REMIEMB,EIRING THE K.

,A,NA

REMEMB,ERING

THEKAN'A

A gu~ideto readingandwriting the

Japa~jese syUa,baries in .3 hours each

HIRAGANA

Iames W', Heislg

Contents

GBNEltAl.lNTRODUCTTON b~TIRODtJCTlON
HlD.R.AGA.N.A

Vlt
X]

T"OI THE tU!RAGANA

1
S,'W

L,ESSONUL
l,IE$SON 2

53: 57

LES,SON3
l,ESSON l.~S,SON LES.SON

4i. 5' • 6•

60
62 65

T.Al1il....E Of 'rHE KAN A TA,B!.IE OlE"!K..ANADtPH1:'HONGS ALPS AB~T~C USl' O~: TH,~ J;ANA

68 169
70

GENERALINTRonUCTION

The aim ofthislittle book is a simple one: W help youteach youf~ self to reed and wr~[e the: two [apanese syllabaries, the hh':a~!lna and the katakana, .im1 three hours each. By'~threchoun·; isrneant three cumulative hours of hard work, not three continuous hours ofunbroken study, and. certainly not three hours in a classroom with. ill. teacher and other students, The two parts of the book) set back to back, follow the same method, are laid out in the sameformat, .•u]d. share common tables. in themiddle of the

volume, Reader.s\.vho aJready know one or the other of'tbe S"y.I~abadescompletely C~n pass it over and go d.~·liecdrto thepart they wish to learn, ~fyou are a.newcomer, you shouldbegin with l~beoo'une on tll.ehinganaJlbefore flippingthe book over a.nd tackling thekatakana. The :s;yllaJbarie;s, are arranged in their ~~dicti:.ona:ryo[fi'det/~ not in the order i.nwhich you. wiU learn them, FuUowing the instructions on each page will send you skipping forwards andbackwards es you make your way through each lesson ..In LESSONS :3 to s of the h,h:a.g.ana course YOll wm 'be taughta simple way to remember tt.h:~dictiol1ary crder.which is. indispensable for
consult lJl1g W·a.p'~m~5e dictienaries,

U you have :a~readylearned a few of the hiragana, you mig~t be tempted 'to chart YOUll"OWn COU:r:SIC" Don't.You wOH['wld bebetter advised not to use the book at .aUthanrc try to gui.de yourself through the 1~byl'in~h of this book, The method builds up step by step, and youwiJI need the principles ~aUJght
at the earlier stages to followthe directions g:i.venlater, Uyou.must~ rush quickly through the material you .ilJ] n~ad:yfee] cO.11:I fortable, But rush through it, not O'l\ler it. After each lesson. you will askedto take abreak Thws ismeant to. increase yen.let effid.enc:ya:o.rt.d to help 'you concentrate all. your i3iUe.rntionon the task at hand fioili shortperiods ()f ):0 minutes or less. UyolllD. wien,~ do two lessonsa to day>you could complete the sixlessons on the third day, Th~s seems the

ideal. way ~:oproceed.

[narillY

case,

yOIlJll should

begi.m. by readi.llg the

INl'RQrJUcJ.'loN

:spedrnlC; ih)

the' syllabary In question. You wHI be given instructions atthe end! huw to begin, Wbe:n YOl1,htwe finished the book. do not forget to read the .!?'ROLOrGUE i~h~tt0]10WSPAEt'.ii' '~i·W(). 'Tbere yo u will find help with tackl ~ng til e shlldy cf f the final hurdle in your s~udy of the lapanese writing system: thekanji,

Compared with English, [apaneseis a "sound-peer" language, and this is reflectedin the' feet that instead ofan "alphabet" ofindividual vowels and coesonants that can be combined In. a variety of ways, J a.panese uses a syllabary of 45, basic sounds and about 77 derivative sounds formed by the voiced and pi OSLvepronuncia tlons of certain consonants and by diphthongs ..The full range of sounds is included in dle tables on page,s 68 and ,69' of P A.R'T ON E. TIns doe not mean that all the sounds of Japanese exist in English, or t.hat the familiar letters of the Roman alphabet liefer 'to preciselv the' same seund in Japanese that they do wn.!English. The only 'Way to learn how to pronounce Japanese prop'e'f].y is with the aid of a. native speaker. In this book pronunciation is only Indicated by a.rough equivalent to English (er more precise~y- General Mi<i:ttrican).
A N01'.1H ON THE fnS-TORY

ANn

SE Of THE KANA

Using the hiragana and katakana correctly win require skins that
no Western language is equipped to provide you with. These arc matters that fa]] outside the scope of these pages. Still, it ishelpful tohave ~ general ide-a. fwhat is involved and why .. o When the Chinese writing system W,aIlS introduced to [apan around the sixth century eli) there was no native system of writing fur it to replace or mergewith, and the sounds of d:!IC hlng'LJlnge were qll~te different from the those the Chinese and Korean settlers were accustomed 'to. The Olllily solution was to assign each sm.i.lIld a.Cbinese charater, or kanji, to approximate the pronunciation ..For several centuries a catalogue of some 970 U11I1l10difled Chinese characters, or kanji:, were' used. as phenetic symbols forrhe 88 syUilI,ble-s, ~he:nused :WI1Itbe' Japanese ]anglul,ge. As early as the middle oftheelghth ,cenhu'y some of these kanji were given a."rounded" or "common" (him) form. based on brush ,c~lHgraJphy as

Villi

~'sub.sdtutes" (kana) for so-me of the more widely used. Chinese letters ..Da ri.ngthe eady middleages of Japan's Heianpeded (794-1185), a style of writing using only these forms carne into use, creatlng the first phonetic sy~li~badeswH'ha one-to-one rehlt~onshiplbe~w~ensound and wr]tten fOrlTl. Inithdly it was used 0:111y 'by WOR1t!llJ but bythe €'8!:r~y tenth century was recog!1]Zled as. all. o:ffi_1;~ wa)' of wr~t~g~ nallleliy'" the hiragana .. Taday the hi;r,ag'•ana 3 re used forwriting indigenous Iapanese words, for . adding inflecrlons [0 words writtenwith kaaji, and for writing; words whose k~rwj] re rare or at least Quts~de the standard ~iststaught. in the schools. a The forms of tlrekatakans also derived from Chinese k®Jnji, but unlike thehiragana they werebasedless 011 calligraphic 'Writil1;gthan on the extraction of a "pert" {kata) of thefull kanj:i!to represent particular sounds, These forms were writt:tc'n In a square.blocked style to set '~h!em (j,fl still more fm·m the hiragana, Prom the ninth century, the katakana appea.r in useas a mnemonic device forrememberieg how to pronounce Buddhisttexts written in Chinese ..Only much ~ater~.in 1900 to be exact. would they be standardized. i"or thewriting of foreign .~oa:n-words and onomatopoeia ..Until the daWID1. the computer age, ~heywere also used for't,eleg:rams. of To sum up, thewritten Japanese is made IIlp ofthree forms:
Kanji~ Complex characters ow.]:gil1latingfi~o,.m:n Chlneseand imported into

Japan.around d~e sbcthoe]1n:nyc~. There are some 80,000 ofthem in aU,

hut Iapanhas narrowed their use by introducing alist of" gc 1.1 eral- use kanji" into the education sy8~en:L .A. typi.cal ~a.pi~J]le;S'e u[~iyersiQ"gr~lChwO;1lt,e 'wH~be able to recognize around 3>000. of these Sino-lalpanese characters, H:it:aganQ', On.e of the i!::WO syllabic alphabers or "syllabaries" of [apanese, U is used mainly to write indigenous Japanese words and to intlect words writtenwith kanj m.
J(atakanll. The' second of thetwo

syHnbaries of japanese, mainly for fore.rugnnames and terms, and for onomatcpeia.

~lis

used

These three written forms coexist :ll1 japanese, and itis Dot uncommon to
find all three ina single phrase. Consider this example of a [apanese phrase that (10 mb ines kanj i (~oM type). ~hiragaaa (italics) and katakana (normal):
1

;feJ. (/)::ti ril1~-1--;;t ~. 7-(; -t

WaillasM

:nO'

namae 'wn Ma,ria desu.

iV1y name is M.aria.,

Obviously, the on]y wa.y to attain fluency in written [apanese is to learn an three orms of writing, This tilde book should getYQ1UWe,!I on your way.

It only remains

fOIT

IIIe to express my gratieude to the Japan Publications

Trading Company for their kindness ,aJudsupport over more than eighteeen y;ea.r of working rogether. Special thanks are due til' Helmut Morsbach and Kurebayashi Kazue, who collaborared in 'the accompanyi ng course on the'
katakana that forms PART TWO oft'he presentbook, It was their in.it~ative till) undertake the proieer and their devotion that saw nit through til) the' end, [ames ,~. Heisig
.1.A;pril' .2003

IN'FRonUC'TloN

TO THE HIRAGANA

The course that fellows is intended for self study, It did

out ofclassroom experience and is not intended for thing, I am not a language instructor, A.n, my students are Japanese, and they knew the hiragana by the first grade or before, I did not absorb myself in research on the Japanese syllebaries survey existing methods, draft a set of mnemonic techniques, test them out systematically ,0'11 a gr'ollUlP of students" carefully record theresults, and only then deliver a complered manuscript to the publishers, But neither did the idea occur to me on my own. The fa!ctsof'ehe matter are a lot humbler: I wrote the book Of! a dare. A visiting professor who had studied my earlier volume on Remembering the Kanji was having, trouble rememberingthe hiragana and casually tossed the chatlenge at my feet one ,evening over a mug ofbeer: ~~VVhy hasn't anybody figured out an eaay way 'to learn the syllabary?"; r didn't know Uanyone had or not, hut the next morning i took a sheer ofwhite pap,er and wroee in large bold [etters: LEARN THE HIRAGANA :l.N 3 '[-[0 ·RS .. I

grow classroom use. for one

lI10t

set the paper on the corner of :my desk. and resolved not to publtsh anything until lwas satisfied 1: had ground to jus,tify its boast, From the very begin.uing, I was aware that I was up 'to something outlandish. Portunately, the chore turned out robe a loteasier than I had antici]J ated and th e basi c text was completed in a few d ~ys.. 0 l'1I ee you ha ve fi:!lilShed task younrsdf!, I am confident you wlll see how really simple the the idea behind it is. Bute11011gh of how this. bookwas written, lt istime ~O'begin> fol~,O'w~r:lg the wnstructLon in th€ box: below,
'I

XJ

HIRAGANA

A
Y:O~l

shotlld' "'OW be in

t'lU!

middle

'Of.LESSOl>;T

,I.

If you

eJt~' not,

go at

[me,t:

to

,.a:g:e 51 aml start from tne IJ, ginnin.g.

The syllable a begins with a, ,kJgge,r~ i'ts "blade" bending to the right 50 as to flow into the next stroke. Below it a t1O'-parking sign. (Note tbat when (})ES used as (1, "piece" ofanotherhiragana, the cross-slash pI~Otrudes out the top slighdy-,a kind of "post" to hang the sign on.) The sound a calls to' mind ,3 playfullittle otter, swimming O,fj his back jn the middle of a pond whose banks are picketed on all sides. by n Q·~parking signs . On his tummy a 1",1;: !ill stack of ,daggers) whi,ch he is 'tossing, one by one a~the signs, clappinghis paws with glee each time he hits a bull' s eye.,

PRONUNCIATIO,N

on

.~$j
II

fadhl er

(lfja&

J?Q)

~<
tYJtT
(J)

ano sku

akeno

I
The roman letter i. is drawn with two strokes, one main stroke an,d.€l dot to cap h: off. So is the hiragana we are going to learn now. The
first strokes of the two are alrrtostidentical, And just as, when you are writingquickly, the dot on your I often ends offover to the right, so is the second, shorter stroke of the :h~ragan.a always set te the right. When you practice 'Writing the for m, take a. pencil and. trace over
the strokes as they are given below, Almost immediately yCHJ. should "feel" the flow from the first stroke to the second. After practicing the' :form once or twice 'OIl blocked paper, test yourself on the' e'!lLEBInilples

that follow below,

"'~
\'
PRONUNCIATION

graffiti

II

king

11

~ 'lilt -

lo

~, Iv

2
I,

.. ........-.
-

First the pieces. The short first stroke we will take to be a ptlppr's tail. Below that is 0, the incomplete 2 (pronounced, remember, ,tsu). As a word to identify this hiragana, let us think of two cities (one

German, one Italian) beginning with sounds very dose to the vowel sound u: Ulm '& Udine U you can remember to let the sound u suggest those ,cities'I' '~t ~sa short hop to the pun that will help you remember this, hiraganaia tQ'il
of 2 (tsu) cities.

~,

...,..'

PRONUNCIATION

UI.Dl

Udme

.,..., .,'

'?

--

:H::
oj"'")

um ruau

'[ ,ti')?

·E.···.·

--

The pieces for the s,ynabl~'ear€ a fail, a cl1:alkline. and the letter J1, Let , the sound .sugg.eS't~.n ape, And what ~sour a.pe doimlg?He has drawn . some d1t,dk li~1,e$on the floor of his cage to make boxes, like the ones you are using to practice your hiragana.and is: using ap'tl'PPY;s tail (aUached, to the pu:ppy! )to p'r,a.ct~.cebrushpainting the hiraganae,

!PRONUNCIA.TION

paint

:Ilei:gh

koeru hae

,~" (J;J

This hiragana is not as difficult as.it "light look, once' you isolate the

elements that make' it up, fix them clearly in an image, and. then, keeping that image in mind, let the tip of your pen flow witll the nat.. ~11-' --. .: t:~t·.,C .. . Ul"i:IJ ,gra,c€ 0.1[ LS ,itOrm. The vowel 0 will suggest to us the figure of OldtNkk, Ilhe devil him~el[ Unlike usualpictures of the dh!vil,mhili 01d,N,~ckhas netone butz ttsu) tails, each with ,(1 shar P' dagger at the end. Note how he ~ashes
them about menacingly,

[ . ·"1

'b .. ··.····
,

..:\

, 1-

}).-.. •
.,:.

->\.'
.
c'

III!;

-:'

PRONUNcm.A'rION

o'ver

I 'ro e

JJi-\
cJ)fIS
~3Ivf.t
:;t3 ',",' ~~t

oni onna

KA
the key w(llrd, car, It i~really made of twopieces, one familiar and (H,)€: new, The pr4pi(ty dog',~ tail" drawn U~t you already know. Thepart draw:nbeforethat is no more than a, fancy sort of da:gg,er" its bilt is, bent and lengthened like the hilt of a. fetJdNg,sword', So you might think of two cars (preferablyyour own

The ka; of this hiraganaprovides

car and a 1"1!!~gh~Qi'~) decked ing a fencing, contest;

OW~ it],

all 'the appropriate

,gei;JJJr

and. 'hlJv-

Pl~:ONU.NCIATU)N

Inca

mannaka
mukae

t Ivt,ttrJ;
trlJ·~;t
tr:. rvO) Jv

""~
,I ,}

~ ~alm.

kannon

1
6

KI
The onlyreal di:ffere'ncebefiVeel1 dlefir.st three strokes 0 f thi shiragalla. and the d:a:gger is theextra horizontal stroke. The reason is that what we have here is a. ru!mn;g,'j11elV]( sword~ whkh needs. a sturdier hih. Belowit is the Hairpin we just learned, The id,entifyin,g word is, of

course, a. by,. Putting it :i1Ill together: a.samurai is bringiug his. sword down (hence

the s.light angle at w~i.dlwt is drawn) on a key resting on :8J, rock, to make a ltairpfn for his beloved. Be sere to pay attention to the great

care and skill requi red for thefeat, ]·eu~ the image play freely for a, ng
miD ute in yourmIflld,

P'GONUN

C.IlA.l'I ON

key ~ lucky

::!c

e
'.

~~
'~\~
~.~

kid

Md
aki

:KU

<
<

The shape of this ne)tt member of the lriragana family is formed eX~lcdylike 'the ril1h'~side of the jntameuscomputer-game character known as "Pacman," T€you think of the sound it makes munching up the dots o,n the screen ;61lS the "(loins; ofa baby, you 'can a.c1ual1y seethe word (.00 in. thecomputer graphics: (3,'00000. W'hdhe:[ you find it easier tothink ofthe as a squared off C or as;the mouth ofa baby Pacman gulping, down Iittie O~S'l you S[]OM!d[]_'t have any trouble at an associating this simple shape with its pron unciation,

PRONUNCIATION

cook

~ conp d'etat

~ku kun kui

" ..< cs. < ~\

<
,

( ((

lIt

KE

This hiragana i5 made up oftwo pieces, On, the left, and d:fawn6rst~ is a.single sligbtly curved shape thatlooks like a cape 1'0'1.1. might hang on

the back of'a stick ngu:rof., (Draw one see for yourself.) To the right is a two-stroke shape that resembles a,dagger with the
bdtat the top and the blade below. The sound ke is close enough to the-English word cape: to g:e1u.s going, lust twist the common phrase "cloak and dagger" into the image of a sinister cape-and-daggee figure and the work is done. '!!",;rL ..JI '~.' 1 ' .~." f 1J!' ' .. Ii.. d¥v nen you oraw the pieces, t 'nu,lii;,0.' them as unages, saymg.tne woros to yoursdf as you go along,

P'I,ONUNC~ A'lION

cape

kangaroo

'.~·.'_· -· l.... It
o)l~t
r~ .,.,.

" \t

t-t

11~..

kei
noke
~Ip

~t,Jv~"

~en 1

,.

'.

1'--.
Try drawing a pai r of rounded combs, th e kind aJ, 'Woman mi:ght u se to bind he,[ hair intoa bun" The first two strokes you would begin with (the frame, without the teeth) form the very shape' that gi:v~ ~s our ne'n hirag:ana proncunced, conveniently enough, k». Notice the sUgbthooking at the end of the first stroke, lr. is absent in "cleaner," more modern stylizations of the :hlr,a,g~na~nd is not absolutely 11If;lCe.ssary. any case, you will find that when Y'Oll write' In the :hir3sana€or /<0', the '~~ule: hook forms itself IUI~uraUy 3JSyO'~ rpencil

:ftows from. the first stroke to the second,

kono kon
keiko

.. __
=»
t

PiRONUNCIA.'I'ION

com b

..., ...,!
'.....
'

roeeeo

::.Iv

'

.... ,
1( ... ,

• l'

I~,

SA
Beneath the familia» dagger is the lower half of the co mpone:nt fG.r camb. Let us call it a hairpin to remember the similarity of form, The key wotdhere is a sock, a. particularly old and raunchy one that some lady of questionable teste has stuck. in herhair using, a d,~gg;e'f as a hairpi~1"~O hold it inplace, _. -

~!

'~.

Note t.~at 'l~el ne.a,r:ly a'a typO ..,?:rOJphiica! fOrJ7upo tl713'.se,co~"ul il1.'lilfhira slrlokes r!:m to:gdher, The: ~'J:i.ore' 'wr.i.t,e: the charocter afoord:il~g to .~he hail1d-draMl you r/~!od,el.t1b'owe, the: 1t7M.:we J~O u 'wUl 1~,qU~~'Cfeel for tun'll" thetwD straice:s 1:1,(,IU.-I·a fdJly blend in.~ool1e ,ano~hel'>

P';RO'NUNCIA

T]ON

samurai

c-r

sock,

<~~...
:t~

ku.sai·
kesa

11

SHI

<,

The shape or thishiragana, obviously a fishhook, us as easy to rememher as itskeyword, sheep. To line thetwo together.picture yoursdf angling with a sheep dangllng at the end of your fishhoa,k instead of dlle customary worm,

PRONUNCIA'HON

~h,eep

pushy

shima

L.£ a)/v L..lv _,~~ L

IL L L

anshi~l. :sushi

12

'''1. + ~
The key word.fromthe sy~~able: Stl\"{,m be seup, Attached 'Clothe dmgger is a little curl which is in fact 3J single piece of :r1J'Clcaroni, (Notehow it differs from the ,l?olome,rat!g by curllng downwards.and to' the: left.) An that remainsis to imagme yourself at apcsh restaurant stabbing at lithe ma:cnrarrii rw)()dles~n your soup with all stiletto. Lockl You've got
one on the end of
yO'l:lJ:

d'agger!
~.

:PR.O'.NUN'CIAT~ON

soon ~ suit

~ .... ct
,~

"cr-as

~T
Ttl
'1-t,

nsu

sura

13

SE
Se is for seance, a picture ofwhkh we will dr,;?i.w' 'IVIththe simple e~!emerits that make up nJ8 h ~ragan a., Pirst we: haverwo dagger$~ drawn 80 th~t their hHts share a common) herisontalllne. Thelast Iine, extending the b~~d~ of the second dagger, isthe familiar chalk line. Putting it all together: you draw a c1l{J:lkline circle en.the ground and sit in the middle of it. 'Wid, each band you drive one ,(]of the dagg'~l~ .into the ci'm.lk line and keep a bold. of it) thus joining you to the magic circlewithia whid'W 'the' spirits will reveal themselves, Or SOUle such hocus pocus, Th e dll':fger to the left is already in the greund.the
one nnthe ri:gbl is:just about to be plunged in, As we' have seen before, the second stroke naturally "hooks" up

towards the 'Lhitd~thli)u,gbnot in SODlesty'~Jzedforms of thehiragana.

_lJ~

......

PrtJlNUNC1A 'FlOW

say ~ wholesale

anmasen

~~i:~1v

setsu

~It '.) it ~ '\

'_ l

P=I
':>+-""8' .:

.. )I.

~I

so

Tbe pieces that make IJ,Pthe syllable soare a puppy aog)s tCi.I,I,. a wa,lk~ ing .ccme,t and theletter r, Taking. :sewas our key word, you have only ~!o picture yonfsetf using a walk'ing can e as a. needle, threading it w~th a long, ttl.it, and sewing the monogram TOll-what e;tse?-a.1' shirt

No te how the jirsrm,ovemerf:t buab iii'ItO' ,twO' 5~roke'$ b~ .5Ol11e$t,yl.e oflvri tih.g~ faithful to' the lat1ji(l"lwf~ich .this h-in~ganQ:s b~se(l (s.u the fr,(;j,I'J'l~f, at the i
tiop<) •

.II?RONlJNCIATION

sew ~ insole

~.:e'!iii

~:r

.r-..~<~
-t~Q

hesokuri

~tt: -

15

TA
Before. going on to the next paragraph, see [(you can. recognize the pieces ofthis hiragana on yoru1:r own" We learned them back wn tES~
SO'M 1 ••••

That's righ'~! On 'the left is the ,a,(;lgger and. on ther],ghrtt the cornb. The sound til should ..suggest the word top to you €:asHyenough, ill.miilgIm.'!' tOip' deheately balanced and spinning around on the point a of a. ,"agger you are holding in your hand. As fhe top' spins, it. spits, out roundedcoeres like the kind we first pictured when we learned the hlnBJg~na:. The Ulan: v:fuvid~yyou. "see" ynnrse1f ducki ng the CtH1].bs flying: at you.) the easierthis hiragana W-:"~Ubeto remember,

t
intai
tako tachi

t~
~r

....
I

,-

.~
'
..

..

,,,,,,,,-

'

P.RO'N"I;JN(;IATIOiNi

tatami

~ top'

f:

ta

let the identifying

word here be cheese-probably

the first word to

come to your mind anyway very convenient tor making a.good, clear image out of already familiar pieces: die !daggerarrudl 2., AU you need do is imagine yourself drawing out your :mZOI sharp dagger from ~ts, sheath and slicing yourself a piece of cheese with" (tsrJ) swi6t slashes, Ute a cavalier ~culinary Zorro,

PR:QNUNCIA

cbeetah

noN'

handkeechief

'1;.. 1'

15

"":)'/?

tsuchi nechi
I!...• crun

51iQ

O)t
f:,/v

17

-::>,
. ,dil. -'t,··- tore~gn .'.' :,d, [.0 W .a,I;, b • . poor ],'-, , ., ,:, ts ..asicany language, 1-n ,ai,aplng ,,",- ,:".',.,- WO[1S 'to, what ~"." ,'.,_'11","" a SOUD:·d~' •",'-, Wap:anese tries to g,e'tas dose ,aJS i~can. For exam ple, the: Bnglisb word
~\,-"", i" en S ujpelDg MO endsuo beine

,-,--,.,"I'cl,,'d- , tnl"uwe very " Irag~n.a we .,,~~111- . --,- ,,,'1)--, : ,-,,- h prenounce wiuiearn now, lust our Iuck, the shape is exactly~.wkean uncompleted Arabic numeral ,1..
"C_," ,.':'

:PiRONUNCIA1'HJ'N

tsunami

I~es:

Ulm

kutsu
'~I. •

<0
:. ~ 'I""':)

,~OltS'IJ

atsui

~"?

~'~

'1c

TE
-,C

,L, ". ~I- e, rd -r--- to tne 'd'-I' lR arher 'tl er _lana. [pnonetIc- ~ey WOf, we return '., "'1r,,,--" procec uee -l, ,.:AI at usee 'I the very beginning and appeal to-diu: alphahet-s-in this ease.the letrer 'f,. Since you already have 3 pretty good "feel" by now for ~h'ewary the hiragana forms flow when you write them, try d:mwing a capital Tin hYo strokes, hiragana style, without lifting your pen off the paper" The fortn you wm end up with isthe One we are learning here, Observe thatthe vowel we' use to pronounce the alphabetic letter 'ill' in English is different fr011,1 the v.owe~hl the syllable \<VIe are ~eat]]ing here.
1 "C',' -

"S.ONUNCIAT.~,ON

tape

II

tain t

~!

yotei
",(Iv~
~:"'(

Iv

tenkin
:sate

19

Can you see thew,'a.~king.stick stt.kk'i.llg out of the big toe hl 'this [ornl?
Obviously the user 'is not very adept at wa~king witha (cme yet~ 'fhns

hiragana should look like a doodle of someonejabbing a walking stick into his orher big toe. The: only other thing you, Deled to notice' is that the toe points 'the opposite direction fromthe fingerwemetin the former hiragana,

[iii ~O~il"UN'GIAT~nN

to~st

II

toe

~:o.:ko~on hsto
toro

!: :.~/v

t.
I

l!:: C

~J:t

c;;S

tl:.C:

20
,I

tti.

,1,.······.1' ..::. .•.

'_'I

NA

Clear yourmind of everything before you lIbegrunthis page, Itis importaut tha t you form a v,ery vivid image now to avoid confusion with

the last h:i:ragana we Iearned, Let the sound na suggest a. doorknecker, one of those eerie gothic figures fixed to the-middle' ofa heavy, oeken front door on a hauneed house. See the ljttle tail' hanging on it? Give ita. tug and d,aggers start :AY1IIlg out-a far cry from your usual welcome matl But you 'take: your distance and 'tale aim with your trusty .boo'mer-cmg~ throwing it a:gain and again untH you manage to break the ghastly contraption, Wh.en you form your image and write the hiragana, you should try to :hOUOIW the order of the pieces: elagge:r •. " ta,!~l.. , . b:(),omi:'rl~ng.

t
PRONUNCIA. TION

knock

not

ts '0
tt tz

~/uf~

21

NI

,~

On the r~ t side you see the .hIragana we just learned for .= . But here the comb» are out of the hair and glued finnly on to your kneecaps, one on each side, sothat when you put your legs together, thee teeth of the comb,s interlock a,ndJ, ou have a devil, of a 'time s,e'uing your legs y HP<]J:rt. Now imagine puUing your cape around from the back and holding ['t between you r legs to keep the rom b5 from linking. Close your eyes fora few seconds, amid!Jet the image takeshape, ' focusing first on thee kneecaps and. [hen acoin composite pieces the

two CeafHb:5i11lnd~.he eJoakocNowopen you,r eyes andlook at the 'hi.ragana, You, should be able to "see" the image before ')fOU. Tl"DJe'next time you Ilea!' the sound ni, the whole ludicrous scene shouldcome
back to lifefor you.

It,
run
,

t
~;:Jv

;-~:

~,

~
'' ..... e.

PG:ONUl>.iC [AT m:ON

,,_ 1-

knee Ilanis~e

kuni
niko

<~,;:

22

,lVd
the keywordfer the syUa.b~!e'r:Ui,.

NU'

This character win take about as long to learn as it takes you to read this shortparagraph, The U'la:yptJJe has a nude statue spinning around on it, tossing bOOmeftll1g$ at passersby in the park, The nude supplies

P'HONUNCIATlON

nuclear

annuity

inu

akenu

23

NE

t/)'

-tJ.r

Imagine yourself at a tedious academic convention where, to .fight off boredom, yo!!.!. and a, few colleagues have foMe.d. your naDletj)lgB (the He soundj jnto .bao:mem.ngs' WI'] rder to coax a swarm of 'Wi:lSP,Sown o d

from their nest in the rafters-c-aud perhaps put a !itd,e life into the
proceedings,

PR}OINUNC].AT~ON

nay

neighbo[

£h

yo.n£
netsu

.ttl
~J.0

,.... .or.: tl .. -." tl

l

obtc;l
>- ....
"

....

'

.... _

",

-'

-._-

."

I,

'

I I

24

0)
.

NO

The internationally

recognized ,sign :forno is a circle with a slash running through it: 0. The easiest way to draw ~twith a single stroke is to' begin in the upper right, draw the slash, and then bring the circle around. The only other thing you have to remember is,than: there is, no dosing the circle, When this hiragana :a.ppearsas a part of €!In.other hiragana (witJ:l. onlya slight alteration of shape), we will take it to mean a no parking sign. An exam ple follows later in this lesson.

,(JJ
PRONU. elATION

no

r lI~.IIlO

heno
oi): (J) (fJ)

nonno

kuno

I_ +-

29

,ra:
The key word for the sound htJ: wm be the children' s gam,e of hopscotch. The first part of the character looks exactly like the cape and da'gger 'we aheady met. The ti:ny loop at the end is a bo'omerang~ shown here "looping" its wa.y back to the oat: who threw it. Instead of playing hopscotch with stones or bottle GiIJ(.IS~imagine the sinister cape~a:ru:J-d~:gger 1I1g;LIlrellsin:g, tiny ,b,ooWJ'€rall:gs' for tokens and how difficult it is to get them, to land on the squares because they keep looping hack t!O him! As you trace through the lines of the' shape, say to yourself 'cape ... dagge'f " , .' bOClt~erang~, and the' image and ~i' shape fu;_ themselves togetherin memory quite easi~y.

wm

I
_

,,_,Co,

PRONU:NC]'A T10N

shop

hanko nara
'II-.

~tlu z;

..

\;t

(a-

harlot

~:iG
'\1'(

~~, ,!,II. ' .. U!;l!JiJI;.U

Iel

&;t (~

26

H:I
The 'k;,ey word for this hiragana, be~;m,~iS nothing more than a doodle of a pair of handlebars (drawn into. that shape by puttingtwo -c back

to back). Instead ofwearing spurs on the heels ofone's boots, would it not be more fitting for modern men and women to wear little motercyde hancU,eb'Qrs that snap on the: back of the heelsjust 'the way the spursused to for the cowboys!'

'=1 1\,
\; ~

'0""

PRONUNCIA T'ION

heap

III

she

11 U' '0
{)If}t

u-t
u.~\~
(}"i~?

hi rumo

build
19 himawari

27

FU

I~

.,,~""

)-

,"_

;~"

The key word, fool] characterizes someone asked to show how many puppy tails there are, He-answers 2 [tsu}, because he doesn't notice the tbird one on top ofhis head. Think of thepiece for 2 as j~tlow~.ng ver" into the second taU so o that y!Otl are not tempted to let it swoop downwards (as in the hiragana --? )., The curves of the :filla~two tiCZUS aills;o flow 11Ja.tura:~~yfrom the order of strokes,

,.., ~.)
typesfl,t: cho.racter~ evel:! if wl1,erl yo u write q~.ickly.

V)~I
YON

Re.si.st the t.e,npt:ation to learn t~iis hirat(,i:na ,after the ~~imp'lermodel of the

U~(1ton~'l f

:5'eeltl'5

",l,aser ,~,o wluu

euii

z~p wid!

IPRONUNCIATION

fool

food

funsui
sofu hifu

,~-.Iv -t '~ "

l£:.h
l)\ . !~ .

.1- #1.. 0" iJ., J..,3\

HE
Not forgetting what W3tS said. in the INTRODUCTiON about thevowels generally being shorter in Japanese than they are in English, you can think of this next hiragana as a small haystack, which it rather resembles and which, happily, also provides ,R nn'k with the sound.

PRONUNCIA

I,ON

ba:y I~ha nne

--------

," ,"-

,A../u

hen

hei
~

iben

29

HO
The key word hoe, 3 nearly perfect homonym for our next hiragana, is composed ,ofhop'sco.tch (which we just learned) with an extra horizontal line ;atthe top. The added line represents in fact the dlaUc lines on the hopscotch court, Only the' game is pillayed slightly differently here. You stand with your two feet on a hoe and try to jump not between the chalk l"im~sbut right on them, hoppjngaboet as if on a pogo stick, trywflg to land on the chalk lines and kick up thewhjte dust to prove you succeeded,
-

P'RONUNCJATWON

hoe

hoary
__",_,
, I .•

hori bon ,abo

(~

30

*
I

-1

MA

The key wcrdjsalmosttoo obvious to mentienimaeaa The' elements that make it up are no less obvious, They combine the SlVIOj~dall d the bcmmerang. The image 'is not hard, provided you have a distinct picture of marna inmind; She is standing in an open field throwing

large, heavy sword's that are bentlike hoom:eT:Qngs so that theyflyback

to iter" Watch her dlu::king to avoid getting hit by the things; as they

whizz by.

----

..::!-'

:,n:ONUNC.IA.T.ION

mama

motley

~
'~

- *1 ~I
~ ..•....

.~

-.'

.." r

~lv~;: Iv

*"'?

manmn

31

MI
The 5yUab~erni ,eas.ilyenoughsuggests the word meat for an identifying keyword" ]f you look closely at the shape of this hiragana, you will notice that it begins w~ththe; ,dwarp" who are throwing boom. ',,":'tk 'C "",C",: e,rt1r~g:s t _,angaJ'005, a
,',-f,~:1L ,,~' '~, anl!.!ll'~uen ca.rVlillg, thern """,,£,- IOf s,~eaJ!.{s withtheir ..i ',' up WI,_;1 men
"I" ".'"

dwarfish little daggers.

PRONUNCIA l'ION

nu.

enemy

,1;- "/J1I/v

nm.bmi

t"tF"'dj>,
(J) Jj.

nemtrnasu

i:. -t

32

MU
Our key word will be moen, the brjght, full moon glisteningin the autumn sky- just the right time for a witch's brew, Under the moon's light, you are boiling a huge kettle of soup' into which you are tossingpt~ppy tails and hairpins. You wUI have to Iet this image U8U~W~!in yourmlnd a while 50 that the 50Up~S ingredients take Q.f1 un forgettable quaUtles .. The first stroke of soup is shortened because :~t as to compete with h other pieces for the available space" The curl at the end. turns right, of course, because it bas to blend .~ntothe element for fmirpir!.

pn,ONlJJNClA l'm.oN

moon

c: t· at
C
21::..

~ samurai

a:

U~)
tI~"?

muri mursu komu

:::it~

[ +-

1]

33

ME
The hiragii?in:a orresponding c to the sound m'le' will have asas its key word maypole And a rather unu:sua~maypoleit is. laddng one: of their own.~the neighborhood kids have stolen ~ n,o-p61rkin,g sig':l and strung up a,ball on it. To avoid getting in trouble for their prank, they
have draped an. old capt. around the no-parking sfgnro hide it.

PRONUNCIATION

may ~ inmate:

tsume
arne
~~,

~)Iv.:,

34

MO
LetI th elY:;;"'y, ~,v rd ,1... = be m--,o,"',',__ d , ~",Le imag,f! th at f mig hiru sword ~ 1.. v_or u....,Ie ,_ ,w,) aD-' ~Ji1_ ~,.;>'
CI~, I~ r,o;r., .L!l.L __, ,__ "~ __,
Q-

_,

;@J, ~

"

covered with hundreds cf tiny fi~h.hoQb, whkb ycnm usingto are

1110W

the weeds on the bottom of your pond-and self a,few fish in the 'process.

maybe and catch your-

L t fJ

PM{lON UNCIA'TION'

mow ~ remorse

_~t.

~~G1)

=13 ~. t

klmono

'bf'1lv

mohan
11l0C _, rlll u

b t"l-'15,

'h'"

35

Let the key word for the syJ lable ya suggest to yo 1.1y,OUl' ,own backyard
more speicifica.~~y $fillowerbed or ,gardelll1 there, You are kneeling down onthe ground, ,p,lantil1g p'u,ppy taiis~nthe soil, pushing them down w~th your w,~Jking stick unti] they are aU the same height, exactly one in dexfinger '~o~g,. Note how the short vertical strokewe used,'in the hiragana for yu to

begin the form for finger is left out here because it would overlap wi'~h th.ewalkifi;g stidc. VVb,enyou d.raw this character .rephrase the im age verbaWy by putIf.mng·lllll!.... '~':1'"'",",,,,~ ~n' ord ...r: ,~L.,"" :F"
Il ... ~ l

~ _

,I,,-'~

,iIJ. - -

y"

,,,"", - riI

fi
_.

'i" '''0.
~

,(;!Ie:r .....

,"'''' "l', ~·"J.·iJ,.

II'

.'

I~

,·w...fk' ~,'I'k~~', ~cJ· , "'tmh~l· ;''''0'' " .. A,.

. 1-

PRONUNCIA l"ION

yacht

I cOgR~t

yam;a.1to

~::l~C

.~~~

yakusa
yaba:ri

~<.~
~fil~

-p.~ \11

YU
Think ofthe famous u.s ..Ar.mypos1tt:,er that reads "Uncle Sarn Wants xou" when you hear the syllableyu ..Nowfocus on the nngerpownting

in YOll1r irection andnote howthe first stroke of this hiraganais a. d P ictuee of an index lIl1,. 0'" \"", 1L.'~, , "_, .,.·~· .... FOc '(lTDI'" ,("1 .~~r'-t'l'" .. bby, I ad m-c~fr) .iit-b, the lead-i ""II..... stroke representing the thumb, The fina] curved line you m:ightth.ru:nk of as,a strillg tied around the finger reminding Uncle Sam not to torget that it is YOU he wants. Note' how the string flowsin aaturally from the previous stroke, wi nding itselfaround the finger.
.;,. ~... , . ,"", .' " ,. ~,.. '_,A

,J'

<J!j,

,.,'~,.

-w·

.'

'"

....

".,.g, __ ,

.lLU

'r'II,

PRONUNCIATION

cure

III

fury

". \fl. \1l tj)tjJtP

ayu, yura~

yUki

,37

YO

~I
'1- ",,,

The firstEnglish word that comes tomy mind (and I hope to yours) when m hear thesound yo' is yo~k.,The pieces we heve to work with belle are a,PUPPldQ:g~s tail and avery) very long ho'o'mer,a~~g (thefuU To, fit thesetwo pieces together, imagine a b001neJ'a'1g' with O~H;: wing c.ons,iderably lon'ger th,~n thli':'other and a hole drilled intbe middle, You stick the puppy dots t,a,iJ through this hole and He:a knot '" '-. z . ,~;In It So 'l;lIb..- ,', "i'~ ,d-oesn ~" . ~:'- our, '\1', '1- '1"""'" " th e wnoie coutuptmn mro mar n. ',"_",- II: S~.]P ,,', t JL au ILUFOW " ,', ,'Ib.,'II,'
'-~I ",' _,

vertical stroke is part of it) '.

the sky) while, a group' of people standlngaround throw egg,yo1lks at thehaplesscreature. ad~~ . " '. l'k- ,. , 1!.. '.' etthei rer of 1.. , ' ,1,~ YQUI. can reac th·.eImage ',d_.e [u~S to ,g,ft t e or d 0,- the strokes correct: people tossing ,'oUts 3'[ puppies flying overhead, their llails $~']"ung through long b~J'Qn'l~e-r~ng;$.,
H,

}~~ PR,ONUNCmAnON

yolk

mayonnaise

'I!_ YoJt\;.el'"

~~d\
,J;
cJ;

yolo
yon

J;:.

?'I
'The sound of this hiragana jmmediately suggests the cheering of a crowd: rah rah ran. The on'~ynew p~ece is the short vertical stroke drawn second. W,elU call it just what it loelcslike: 8.1.. Now ,a~~ youhave to do ~simagine a mascot PllP'PYleading the' cheers by wagging its tail, ~enandright, while the grandstands elcho with the refrain; "r-z (~'su))nllbJrah rab, 1-2 (.tsu), rah rahrah,"

fR:ONUNCIATJON

rocker

ran

hera,
nm
hetsurau

I
39

RI

1]1

L,)

To begin with, letthe sound ri suggest the figure ofthe Grim 'R,ea:per~ the ominous cloakedfigure w~,thalong sickle slung overhis shoulder, The: doak you already know. Thelong stroke to the right '~stfue sickle
be uses to rea,' his morbid harvest, As yo u draw the hiragana, say to yourself: "See the Grim Reaper w~th his cloak and l-o-n-g sickle.n

,,:1 ..
~r
this ,(:'I1t1:r'Clcter ofte'1 !~ave d~e bVO st rokes Iinked tvgetjle.r~ i~ult i.ris best to i,eQ,rn i~,~ccordiug t:(D' ~:lu,?1:laJ:ui~,dr(~,wJ~ l"N:{.Id,elabove. It help .11HJget ll1:eproper ~1e,eln< fot ,t1J eo~Mltu ~~Jlo W' of the h t raga rUli i'n a ~va1 ,rhai~ f nUJte 'Stylized MariarJts l~~nl nQt.
TypeS:fJ't fi}rr1~5of

w.m

PRONUNCIATION

eerie

II

read

rikllJ, bed non

It)
......,,~
O)~

I)

LJ

~]

,RU

The pieces that make IIp this hiragana should literally jumps out to your eye: row row, row your boat and b()Q'mel~ang.The syllable ru will " take roof as our key word. You rip the roof off a nearby doghouse, turn it upside down and, using a boome1',ang as your oar, row, row row y'Our ,bou,,t ever so gently down the stream .. ,','
j

IPltONUNCIATI0 N

rue

crew

t. ~
~,

,~C1 .%.. .

1:'1.0
~~

harn
saru nunn
,

,:(,

~Q'V'

41

RE

tL
.

The pronunciation of tis, hiragana suggests at race, and a most un-usual race at that. Rather than compete to find a needle in a hays!'lack, the contestants are '~ookingfor the 7 dwarves hiding ill. it. \tVa.tch the contestants as th.ey come runnlng out of the' haystac:k~ prize' in hand. Nolte how the haystack naturally hunches upwardabecause there 18< not enough space for it to stretch out full length.

1../;I,

"' rh
I',., .
.. '

PRONUNClATION

rail

crates

hore

~!tL
,,,tl. t.:
(J)nlv

nureta

fttttz tint!

RO
Here we' meet the longest key word in the book, for the shortest and simplest of imoges, If you have never had any trouble remembering that there are .3 row's in "Row, row,ro\\iryour boa,I,..,.» you won't have any trouble here either, since the hiragana pronounced ro is written with ,a shape almost exactly dl e same as the numeral J.
j,

:PRON1lJN CI A l'

ro 1'-1

rotund

petrol

-z,1
7;)<

roku
ITO

~'16 6/v::'<

ronkoku

43

. WA····
.

,.",

The next three hiragana wewill learn combine two pieces, both of them new ..The straight vertical line in the first stroke (which does not "bend" or "hook" to one side or the other.as the' cape does) will be a w,alking s,tick..The figure 7 drawn next will stand for the 7 dwarfs. The syllabic sound w,a suggests a.wasp, which provides I. useful image, As the unsuspectingz dwaifs hi-no) hi-ho their way through the' forest and up a. mounminside, leaning on. their wtdkil'J'g sticks as they go" a gigantic wasp sweeps down and picks z (tsu} of them upto carry off' toits nest, The others start swinging their w"dking stiiclcs at the oVlergrown insect, beating it furiousfy until it lets go of their mates,

:~~.J
~~ P ao N U'NClA.TlCH~;'lI

wasp

~ want

'Warn awa wataru

tJ ;:
dbP
b t;:.~

f)h;fJ

tJbtJ

44

wo
The last of the hiragana (foUowed in the dictionary order by the very first one we teamed) is in some w:a.ys th e cutest" of th,!! lot. I t might
'Co;

also look to be the most difficult:) but as you have surely learned by now, looks can be deceiving ..The only strain if yon can can it that, will he to recall the key word: I'm wo.k., YOIll"re wo .. And the reason k that we are both w<o,.k.1•as the pop psychologists tell us, is that we' treat
I'

one another with plenty of

T.[,.C.

(~tender loving. care") ..

Think of the form as a "branding iron" forged into the Ietters T•.L.C. Begin by drawing a T (crossbar first), let it run into all .L (slightly drooping downwards in the direction of the drawing), and (,r08S it

finally with at c. Fir, the iron good and hot and thenpicture yourself branding someone you know with it!

~,

...

~.~.:'.".'

lP'liWNUNCEATlON

how old

row over

I
, ~lf'-·"" "

_-

N
longer stem,

Iv

The firs.t of 'the hiragana forms W,!! shall learn is also the easies ..his, exactly like the cursive form of theroman letter n (Mo )~, except for the In romanized Iapanese, whenever this hiragana is followed by a vowel, an apostrophe is added to avoid confusing' it with :na, n.i', nu, ne~or no. W'f?vVmi see an example of this use of the aposrrophe larer in this first lesso D.

PIIU)l'ifUNCIATION

sing

II

kung-fu

46
I

VO'IC,EDM,AR,K
A voicedmark, as its. name 5ugglests~indicate's that a consonant is to

be pronounced witbthe vocal chords vibrating, Think of its two

short lines" as a,doodle of the vocalcherds, As shown on the tables. on pages 68 and 69l when used w~th sounds.

in the kCJ row (ka) ki; ku, ke, k,o)~the consonant '~s read ga (grnv~.I]gus fa, ,gi~g,~l~e~,gOI). Similarlyatbecomes za (and soforth) ~tOI becomes g da, and Jltl becomes ,lu~:,. You should be able to feel tho€' oiced effect v
v"b,-,t'.mr~ lUgUl side vour throat • For all practical P urp' oses ~, YO_f,. __ , __ ,._. __ .~ .. ,'. __
-',C

both pronouncedthe same (ji)) just as and ,~ are both pronounced ZU" A number ofexamples are given below"
zange zen

-r

t: artd'l?are '"

tl iv'-f
~'fu

dobu

y ~~ ... .._

zoku mabo debeso tsuzuku

.:e<

glJll
gobi

tft
~'zy

~:f
0-'3<

1:~t

gllzu
daba

~i~ l:'tf

Tl1:e tw·p ~iuecSf)f,the iVQ,icedmark are ,ai~'V~ys Wf:itte:i~ .last. after the hir~g~;m~ beet! ct)n~pletel, m W/~. h~'$ d

t,lln'o,ic€,i

47

o
A p,iosive mark indkat,es 3. consonant that "explodes" on the ']jps with ·a"pop. " Which is probably why it is shaped like a pop-bottle cap. There are only five hiragana that u e theplcsive mark, all from the same hiragana row: ha, I'll, he, and ho, which beCOIDTIepa pi, pu, pe, and p,o respectively (see the table on page 69). Examples follow.

"U~"

kanpai
enpitsu

,tJ Iv tf 11 '

senpu

klv!P0 tt /v~;

mp,e.
poka:ri

LESSDNS

LESSON

Before beg~nn ing,. take a moment to [anllli~,r.~ZIe yourselfwitb. the

\',1

rious elements that appear on the [lldi.vwaui3Jlpi]ge8 of this ~ook.

@~~+IrI~

1311'.I'iMth lh.c :fnmili:iIF dt~Dft'i~ 1"11,1: Iml;'i,":f h.t' ~ Ilu: I!:um.~n.e.nt fur caUl ~till ht[nrrpilll 10 remember 1'1111:: .~imil.1Irii~ Worm. "flu: ef kil)l word h~N' is iI ~m:k".LIllI"l:i~uL~rl~' ;lflt1; rnti ndty iilrne:thii~ seme uk! hd.y of qllCldrmil!lllll: 11lll~~ h.3:'iS'!IiIC~ ~nI hcr ''''''~ir LllOlll!;<I d!ll~;:r ,1~ .n ha.irpiil In ImM iliru :pb.c~.

comb. lClI1S

or

(~----~------~~
MIlO' ~ rij Pltfjrfy I'i!UiIyp'IJYi'!l'liimjfoJmrf. t/;)'KWlr.irl OM Ihi,rd jrFJ:lkr~'"fIr ~OV_,1.rr.~.lhJi: 1J!)j01f' r~~ II'riIr ,"'~, ~FIiCI'U ~nlij~ W t~ !Mlnn!'·lI'mwl'.... ~P:ltl,!i'tl ~1.i.m'I', ~"it~j .. ~,[ fiItd Ml" lJW j!W(l .<;!wl;:a iWmmrl,r !llmrl rnm iJHQ
~@!fflf;r,

-+-

,~

I'RO~IJiN',l:M.:r:tO~ SiiIMUi"ilg

(~

e
f!

~k

7' G
'S
~

,
J. ~'.

<~~,
~

~!r.l!

r(ID

~"

kJ,1,~~i

~~~~~~~~~~~

~~=@

51

CD

TI,lJe pronunciatien ized:~orm,

of 'Ithe hiragan.a in question, in sblndardl roman~tse]£;

@ The hiraganaeharacter

The placing ef the elements will aid von 131e[7 in reviewing. By opening the 'book part wa:y~yuu can p,age through and. see on~y themmanized form" leO:'llvi.I!I£ the actual ~1;allg~n;ahidden-l ~mm. view, h
'lIi'L., "@~ne
Fi$\

--" -'1- .), v ongwul~ Chinese (uara,c t e._If 1(.-:[ mes;e ."--, 0

'1- -,,~) ,!'\.j,,.I!1J-

f ,m ""hi h ~''Il blra -- n in .m_._c. 'Le_ L.ga_ca .__

questlon ];3 derived,

T,h,esame kanji 'Written in calligraphic form to show more' clearly huw ireame to its: present-day lrirngaiDaform",

Von, sn.owd 110'1: attempt to memorize -the~l1formaJdo~ in this frame 110W') thoughata mort' advsncedlevel you lIIay find it intue.s~ing 3Jn,dhelpful for ~,ea.iU'~ingthepfOn'U[lc:I,~UQ~of 'the 'QiU':ig.i~al kanji,

h:lragaOO'la. @ Instructions on how to 1rvthe' ~ne MWaJ,g,anaform., stroke by stroke, just

@ A~expmanatlQn Qfhaw to remember the

as Japanese cbmd:[,en. do when they are fi[st~.earllin:g to write. Q}from time ~o time a.supplementary note, set in. Italic ~yp,e)is added wi-tit. infeemafion regerding the 'Wlit'ujJg; 0[' pronunciaticn of apartie-

ular h lragane 'form.

rcmanlzed

a.

<WFamlHar English words eregiven as pronnnciation

samp~es,. since dlc

l

forms of thehiragana o,.ften, suggest soundsin E n.gHs:hdlf~ fereu~ frcmthcseassigaed 10. the hiragana, If you stt'lldl edLatin.or

know a roman,,€ hlngnJ9,geal:ready, rhese ,examples w:illlbe l~[ge~y superfluoos ..

This framecontains {i. examples of stylized typefaces, intended to show the flexibmty' permitted in wril1mIllparticularbiragane. You shouldnot attempt toimitate these; it isenough ~hat you take. a

momentto r,ecogfDli~~them,
@l @ Sample words in which the hieagenabeing studied appears. The examples use <l1il.I.yhimga:n<'ll. that have been learned uptothat point, which means you. should! be' able to identify the'm. all-s-as wen as reproduce them all from thetr eom anieation ..You should not skip .~ny ofd:u! esamples, thougih there is no need to bother

~ea:[mlngwh~t the

WQ,[dJ!

actually mean in Japanese .

.52

® The page to proceed

to!

after finishing this p,ag'f:.

@ The page from which 'fUU have just come.

At this point, if you 'haven't already done' so, secure severalsheets of

blocked paper withblocks at least '1 em. (til in.) square. Youcan find them at any stationery store, This, ,\,viiUelp you keep the shape of your hiragana in h proper balance muchbetterthan practicing, on blanker simple lined. paper

"'till. One more thing., Take a look at 'the dock and make a note ofthe time. In less than 30 minutes from now you will be asked to record the time YOIl hav,€ spent on. these first 9' hi ragana in the box provided 'below.

'..'ongr,atuiiation:s! You ha viej ust learned 9 of the 46 hiragan a, and probably , p'e:ll'l'tess than. 3,0 minutes doing SOl. l Just above 'You will see a small box marked Time: l.~SS01'<l r, Record there: how long it took you to completethis first lesson, w~will. do this at the end o:feach lesson, A word. about reviewing, If yml took your time with eachhiraganaas ynu
ame to it, if you practiced writing it several times, repeating the explanaLion to yourself as you went, and ifyou. tested yourself on aU the sample words., there sho uld be no need to ret race YOUIst,epS. If yo u do get stuck, tuen '~othe ALPHA.B.ET.lC .UST OEI.page 70., locate the problem hiragana, and 1,0' through the page aU over again, top' to bottem.Whatever you do, do NOT W'8s~e our Um,ewriting any of the hiragana over and over again, y IDn case you are wondering whether lea ruing, to' write thehirsgana will _,0 mean that you know bow to read them, j, can assure you that iii: will ..Let

53

me show you how easy it is. Try reading aloud. the foUowin,g six words:

l'rtJv
It ...Iv ::.

0)(

3D ""-. tv

we have learned so far are contained in these words, Once agalin~do not worrytb,a.~ yon don't knowwhat they mean; the on~lything we are after h,e:rcis learning the syUwba:ry,. If you.wereplal.nning on headtng righr .i~to IIBSSON 2,. change ymJf plans and take a break now for at least 30 minuees, Go outfor a.W,almc. or stretch out on the sofa ..Your mind has been watch~flII:grumi3lgeg around like shutfly decodes and should be a bit dizzy just now ..

An [he sounds

54

LESS,ON

Nowuh.a1lt you are refreshed. we are ready for lesson:

)!{)urmusdesa. bit. '\'\!dte'~he hiraganafor
:ike~1
:iu:iaJ' kun,j

2.

just to flex

the 6oUow:ing worrls:

nobr. ahen 'km~o

'l 'heanswers, if you didn't catch on, are on ~:t~et()p'of ~he p.revru,QU$ pag:e. But ~Cllus not linger onwhat YOll do mow;, i~ time we\"ifereback COlloeJllt1!'3.tmg is on what you do n,ot. This Jesson 'win take 8 hirag~]la,~.[1idudiID.gsiOm'E: of those m OM, easily mixed up by the b.eg,iIl,rN~[ because of sim]hlri~y of form, As we shall see, '(;;,!i~e'fu~ attention to thepieces our a,fwllilkh they are eonstsuctedwill spare yu u the ccnfusice ..

Check your dock anel let's a w~y'..•.

Time:

LESSON .1,

That's i't forme 8 .hira:gana of

LESSON 2.

R"ecord your time h'l the box above

and ge[ ready for another break. B1Ilt fir.st ,11 bonus :60i[ making it this f3,1'. Inthe GEN.IEllA..llNTlcon<UCT[mSI mentlon was made of the fa.ctt t:h.at '[he

hlra:gana are JaJ.id.nut In this, book in their "dktlonaryorder,"

Since this

.DS

.55

not the best order for Ieamlng them, you are' ha:vlng 'to hop around from p~aoeto place Eventually yo.'U will need to memorize 'the dictienary order so that you can :look words up quickly in Iapanese dictionaries, To help) I am going to set the order to a ~itt.I.e itty dl.31t should! make it lust about as;easy as d
it can get. The iirst schoolingmost

'came with

,iii

soag called "Prere Jaeques," whkhgoes like this:

of us go~ with bu~cherin:g 'French pronunciation

Pre lie J~cques,

Frere J~c~I:I~,

Do:rme:z~vow? DQrfnez·l4lUs:i'

.so,mu les m~ti7le5,M()mit'lg

S-O:MIii'e5

Are )'!lll' sl:~ep'blg, A:f'e you s,r(!eping~, .Brofher ](jlm, Brorlrer .fohn? bells n:rer;"1.giflg.
MO'ml'ng bel'l$ are ·r1I:lging.. D:ing dong d~11.g"Di,r!lg dO:f'lg ding.

1'f!S mtU'ine5~ Difl~ di'l" demo Vii",'. diti don.

j

Ie~)$ tfiLkethe first line and chalngethe 'words 'to. the foUowh1;g four s:yUab]es.
A -.K.1i..-5A=I'A

"..
~U{JI's~]ab~e;sresound

rust the first Iine for now. Let those

inside your head.

fur ~he rest ,oftbe ,dar to the tune of'''Fre'.re [aeques .." Whenever ytou'v,e got a. spere moment, sing [hem to yourself. In. later lessons we will learn the rest of the jingle and :al o find out what it all means. Right fim,vyou don't have enough hiragana under your beltto make the' explanation stick,

LESSON

Here w,eare ever, one-third of the way through the hiragana, and
yt~lu.are probably

well ahead of schedule. lust to make

n:~Q,t:getting. ahead

SU1"f!

that yon :a;re

ofyours!tdf~ let's take a minute to layout the principles behind the learnbtgyou have been up to so far. Ac.LJnilly" you have been guided through a series of fouf' s.t~ges,~ hich can w he summarized as f01l0W5,;
1.,

going a~:iltproperjy and

The' roman pronunciation

of the hirsgana is associated either with ·its alphabetic equivalent or with a,word c~osel,Y related to it in souad and p'.refembly 'Widl a dear and co ncrete meanieg .

.2.

with the hiragana by sound, whwcb we '!\liU refer to from UO\,\1 on as the "keyword," is Iinked to an image that is: connected either to. the shape of sn alphabetic letter or to ,lID picture associated '\'I1rnth the k,ey word.
by

This werdassociated

3. J( the image is composed of pieces, those pieces are highlighted focusing the imagination onthem within the totalpicture.
4. The hiragana is drawn, reconstructlng

the complete image and repeat3,5

ingto yourself the "meaning" of the pieces

you go..

Everyone's mind wrOlW,"ksdwfkrent.[y~, ut one 'thing. is the same: even when b yo'U! menta powers are running as, elffi:dently as; they can, your mind will occas~onany trip over its own feet ,a.nd trick you into thinking you know iom!ethingthat in fad you do not. The lessons have been kept short to minimize the effects of a loss of concen tration, But even so, there tnay be partieular hiragana YOIl have trouble 'with. Have a good look at them to see w h:kh of the four stages your mindtends to ride rcughshod over. Then pay it more attention in the future. There. is no point retracing our steps, 'but just 'to make sure you bave the Idea, see if you. can ~deJ1ltifythe 'k"ey words (stage r) for the followiing hiral!am3 ,5ynab],es,~

57

.ru

Tnt
n
til:

You shouldrt't have any trouble here, but just iii!! case you. do, turn to the ALPHA BEUC us· . os THE KANA On page 70 'to find 'the location of the syllable and refreshwhat you learned there'. Wh.I,,, YOll areat it, you might mark 'Off those already Iearned, In fact, if you haven ''[ be' doing it 3~['eady) you might also mark the pages that you have ,alre,adyworl:ed through. That way, if you decide to test yourself! it will be easier to identify what you should be

reviewing,
We win focus. on the other three stages in subsequent lessons, but try to be more conscious of them at work as, you study the hiragana ofthls We:s.son_ Havea look. at th.e dock, mark down the time.and let us, be .off. ...

Time:

LESSON

And SOlwt goes with LHSSUN 3. DOD~~ forget to recerd y:o'wt" time above, No lesson ,vi][! be as hard as this bas been. From here on, ies an downhill~ 510 keep toyour schedule and don't let up' on your concentration, The lessons arc short enough as it: is, but you can't affo:rd to get in [00 much ofa rush and skip over Iny of the 4 stages we explained on the P'['f:vlOUS page. How have you been doing 'with our little ditty? Can you still recall the first line? You had benet', because now it's time fora second line,
A ,_ .KA. - :SA - I~A NA ""',UA =MA.YA

Try singing both lines, one after the other" untll you have the words and
melody fIXed in your mind. Then just croon away at it ditmrin,g:he: day and t

oace more before you fall ssleep, In the 111.orrruirrug; YOti.s.!Jould fin,d your~'f>el:f wamng up to it. and then we wiU be 'ready for the final line, Meanwhile, it's time for another breather, Ifyou decide yeu cannot stop yourself frnm reviewing (and if you took the advice about marking offthe pages already learned), you might try openingthe book just enough UIO see the romanized reading and ~ee]fyou can write the hiragana learned so far,

1..ESSON

4,

In the previous lesson w,e gaveparticular atterrtion to the first stage of isolating the key word derived from the phonetic 'va~ue of the hieagena, This; stage is managed by mere' word association" and every effort hal, been made to msure that it ,goe.sefFortiessIIY., In the '9'hiragana ofthis lesson we focos on. ~be way we have been using the' hnage, a s:lwghtLy more difficult task. The' importance of'a clear fO'Jlagecl1n11lot be' stressed enoegh.If you have trouble try verba~izm:g,the' image, describing it slowly to yourself so' that ,iit has time to 60'11" in your mind's eye. If yO'll. take ,3, moment to reconsider III hiragaaa you had trouble with, you will probably find a vague or badly formed image to be the source of the problem. Associating i~with memories ofparticular people, places, animals, and so fOl"dll-~he firstthing that comes to your mind is usually the best-will often help to gelL 'YOU going, Even in the ease of a hiragana \lIil~oseexplanation flows so smoothly that

you don't see "the need to isolate the' stages, you shcmild take' lit least a quick glance back over your shoulder befere turning the pag,e from one hira!:g'RI!I.3
to the next and ask yourself. '~~What as. the kie:y'W{l'lrd 'Of that Iast hbag~na? w And how did I get fromtbere to my image?J' If you have time now, you might even run through the hiragana you know to test ~tlout. (U~H;:the Al'f'H:ABSTIC LIST on. PaJglf:70' if yo," took the time in Lesson 3 tc markoff the hiragana already learned ..) If you are mn.a harry to g,et on with LESSON ~ then at least take a moment for It quick test. See if you can conjure up the keyword and then the image
(o:r the foUowing,syJ lables:

yo
n
tll:

"t'u~~
In

,rna
:i1t

It is time we are on our 'wa,y again. Have a ~(lo.lk. at the dock" and dig in, yOUI heels for what many consider to be the most. difficult of all the hiragall,a. You will be surprised how a little thought~u~ orglulliza.tion ,m1 my part,

60

and a.n1I extra moment spent making a clear and vivid mentalimage YOilU:S, c:an hdp you breeze through them ]]1JJ ~U1 time at aIL

on

Time:

LESSON

over, and you &ave good. reason to rejoice,..Mark down your time' in the box above and takea good long break this tirne, You might even wai~ until tomorrow IlO' do $l'1IIQ'tl,l,e:i" lessen J US[ so yon don't glide too fas~.dowtlJhill throtil;:,ghthe remaining hlmgiill.na and forget to pay attention. to hCl'w Yoll,lli ~.ca:rn~ln]g) are which isalmost as lmponanr as 'Wh.~t you an; learning.

SeV€11ty percent of the jou[neyis

To. keep YOUl ompany, here'sthethird Hne ofthe "Prere [acques" song c we have beenplaying w~ttl:
A-KASA ,_ TA. tvA .~ ,flAi ~ MA -Y A .ll:A. - WA. -N~ Rd, ~ M!:A~ N.

Until later .....

61

LESSON!

Th,e hwrag~~la In this lessonare none of them ",ery difficult, but tiler a]Jl requirea dear mental image (stage 2 whlch we reviewed in the. previous lesson,). This time, nd us concentrate on the mte ofst~geJ:
Focus: aN tJ,~oseP'fH'ts to! tfu~in'lti!ge ~ha~"repre$lentpln"ts of the c;onlpletul {orrin.

Th is sounds: so simple that yon llU:gh:t have been temptedto over look it. But 'there is more than meets the ;eye'. When you formyeerfirstimage, you:r mind will generallybe ruled. 'by mae. word associatioe w~th.the 111"l,~ge ruuning on and. off 'the set .likea prop man, The idea isto drag the iUl,age 'to center stage, turn the spodi:ghl on.~t. and watch what it doeswhen left on its own. You. "coach" itruo]lI~: by [OCU,S~ng.on.the critical parts (tho5e associated with the written strokes) ~and then pa~ien fly wa:U~eyes,closed, until-the little magiclantern '~ll your illr1JJa,gina:tioll starts spin 1111 ngand sernething odd, ridiculeus, disgusti ng) arousing" or 0,01.erwise memorable happens, Only then have words turnedto ffimage~ and ~o an. image you can trust as a mnemonic, Thwsis the' crucial step in the process you. are Iearning here, so' be sureand watchit at work, As a test, try' 'the foUmvin.gbrlefUst) asking Y,QUFSlClfwhaJ it wa:5~ha't IT'1;f9.de the image and its critical parts particularly memorable for you when you
learned i~:
ma:mu

ta

yo
Iti

su

There is no need to worry that somany of the- same p.iece::sike,ep turning up again and again, This is dO'ml.edeHbeta~df tnelnninate, oral least reduceas f,a][aspossible, due' work cfbrutememary andlet you concentrate on imaginative memery.
In other words~r.ad:Dller th~[[ clutter your memorywith too ma.D:y . YJ' 'm' . ki ·0ex yourcreanve rnusctesto.. I~ ::UI up atarge ~. r., 1 pieces, ~am asking you to r OIU!llH.iI number of hnages out of a. few simplepieces,
,,..

62

\lVell,that's enough about the thcory.Jt's time to get back to the practice.

Take note of 'the time and carryon with LESSON 5,.

Ti Inc:

LESSON

followed my advice, you probably found this lesson something of a strain. But don't let up. There is onl.yone morelesson, and. it) too, demands the same attention. First, mark down the time in the box above. By new 'YOllil should know the entire f~ Hiragana Song. n let us just add a conventional ending so as not to leave the' melody hanging in the air: If
Y'Dll A -.KA-SA
,z.jA, -1>1A -

Now 1 know my k{l,na. Now r know my k(ma.Di n;g, ,dor1;f,ding. Ding" dong" ding. an order qu lte d.~ ffer,ent from our typical Western alphabets, Think of the

~ TA MA -VA RA - WA -N; Hit. - WA ~.N.

M is,t~nu! we clarified what this all means, The Japanese sy~Iaba.ry follows t
tAB,- E OF THE KANA

ounds as lined up in two, directions, Turn to the page e;.SJ and you win see what I mean,

on

Vertically the syUables are Iined up according to> the five vowel ounds 'that; either mil their own air in combination with a consonant, gives the ~apanese language its basic phonetic units (the solitary consonant Iii being 't he only exception), They foU,ow the seq uence ~ 1,. \ -j ;t :f:i as in the column 0'11 the ra:r left, There rus DC) need ~'Owork up at rnnemonic fo:l'"hat sequence; t ~verym]e'ill know learns it in a few seconds, Horizontally, the syllables, follow the order we' learned 111 our little song, . hus a dictionary will first list words. beginning with ,Y.} J,.,? ;itt; t and then
I

pass on to words starting with jj~ <, I,t and ::_. This sequence is fOlillowed by t;:.t.l'~ """)•• and so forth and so on. Now perhaps you see why it: is ' important to masterthe order of :tlU;:ll s;y]l,ablf'5 we learned in our little song,. Without it, you wm waste f,jJ, lot oft~:me fuu'!Jblinghit-and-miss around
I' ~
j

II

1'

Japanese

dietionaries,

EDOUgh for now" Twme foil'a good rest to prepare yoursdffor lesson,

rhe fina~

LESSON

With~h.i:s;~esso.rJ YO\llcom.e to the end of your study. A mere 7 hiral,gana and :2 diacritical marks separallIe you from. youI goa[ 0:( knowing

l1Jow'toread and write-the Japanese syllabar)" M have deliberately left tor thisina1 lesson those hitagana that you might can«,e:x.ceptiofis~~) the s:e:nsetba;~th.ey entail slight distortions of fa])iL1Uiar in pl~ece.s,. Mee!tmg them here a'tthis late stage, at.least you can console yourself 'wmththe fuolJg]U: thattherewill nat be any moOr,€, them, of

The ICOWllr8e is run .. Mark down four time in the box above~al1d. take a. minute now to add up the time in. allthe boxes to find out how much time you. spent learning the l}, ~ 75'\ it'. Record [t inthe box: below, Someday you

may want to-persuade someone else to learn themthe same way'rou did} and y,our record. Mll speak foritself The main th~ng.ws yu uhave no do ubt

realized. bynow, is that being eonscjous of the dock helped. you to' break ~be task up into, digestible pieces and probably ~ve you some added enc mrag:elllcnta.long the way. There are no mere written. shapes 110 memoriae, 'You ate fi,nishcd with all fh~l!t.There are only three more things you need to know about the hira,gana,. some of them already touched on :iDI the' course of the previous lessons. and ,au'of them better neanued by actual use 'of tb,e hiragana than by brute memory of any "rules": (::I.) th.€:c'ompos.~t~fm of diphthongs, (2) the trauscription of Long vowels, and (3) the doubling of consonants. let us look at them, briefly, one by one..
1.. Regarding

the diphthongs, a 'table' bas beenprepared on pag,e ,69 showing all the possible diphthongs that can he made with the hiragana (and katakana), The second. vowel of the diphthong is \' rltten in a. smaller f01"111 and set at the baseline of the' prim. a ry vowel. vowe~s-th.at is, vowels that are held :[MIC:e las longas normal-care indicated by adding a oj afte:r hiragana ending in an 0 or u sound I' as in the words t;?~ J:;, L:~'?~51,lld ~tt-? Their transcription ill the roman alphabet is indicated by a macron set over the lenghtened

2. Long

vowel Thus the three words above wouJld! be written: Tokyo* jru;i(jand
5U;'I1'Q.

3. Finally, a consonant is. '<doubled" much. the sam, w,;y that a vowel is lengthened, namely, by dcubling ~he'tIme given to itWhe,[(;8.S a vowel can naturally be prolonged) doublinga consontant requires a glottal stop ..This is, :indicaJted by the lnclusien of a small -e» before the CODS.Onant to be doubled; as in the following examples: -t ... (motto) I .)t ~:f: tI ~,.:!:? (HG/d::ald"rJ) i 'J"'? ~ ~ (,a.ss,ari). 0111y hiragana beginning .~ with the consonants It, SJ t g,. z, d~ band p Can be doubled this way. F.ven if you are con hiden t that you have lear ned the {} Ib lJ\ f;;:, you want to !be sure that~h,ey stay [earned until lh!ey have b ecome a permanent ha b~tas "second nature" to you as,the alphabet is To 'begin with you should sweep out of your mind any lingering doubts that the achievement is beyond your reach, If you have jollowed this, little book fa![th~'IlI~y!. are already w,ell. on your w~y[O the sarnc flue'll':}, that you
j

Next, write the v- j rl' t~ as often as you can. T,\\fO things \,viU happen the more you wr.it~ .First, you. will get faster at writing and not haveto stop to 66,

the Japanese themselves have,

thin.k about how individual lli.ra:gan.aare constructed. Secondly, your wrwt~ ing will starr to takeon its own character, which can also mean some bad hah,its. When you feel this happen.rung, It :Us est "'1:0 c$,ee!ik the guidance of b someone witha more cultivated hand. who can point out wl:i2l:t y.our wri~ing lacks m. grace and cliegan.ce. My partiug advice, or rath~:!I:"stern admonitiOJi:ru, is~ therefore, this: Never again write so :rl1U'~~ as a sin,g.Ee apan,es€: 1,.0 rd wi tfl. ro man letters unless yo u 1 ,are Idoing it jor somemlC who d'oes~w',tre,ad V ~_) it...Since yOil]J no longer il~ belong to that g;rOUPJ you shculd .bal've no more occasion 00 use roman letten: For Japanese words than the average Wa.!P'anese: does, Y,QU might save yUlllIll'Blelf a few m omentsnow a:nd. agair'JI if fOU jiot down a mote in the reman alphabet, but the inevitable cumelatjve effect ofthese apparently trivial uexceptlons" is; to' :fo'lFei theabi6ty l' ~ll·t~dy t wmd1.i 11. your reach, to, writewith native fluency. Take the warning to heart and I guarantee you. ww~] never

regret it-not for a.m:inute!

68

,~

..-l

\,Q

.!""'!

C'\ r-<I

00
.-II

('F',

'V

V'\

'V

\0

('f)

OJ!

tf).

'rfi

r-,

::
(tI')

~,

«II

ilJ' ~,

0 .....

::::;
,!I-;i

1tJ\l

'=,

0
~.

''l':!

>-.'

>-

< Z
-<
,~

E-<
~ ~

~ ::E:1

'C"i"I

'iI.iI"\

0\
tf)

.~

"iT

,~

'o::t"

r!""'il

...
~ ~

:;j

....

~ ,..;

~ ~

:3; I::

01

Ii-<

'!o-o

ilil!iiiij

'loi

00
:J,.i

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tIISS14.'95

ISBN 4-&8~'b-07~-q

THE KATAKANA

REMEMBERING THE KANA A guide to reading and writing the Japanese syllabaries
in]
,hOUT5

each

Part Two

KATAKANA

James W, Heisig Helmut Morsbach Kazue Kurebayashi

'Contents.

INTRoDucnoN KA'fAKANA LESSON

TO TU.E KATAKANA • .' • •

v
1.

t.
•

S3 57 '. 59
61 63, 65
OF "rHEK' -,NA

LESSON 2,.

:LJ!SSON.J, •
lESSON LESSON LESSON'

4.

5.
6.

AfTERWORD AlPUAB,ET.E.CUS'I' TABLB

'. 67 . . 69

or '[lI'IPHTHONGS
'KANiA. ,

TA.BU~ ,OF THE

INTRODUCTION

TO THE KATAKANA

The method for learning the katakana outlined in these pages assumes that you already know how to read and write the hiragana, whose forms occasionally overlap with their katakana equivalents and the pronunciation of whose syllables is identical with that of the katakana, If you have completed the course on the hiragana that makes up PART ONE of this book, or if you had already mastered the hiragana before picking up this book, you are ready to ta.ckle the katakana, though you should at least have read the GENERAL INTRODUCTION to the book. If you do not yet know the hiragana, turn the book (or yourself) upside down and start from the beginning. It will save you a heap oftrouble, There have been many attempts to introduce students to the complicated apparatus of the Japanese writing system. Unfortunately, the great majority offer only one major exhortation: repeat! repeat.! repeat!l! Since almost all Japanese native speakers have gone through this laborious (and for an adult, inefficient) learning process as children, it is understandable that they will expect anttheir students lto do likewise. If you do learn your kana and kanji in this way, you may become proficient in time, provided that you are very strongly motivated and are willing and able to use Japanese daily in reading and writing. But even if you are one of those wh 0 plan to be using Japanese every day from now on and can count on the benefits of constant repetition, would it still not be mu-ch more pleasant to use a more stimulating method than mere repetition? Most students of Japanese eventually come to read and write the hiragana fairly fluently, The katakana are another matter. On first arriving in Japan most people are eager to begin their study of the language by deciphering the myriad of katakana neon signs decorating everything from pachinko parlors to hotels to coffee shops. But once formal study of the language has begun, the katakana tend to recede into the background. Since one is never asked to read or write whole sentences exclusively made up of katakana, and since one is likely to use the Roman alphabet anyway for

words Japanese' writes .~Il katakana, it is easy tocome to the conclusionthet they are no more 'than an "appendage" 10 the language and thatit is,enough to be able' to recognize them P~SS[vely. . Of 001JllTSe~ this [s aU wrong=-and YOll know as much. or you would not have bothered to read this far. If you keep going, yOUI will learn to harness the p'm1Vers of your "imaginative memory" to to: • learn the katakana betterthan p ur,e rep etl tion;
with, any method invclving

• wri ~ethem. much Inoreffluen:t1,y: and • enjoy the learning process much more. The katakana are arranged here in their "dictioaery order" (a-i-u-,e~oj ka-ki-ku-ke-ko, etc.) and not in the order in which. you. will learn them .. Instructions at the bottom of each page will ask you to skip backwards and forwards through the book so as totake advantage of the best "learning order." The elessons will giiJiideyou step by step. starting with katakana that resemble the hiragaaaand ending whit those that have no relation to. the hiragana .. Associat.ions are made by' using certain English sounds (sh[u~d most by English speakers around the world.but occasionally wi.th a bias ~oward.s American usage) and the standard pronunciation of the relevant katakana. Since 'Weare assuming you have already learned the hiragana, no examples of pronunciation will be given. And 'With that, weare off. Follow the instruction in Ul,e box below to begin with LESS.ON].

VI

Part

Two

K'A,TAKANA,

'17

A,
SOoN

page 5' atia star! with

YOil sl1'Otlld ,''lO'W b in the middle of LE

lESSON J.

5. If you

12,,,-

not., ,go at

orlce

to

The only difference between nut and II in the katakana is in the final stroke, which stretches out into along arm ..In fact, if you look at h. it has: a pictograpbic qU3J~,~tyof an arm bent at the elbow wiitb a,long

sleeve dangling from it=-presumably of 81, young maiden's kimono.

if

Amerike
America

fan
jan

I
Theletter i, the romanized equivalent of this katakana's sound also helps us learn how to write It. The only thing you need to remember is,that the "dot" at the top is-lengthened into a short stroke. since the katakana themselves do not use dots ..Therest is the same.

Supein
Spain

aisukurlmu
ice cream

I-{

-r

/,

.,
,1
'.1.'
'~

The only difference between the' katakana pronounced ~t, and the chaw,m'l that we just learnedis the small downward stroke at the top'. If you can imagine some foul substance oozing from the ceiling, drop by drop, into your chawan-plinklplopl-this katakana should come aliv,efor you and you win have no trouble putting thepieces together: coze ~ chawa.111 +a drop of something fromabove,

-.'fi
'

'

I" ,,'~ c?
9
1 ~

hausu
house

pauda
powder

E
Let the sound e stand for the air that fills the space between heaven and earth (the two horizontal strokes ).The filling of the space is indicatedby the single vertical tine.

erebeta
elevafor

eakon
air r.:"fI{air~iot:ierJ

IX. I
4

T -

o
The mlly thing that distinguishes the sound ho from () is that the ~S'pirant or "h" sound. b absent. The katekana reflects this by droPPIDD:g

'the final stroke ..For tbi.s reason,

as a couolee, II:'

:$

and;1- should be Iearned toge1:.il!er

,.. ';t' 71-

Jt

;ft

:It.

Oranda
overfmmJ

HaJiami

albia

KA
The only real dlifferl€'DCe between the karakana and hiragana forms of the sound ka is that the katakana again "simplifies" things by dropping off the added stroke to the ri,ght. If you stop to think of it, this; is really the easiest way to do itl

Kari
G:di

If)
6

1J

1:1J n

nl

111

KI
The katakaaa sirniplificatien of the hiragana pronoimced ki lacks the last: stmke--exadlythe same as the towm fOf Teathat we justlearned .

.=t:.

• *~

*~
7

kr
kllJl

carkey~

lkAkl

KU

<

Take a moment to associate in your mind's ear the sound ku. with the word scoop. Then yOll can associate this katakana in your mind's eye with the image of an ice-cream ii,COOP (the flatt kind thatcreate slight rounded slabs-a-rather Like the first stroke) dropping vanilla ice cream int-o your bowl of'rice.

kukkt
cooki«

"

baggu
!bag

?
8

1-,'
',r:7

I)

KE
The only difference betw(l'I!nthe katakana pronounced ke and the one we just learned for te is. that the first stroke is taken from the top, and set vertically on the far left. Think of the top of thepostbox being opened. all the way up so that it can "take the cake" that you aunt has mailed you for your birthday.

i'" 7" 1;-1

i _7_, . _'7_

keki
c-ake

'T I
9

kechappu
ketdlup

KO

To learn this katakana form, first draw the hiragana form once and, note the same cursive flow from the first to' the' second stroke [hat we saw in the case of'l1. Here the cursive form is,changed to block form bythe addition of another stroke (making a "corner, ,) if YOIl will),

:II
cochi
mach

::J :)1
,::I

:::1-7Y.:::l-

Ri,ko
l~icoh

:J

':J

10

-1-1'.."

SA

Thhik here oftbe story of King Solomon and thetwo feuding mothen lor the sound of the katakana sa. The first stroke is King\~ aJr111~ which is holding out 3 little infa:nt (the second stroke) ~nd.threatening to cut it in half; thefinal stroke is wise oM King Solomon .h.~1l1seU. lrshould not take much work to see the st:ory in.the simple doodle for

tt

17'
~

iJ'1:I-

IJ

sararnnan
~'(llt~ri~d I!~tifi

sakka

S()lccer

11

SRI
Here is another example of the way the cursive form needs a "dotted line;" effect for the transition from the hiragana to the katalana, It is formed virtually the same as "Y, the only different being the position Sinddirection of the form. Learn it as you did that katakana for tsu,

,_....
Shikag.o
Chicago

'

__

peji
:page.

'.""

" :~

,,,.,,,.,.

12.

su
Keeping: our bowl effood In mind. from the katakana W~ learned 01]1 the previous page, letthe sound. su suggest a. bow.~.ofsoup, The s.m.aU stroke that drops down from. the right wmbe the handle on the side you pick the-bowl up with. A little stylized) perhaps, but definitely a handle.

SUp'll
SOi',JP

S5S11

13

SE

It~:lttl
-

Tile second stroke of the hiragsna pronounced se is dropped here to give 'the simplified katakana form. OnIDy note carefully how thewriting differs, and in particular why the "hook" runs DOWN here and UP in the hiragana form.

ir r 0'
Selica
Cdica

~-t%,t?

14

As with::'f and

», the

katakaaa '601' swmply drops the final stroke of so

the hlragana form.

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-I \/' \J ~' :I'J

15

suSi!ji
scutsage' sony

sun

T,A

t::

The scoop of ice-cream (which is still very much visible in this katakana form if yoIII look at it) here has a. little towel stuck to the side. You know, the kind you get at Iapanese restaurants or on airplanes. The jpllrpose of the t:owel? Why! '~O wipe that ce-cream off your face.

"
bata
buit'l.er

,I:, I))
'#'

Kanada
Canada

'9
8

'9

16