Japanese Language

Reading or writing Japanese really isn't as hard as it looks once you know the basics.

Japanese is made up of the following three different writing systems. Just click on the type to see how they are written and how they sound (no kanji yet, but check back later).

Hiragana - A set of 46 syllables used for any Japanese word.

Katakana - A set of 46 syllables used for foreign words or names that are used in the Japanese language (or Japanese words that you want to create a sense of distance from, like "garbage" or "pimple," etc.). These syllables are identical to those of Hiragana, but they are just written a little differently.

Kanji - Characters taken from Chinese and integrated into the Japanese language. Kanji is more difficult than Hiragana or Katakana because the same character can have many different readings, and they often much more complex to write. Incidently, even Hiragana and Katakana have their roots in Kanji, but, thankfully, they have been simplified. I will be expanding this in sections, but right now there is just a page of time/number related kanji.