at night just before they go to sleep.

• Be very patient. Japanese is one of the hardest languages to learn as an English speaker.

• Study 'little' and 'frequently' for a desired result.

• Seek out someone who is skilful in the language, perhaps even a native speaker! They would most likely be very happy to assist y'all.

• Joining a Japanese class might assistance y'all to become fluent faster, but will also focus a lot on speaking the language.

• Try to find a Japanese/English romanized dictionary; they can be handy. Notwithstanding, do not rely on using roman characters to read Japanese!

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Article Summary X

The quickest manner to read Japanese is to begin with children's books. Focus on the sentence construction and grammer of the language, which may be quite different from your native language. Piece of work on one subject at a time, and don't spend fourth dimension learning how to speak Japanese if your goal is to read and write it quickly. The quickest way to write Japanese is to memorize the hiragana script and report the katakana script. Write using a combination of hiragana and katakana characters, and use kanji simply when necessary. To larn bones Japanese phrases and words to assistance get-go you off, keep reading beneath!

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Japanese Reading and Writing Self Study Courses

Source: https://www.wikihow.com/Read-and-Write-Japanese-Fast

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