にほんごのべんきょう

I'm not sure why most of Japanese learneres start to learn Kanji after completion of Hiragana & Katakana lessons. 

There are some Kanjis even easier than some Hiraganas & Katakanas. So.. Why don't you try to master those Kanjis?

With this module, you will be able to write 3 Kanjis. Japanese kids learn these Kanjis during 1st grade of elementary school. So it's quite easy!

The 3 Kanji is ;
十、人、入


十 【juu】= 10
十 look very simple and we can write it easily.

Want to check the stroke with movie? Click here

Do you remember we studied 一、二、三 and 十?
Now we can combine them for saying numbers.

十一【juu-ichi】= 11
十二【juu-ni】= 12
十三【juu-san】=13
十八【juu-hachi】=18 

二十【ni-juu】=20
二十一【ni-juu-ichi】=21 
二十二【ni-juu-ni】= 22
二十三【ni-juu-san】=23
二十八【ni-juu-hachi】=28 

三十【san-juu】=30
三十一【san-juu-ichi】=31
三十二【san-juu-ni】=32
三十三【san-juu-san】=33
三十八【san-juu-hachi】=38

八十【hachi-juu】=80
八十一【hachi-juu-ichi】= 81
八十二【hachi-juu-ni】= 82
八十三【hachi-juu-san】=83
八十八【hachi-juu-hachi】=88 

Note that we don't say 一十.


Let's go to the next one.

人【hito / jin,nin】= person
 
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This Kanji was developped from the illustration of it's meaning, person.


Some say it's the shape that one person supports/helps another.


Though it's not the historical development, you may keep this in your mind if the concept is helpful for you.



Next is;

入【hai-ru / nyuu】= enter


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This kanji was developped from the simbol image of entrance.



.... I m sure that you think 人 and 入 look very alike, and wondering how can you distinguish form one to the other.

 

Hope now you don't have any trouble to distinguish 2 letters.

Now we've added 3 new Kanjis to our list.




For the next lesson, Click here!

Now we are going to learn 2 Hiraganas, 6 Katakanas that we can write with simple 2 strokes.

We've just started with 2 Hiragana.
う、と

I guess both are easire to recognize if you see the original Kanji charactors. As one of charactarististics of Hiragana, the 2 letters have one curved lines.

う【u】



The basic stroks, "Top to Bottom" is applied.
Want to check the stroke with movie? Click here



This is the original kanji. You now see how it was developped from the Kanji.

と【to】

 
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Next we learn 6 Katakanas.
ト、イ、メ、ナ、ソ、ン

ト【to】
It has same origine of Hiragana's と.



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Though both Hiragana and Katakana have the same origine, Katakana has more "straight lines".

The next one is イ. ト and イ are common for "The second stroke start from a part of the first stroke" or "the biginning of the second strokes are touching the first strokes"

イ【i】
 
Want to check the stroke with movie? Click here メ and ナ are common for "The first stroke and the second stroke are crossed". Do they look alike for you? Just be concious about their stroke order so that you can see the difference easily.

メ【me】

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ナ【na】
  
Want to check the stroke with movie? Click here There are another 2 Katakanas for foreigners because they look alike, They are ン【n】 and ソ 【so】.

For learning ン【n】、just recall the hiragana's ん【n】first.
The stroke-end towards upper right corner as "HARAU", the sweep technique.

Want to check the stroke with movie? Click here 

Now let's see our new Katakana ン【n】

ン【n】
 
As it's Hiragana version, the 2nd stroke-end  towards upper right corner as "HARAU".



Then look at the "similer for foreigners" ソ【so】

ソ【so】
    
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The 2nd stroke ends also "HARAI", but direction is from upper right to lower left. We can see the "HARAI" technique on the original kanji's part,too. 
Here you see the 2nd strokes are with totally reveresed directions.

   

Hi!

Now we are going to learn 3 Hiraganas, 3 Katakanas, and 2 Kanjis that we can write with the simplest 2 strokes, and 1 Kanji and 1 Katakana with 3 strokes.

We've just started with 2 Kanji.
二 which means 2,三 means 3, and 八 which means 8 

二【ni】= 2

Use the basic stroke as "Left to Right".
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三【san】= 3
 
Use the basic stroke as "Left to Right".
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八【hachi】= 8
  
Use the basic stroke as "Top to Bottom"
Want to check the stroke with movie? Click here

*As we studied, Kanji has many phonics/sounds, I've just mentioned this time very basic sounds.
     


The next letters we need to study is 4 Katakanas, 
ニ【ni】、ミ【mi】、ハ【ha】、リ【ri】

ニ【ni】

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ミ【mi】

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ハ 【ha】

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リ【ri】

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Have you noticed that Katakanas' ニ, 三, and 八 look alike Kanji's ニ, 三, and 八, that we've just learned??
Hiragana and Katakana's origins are Kanji.

Origin of Katakana's ハ is exactly the 八 of Kanji.


Origin of Katakana's ミ is exactly the 三 of Kanji.

When you write Katakana's ミ, don'f forget to slant them diagonally a lit bit.