Is Hiragana enough?

Mai chan · 6 Jul 2010

Konnichiwa mina-san.

I would like to ask if Hiragana is enough for me as a beginner or not?

I started learning Hiragana letters and found them to a certain extent easy ,so I wanna know if Japanese use Hiragana often or not.
Aregatou

Jericho Desu · 6 Jul 2010

Hiragana is used quite alot, but its often combined with Katakana and Kanji. Now that you've done Hiragana it would be advisable to move on to Katakana, it won't be that difficult to learn since the pronounciations are exactly the same as their Hiragana counterparts just the shape is abit different.

bakaKanadajin · 6 Jul 2010

Hiragana is the first step!

As Jericho-san said, next I would also learn katakana, as the Japanese language is continually evolving and almost all new words taken from other languages are put into katakana. Menus and whatnot are often written in katakana, and overall I'd say it's just as important a part of everyday literacy as hiragana in many respects.

After mastering the kana (hiragana and katakana) you can read anything you want in Japanese (provided there is furigana). These two are the building blocks of Japanese.

However as most things do not include furigana unless they are learning materials, you will eventually need kanji in order to enjoy books and manga, movie subtitles, etc.

So depending on your goals hirgana may or may not be enough, but, it's a great starting point!
Keep up the good work!

Ryuk · 6 Jul 2010

Hiragana -> Katakana -> Kanji

I would recommend.

yasuyuki · 7 Jul 2010

こんにちは、mai chan.
Yes, just to talk with Japanese people, you only need to know hiraganas and that is enough, maybe because we cannot speak kanjis,,,
I know kanjis are really hard to learn because there are so many and difficult to write,
so I would like to propose you to start learning kanjis from names.
How is your name written in kanjis?
舞？麻衣？真衣？茉衣？
Which one seems good to you?
And maybe you know many names of characters in animes.
That would be a good help for you to learn very enjoyable way.
You can start from anywhere you want and the way you like^^.

Mai chan · 7 Jul 2010

Jericho Desu said:
Hiragana is used quite alot, but its often combined with Katakana and Kanji. Now that you've done Hiragana it would be advisable to move on to Katakana, it won't be that difficult to learn since the pronounciations are exactly the same as their Hiragana counterparts just the shape is abit different.

Hello, Jericho- san
Thanks so much for the explanation,it's so useful for me.

bakaKanadajin said:
Hiragana is the first step!

As Jericho-san said, next I would also learn katakana, as the Japanese language is continually evolving and almost all new words taken from other languages are put into katakana. Menus and whatnot are often written in katakana, and overall I'd say it's just as important a part of everyday literacy as hiragana in many respects.

After mastering the kana (hiragana and katakana) you can read anything you want in Japanese (provided there is furigana). These two are the building blocks of Japanese.

However as most things do not include furigana unless they are learning materials, you will eventually need kanji in order to enjoy books and manga, movie subtitles, etc.

So depending on your goals hirgana may or may not be enough, but, it's a great starting point!
Keep up the good work!

Ohayou bakacanadajin san

Aregatou gozaimasu for the help yet I would like to know more about Furigana coz it's the first time I hear this name,onegaishimasu

Thanks again

Ryuk said:
Hiragana -> Katakana -> Kanji
I would recommend.

Aregatou ryuk san.

Toritoribe · 7 Jul 2010

Mai chan said:
Aregatou gozaimasu for the help yet I would like to know more about Furigana coz it's the first time I hear this name,onegaishimasu

The dictionary is your friend.;-)

Furigana - Wikipedia

Mai chan · 7 Jul 2010

yasuyuki said:
こんにちは、mai chan.
Yes, just to talk with Japanese people, you only need to know hiraganas and that is enough, maybe because we cannot speak kanjis,,,
I know kanjis are really hard to learn because there are so many and difficult to write,
so I would like to propose you to start learning kanjis from names.
How is your name written in kanjis?
舞？麻衣？真衣？茉衣？
Which one seems good to you?
And maybe you know many names of characters in animes.
That would be a good help for you to learn very enjoyable way.
You can start from anywhere you want and the way you like^^.

Ohayou gozaimasu,

Thanks a lot for the explanation ,but I see that all the writings are difficult for me.I would like to learn in an easy way I'll try to use names as you've said.

I found that learning Japanese needs a strong memory that's the top thing.

thanks again.

Toritoribe said:
The dictionary is your friend.;-)
Furigana - Wikipedia

Hi,toritoribe san

Hai you are right.Thanks a lot.

sakaeyellow · 8 Jul 2010

No, you must also learn Katakana and Kanji.

Mai chan · 8 Jul 2010

I know but it needs time,effort and practice.And for me I have other things to do.^_^

Thanks I'll do my best

Lledargo · 14 Jul 2010

I am currently learning Hiragana, and will soon be working an katakana, and i know that i will be learning kanji for the rest of my life, what I would like to know is when writing in Japanese, how do I know which writing system to use and when to switch between them.

I know that newer words generally use katakana. but that is about it.

おねがいします

Glenn · 14 Jul 2010

Have you read up on it at all?

Japanese writing system

Lledargo · 14 Jul 2010

I have not done to much reading yet, but from the article you gave me it would appear that usually one would switch writing systems to make the text more readable or to add context. Is this right?

Also part of the reason I asked is because as i understand it, spaces are rarely used in japanese, I assume that in some cases a writer may switch systems to indicate the start of a new word. Am i right in thinking this.

ありがとございます

Glenn · 14 Jul 2010

There are no spaces. Each of the three systems has its own use, so there isn't so much switching per se, although they can be used in place of each other at times to generate certain effects. You should learn the main uses first, though. From the article:

Kanji (漢字) are used to write the following:
nouns, including Japanese names
stems of adjectives and verbs.

Hiragana (平仮名) are used to write the following:
okurigana (送り仮名)―inflectional endings for adjectives and verbs
joshi (助詞)―grammatical particles
words that lack a kanji, where the kanji is obscure, difficult to typeset, or is considered too difficult (as in children's books)
furigana (振り仮名)―phonetic renderings of kanji. Furigana may aid children or nonnative speakers or clarify nonstandard, rare, or ambiguous readings.

Katakana (片仮名) are used to write the following:
foreign words and names
commonly used animals, plants or objects whose kanji are rare, such as tokage (lizard), bara (rose) and rōsoku (candle)
onomatopoeia
emphasis, much like italicisation in European languages
technical and scientific terms, such as plant, animal, and mineral names
.

sakaeyellow · 14 Jul 2010

Katakana are for loanwords.
Hiragana are for writing Japanese words with Japanese or Chinese origin.
If a noun has Kanji, it is usually written in Kanji. And Kanji phrases are usually written in Kanji as well. But verbs and adjectives are more flexible.

Lledargo · 14 Jul 2010

Glenn said:
There are no spaces. Each of the three systems has its own use, so there isn't so much switching per se, although they can be used in place of each other at times to generate certain effects. You should learn the main uses first, though. From the article:

Thanks, i missed that part of the article it makes alot more sense now

Is Hiragana enough?

Mai chan

Yume lover

Jericho Desu

七転八起

bakaKanadajin

先輩

Ryuk

スパ外国人

yasuyuki

先輩

Mai chan

Yume lover

Toritoribe

松葉解禁

Mai chan

Yume lover

sakaeyellow

名探偵

Mai chan

Yume lover

Lledargo

先輩

Glenn

一切皆苦

Lledargo

先輩

Glenn

一切皆苦

sakaeyellow

名探偵

Lledargo

先輩

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