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Learning Kana

Kana includes the entire Writing System - Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji.

The first two are fairly easy to learn and maintain as youll use them over and over and over again. However the Kanji should be an entirely seperate course to look for.

If you dont know any Hiragana or Katakana - a simple sheet with stroke order and practice spaces would suffice.
 

So are Hiragana and Katakana written in the same format as the Latin alphabet or does it use different symbols to express commas, etc?
 
So are Hiragana and Katakana written in the same format as the Latin alphabet or does it use different symbols to express commas, etc?
Click to expand...

There are no similarities between Japanese and Latin other than perculiarities that are adopted by the japanese themselves (exclamation points, question marks, traditional commas).

Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji are all "symbols" that cannot be written using the English Alphabet.
 
Commas, quotation marks, and periods are written differently.
A comma is written 、instead of ,
A period is 。instead of .
Quotation marks are 「字」 instead of "x". To insert quotations within a quote, i.e. "....'...'..." you would use 「...『...』...」 double brackets.

In fact I'll just give you the link to punctuation.
 
I thought only the two syllabaries were considered kana ...
 
I learnt hiragana in 3 hours using the following site.

Click on "chapter 1" for starters. They give you useful tips on how to remember them.
 
Its impossible now, but I would have loved to test your retention after this speed lesson.
 
My retention was pretty good. The next day I could name all of them, but I couldn't write them all for another couple of days. It was actually because I learnt them so quickly that I was motivated to actually start studying Japanese. I had been procrastinating learning Japanese for months when one night I was bored and decided I'd try and learn 2 or 3 hiragana characters, then low and behold, I learnt them all.
 
J44xm said:
I thought only the two sylabaries were considered kana ...
Click to expand...
You thought correctly. Notice: 平仮名 (hiragana), 片仮名 (katakana), 漢字 (kanji). The reason the first two are referred to as kana is because they share the same element in their names: 仮名.

As for learning the kana online, see the "Teach Yourself Japanese" link in my sig, and go to the kana charts.
 
Glenn said:
You thought correctly. Notice: 平仮名 (hiragana), 片仮名 (katakana), 漢字 (kanji). The reason the first two are referred to as kana is because they share the same element in their names: 仮名.
Click to expand...
That's what I thought, but seeing that comment unrefuted just worried me a mite. Thank you.
 
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