I'm working on the Hiragana alphabet

[kirbythebean]

I'm working on writing everything I've learned on duolingo, into my journal ;P

Rate 1-10 please ^^' sometimes i think my handwriting is bad lol

 

[Grandpa Frank]

Looks like you put a lot of time & effort into it. I rate your nails as an "11" , nice.

 

[kirbythebean]

Looks like you put a lot of work & effort into it. I rate your nails as an "11" , nice.

ty lol.
i spent like 3 hours on thise 2 pages XD

 

[Supāda]

Rate: 10! I love your handwriting! Looking forward to also doing this.

 

[Grandpa Frank]

My Japanese from 50 years ago is now a dusty memory covered in cobwebs somewhere in the back of what's left of my brain. Keep up the good work !

 

[kirbythebean]

My Japanese from 50 years ago is now a dusty memory covered in cobwebs somewhere in the back of what's left of my brain. Keep up the good work !

whaaaaattttt????

 

[kirbythebean]

Rate: 10! I love your handwriting! Looking forward to also doing this.

thank you!!!

and you should do it. its really fun!! ;3

 

[nice gaijin]

That's excellent work, especially if you're just learning from Duolingo. I see just a few things I could nitpick, but I think it's best addressed by repeating the same advice I recently gave another user practicing their handwriting:

Remember when you're practicing your writing, that everything was originally written with a brush. Most fonts reflect this with having non-uniform stroke widths and have those little "hooks" that happen when you change direction of the brush as you lift it off the paper. A lot of the aesthetics even in computer fonts today are determined by this history of calligraphy.

Practicing not just the stroke order, but getting the right movement as you lift and lower the pen/pencil will give you more consistent results. It'll also make sense why sometimes some characters may have strokes that can be "connected" or "unconnected," like さ. See how it's written at 3:58 in the video below.

Check out that video and try to imitate the brush movement. Your proportions are already pretty good, so I would use these examples to fine-tune the details.

And next I would start writing new vocabulary using the kana you've learned. In fact, once you've learned the kana you should avoid using romaji so it doesn't become a crutch. You'll want to see a character and hear the sound, and not imagine the romaji spelling of it. Associate the kana (and later kanji) with the sound and vocabulary when you hear it used. The more you practice anything the easier it'll be, keep up the good work!

 

[Buntaro]

Hi Kirby and Supada and welcome to the forum.

Since you are learning hiragana, I thought I'd point out an ongoing thread that myself and a member named Haruto have on practicing writing hiragana.

Hiragana practice

Moderator's note: This thread is derived from the following thread. https://jref.com/threads/how-to-get-an-opportunity-to-produce-mainly-anime-music-in-japan.402450 That's good to hear. Can you give us more details and examples of these jobs? What kind of visa is required, to work these jobs...

jref.com

By the way, hiragana is not an alphabet it is a syllabary because it only has one character per syllable, not separate characters for vowels and consonants.

 

[kirbythebean]

Hi Kirby and Supada and welcome to the forum.

Since you are learning hiragana, I thought I'd point out an ongoing thread that myself and a member named Haruto have on practicing writing hiragana.

By the way, hiragana is not an alphabet it is a syllabary because it only has one character per syllable, not separate characters for vowels and consonants.

hi Supada,

thank you, it kinda felt wrong saying "alphabet", but i didnt know what else to call it... o.o

 

[kirbythebean]

That's excellent work, especially if you're just learning from Duolingo. I see just a few things I could nitpick, but I think it's best addressed by repeating the same advice I recently gave another user practicing their handwriting



Check out that video and try to imitate the brush movement. Your proportions are already pretty good, so I would use these examples to fine-tune the details.

And next I would start writing new vocabulary using the kana you've learned. In fact, once you've learned the kana you should avoid using romaji so it doesn't become a crutch. You'll want to see a character and hear the sound, and not imagine the romaji spelling of it. Associate the kana (and later kanji) with the sound and vocabulary when you hear it used. The more you practice anything the easier it'll be, keep up the good work!

using kana sounds helpful, so thank you for that ^^'
honestly, i've never heard of it lol. so if you hadn't told me, i probably would have not known till after i already needed to XD

 

[Buntaro]

i didnt know what else to call it...

Welcome to the sometimes-confusing world of learning hiragana!

Make sure you write hiragana strokes in the right direction and right order. Watch the video below for specifics.

Here is a good page to download and trace so you can get a good feel for the proportions to write hiragana in.

https://happylilac.net/hiragana-rensyu-1.pdf

Here is the video.

 

[Supāda]

hi Supada,

thank you, it kinda felt wrong saying "alphabet", but i didnt know what else to call it... o.o

hi kirby!

thankfully I've also read the "kana" thing Buntaro mentioned and have just downloaded this App to have it on the go.
Also I have downloaded the page from happylilac.net. My writing is nowhere as clean as yours though :'D. Your stickers and drawings also make it look super cute

I'm going to give the mnemonic chart a try and maybe even build my own mnemonic chart, with bizarre and memorable virtuals like the "to" syllable, which looke like a toe thats being poked.

One tip I want to give you is - in case you own a VR headset: Consider using VR Chat for talking to Japanese people. You can also write hiragana syllables in 3d space. It's really worth a try and I'm sure a creative person like you could make good use of it! You could even build your own VR Hiragana room and later "come back" to this "place" and have strong memories of it

Today I've watched a Chinese woman draw Kanji symbols with a "wolf hair brush". So that really interested me. I think it might not be a bad idea practicing with a brush. That way you can really practice the original stroke order and hand/arm movement. Currently I'm trying to figure out which product (and paper) makes the most sense.
Currently I'm thinking about buying this. (not a ref link) But which paper? Printing Paper? T_T
Also I'm not sure if I should go with that brush set, or something like this, which is used in this video for writing Hiragana, or even with something like this.

So many decisions to make D:

 

[kirbythebean]

hi kirby!

thankfully I've also read the "kana" thing Buntaro mentioned and have just downloaded this App to have it on the go.
Also I have downloaded the page from happylilac.net. My writing is nowhere as clean as yours though :'D. Your stickers and drawings also make it look super cute

I'm going to give the mnemonic chart a try and maybe even build my own mnemonic chart, with bizarre and memorable virtuals like the "to" syllable, which looke like a toe thats being poked.

One tip I want to give you is - in case you own a VR headset: Consider using VR Chat for talking to Japanese people. You can also write hiragana syllables in 3d space. It's really worth a try and I'm sure a creative person like you could make good use of it! You could even build your own VR Hiragana room and later "come back" to this "place" and have strong memories of it

Today I've watched a Chinese woman draw Kanji symbols with a "wolf hair brush". So that really interested me. I think it might not be a bad idea practicing with a brush. That way you can really practice the original stroke order and hand/arm movement. Currently I'm trying to figure out which product (and paper) makes the most sense.
Currently I'm thinking about buying this. (not a ref link) But which paper? Printing Paper? T_T
Also I'm not sure if I should go with that brush set, or something like this, which is used in this video for writing Hiragana, or even with something like this.

So many decisions to make D:

yea, the pdf was helpful!!
and i have WAYYY too many calligraphy markers lol... i could just use them instead of using a brush? yea... i think the best paper to use would be sketchbook paper, it's thicker, but its a bit more expensive than copy paper...

 

[kirbythebean]

Welcome to the sometimes-confusing world of learning hiragana!

Make sure you write hiragana strokes in the right direction and right order. Watch the video below for specifics.

Here is a good page to download and trace so you can get a good feel for the proportions to write hiragana in.

https://happylilac.net/hiragana-rensyu-1.pdf

Here is the video.

i downloaded the pdf lol
thank you so much!! ^^'

 

[mdchachi]

That's a cute picture of a tardigrade.
Just kidding. The whole sheet looks quite impressive. The one thing that looks the most wrong to me is the ロ in クロワッサン.
Even when handwriting, the lines are not drawn out so much. Also if you haven't already, try to learn the correct stroke order of all the kana now before you start any bad habits.

 

[Buntaro]

I'm trying to figure out which product (and paper) makes the most sense.

Regarding paper, the type I used (and the type I think a lot of people use) when I was practicing Japanese calligraphy (shodō) (しょどう) (書道) was newspaper. It works great if you are practicing with a traditional Japanese writing brush (fude) (ふで) (筆) and the price is very cheap (just buy a newspaper).

Regarding brushes. I have a thread on this forum where I highlight one YouTube video about Japan everyday. Take a look at the page in the link below. I have posted videos about shodō in posts #327 through #339. If you want to use a traditional brush, take a look at post #328. But I recommend trying a brush-pen as shown in post #334.

Post Japanese-related YouTube links here

Origin of hiragana All hiragana evolved from kanji. They were originally 'shorthand' ways to write kanji. (Similar shorthand ways of writing kanji are sometimes still used today when writing kanji quickly.) For example, the kanji character 安 evolved into the hiragana あ . If you look closely...

jref.com

Regarding brushes that combine different types of hair, take a look at post #329. You can see from 5:20 in the video to see how he puts together two different kinds of hair as he makes a fude.

 

[Toritoribe]

it only has one character per syllable

Sorry for nitpicking, but this explanation is not correct. As I pointed out in the thread you linked, you still seem to be misunderstanding the concept of "syllable". Also, mora is often more important than syllable in Japanese phonology, as I wrote.

拗音(contracted sound)
ちゃ（茶）: 2 kana, 1 syllable, 1 mora

促音(geminate consonant)
きって（切手）: 3 kana, 2 syllables, 3 morae

撥音(nasal sound)
ほん（本）: 2 kana, 1 syllable, 2 morae

長音(long vowel)
そう（僧）: 2 kana, 1 syllable, 2 morae

examples of combinations
きょうと（京都）: 4 kana, 2 syllables(きょう/と), 3 morae
しゅっか（出火）: 4 kana, 2 syllables(しゅっ/か), 3 morae
しゅんかしゅうとう（春夏秋冬）: 9 kana, 4 syllables (しゅん/か/しゅう/とう), 7 morae

Please refer to examples in Wikipedia, too.

The examples show the various ways in which hiragana differ from syllables.

On (Japanese prosody) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[kirbythebean]

That's a cute picture of a tardigrade.
Just kidding. The whole sheet looks quite impressive. The one thing that looks the most wrong to me is the ロ in クロワッサン.
Even when handwriting, the lines are not drawn out so much. Also if you haven't already, try to learn the correct stroke order of all the kana now before you start any bad habits.
View attachment 88076

yea, i kinda messed up on that because i was running out of room on the page pwp

 

[JapaneseLily]

I'm working on writing everything I've learned on duolingo, into my journal ;P
View attachment 88038


Rate 1-10 please ^^' sometimes i think my handwriting is bad lol

So beautifuly written It's so pleasant and nice to see your drawings. Your notebook and everything, include your nice nails look CUTE

 

[kirbythebean]

So beautifuly written It's so pleasant and nice to see your drawings. Your notebook and everything, include your nice nails look CUTE

thank you!! you are so kind!! would you like to see a drawing i just finished?

 

[Buntaro]

i spent like 3 hours on thise 2 pages

Kirby,

Have you finished writing out all of the hiragana? Have you had a chance to practice writing all of the combinations? Take a look at these.

Small tsu; つっ

けっして never
けっしょうせん the championship game of tournament
けってい (make) a decision
がっこう school (n.)
にっせい; Second-generation Japanese (American)
ぐっすり ねる sleep like a baby
べっぷ Beppu (city in southern Japan)

 

[kirbythebean]

Kirby,

Have you finished writing out all of the hiragana? Have you had a chance to practice writing all of the combinations? Take a look at these.

Small tsu; つっ

けっして never
けっしょうせん the championship game of tournament
けってい (make) a decision
がっこう school (n.)
にっせい; Second-generation Japanese (American)
ぐっすり ねる sleep like a baby
べっぷ Beppu (city in southern Japan)

honestly, ive never heard of the small tsu... and no, i have not practiced all of the combinations yet, but im working on it ^^'
thank you though!! this was helpful ;3

 

[Buntaro]

this was helpful ;3

Kirby,

I'm glad you had a chance to learn about small tsu. Please practice writing out the words in my previous post so you can practice writing small tsu.

Another point you may not have heard about is small よ (yo). Let's look at the difference between large よ and small ょ:

Here is the word for beauty salon, びよういん, containing a large よ.

Here is the word for hospital, びょういん, containing a small ょ.

A large よ can be a syllable all by itself, whereas a small ょ can only be the second part of a larger syllable. Let's take these two words and separate the syllables with dots.

び・よう・いん beauty salon. (By the way, the kanji for beauty salon are 美容院. The three kanji cause the word to have three syllables.)

びょう・いん hospital. (The kanji for hospital are 病院. The two kanji cause the word to have two syllables.)

When you have time, practice writing both words, making sure you can see a difference between large よ and small ょ.

 

[kirbythebean]

Kirby,

I'm glad you had a chance to learn about small tsu. Please practice writing out the words in my previous post so you can practice writing small tsu.

Another point you may not have heard about is small よ (yo). Let's look at the difference between large よ and small ょ:

Here is the word for beauty salon, びよういん, containing a large よ.

Here is the word for hospital, びょういん, containing a small ょ.

A large よ can be a syllable all by itself, whereas a small ょ can only be the second part of a larger syllable. Let's take these two words and separate the syllables with dots.

び・よう・いん beauty salon. (By the way, the kanji for beauty salon are 美容院. The three kanji cause the word to have three syllables.)

びょう・いん hospital. (The kanji for hospital are 病院. The two kanji cause the word to have two syllables.)

When you have time, practice writing both words, making sure you can see a difference between large よ and small ょ.

i will make sure to put in my notes that there is a small tsu, and a yo, when reading and writing, this will be really helpful!! thank you so much!! ^^'