Japanese Symbol Writing

There are 3 different ways of writing Japanese characters. They are namely the Hiragana, Katakana
as well as Kanji. Hiragana and Katakana are two distinct types of the Japanese phonetic script
known as kana. The basic vocabulary of Japanese is written in a mixture of kanji and hiragana.
Kanji are Chinese loanwords that are borrowed (and modified) to suit Japanese grammar. The
number of Kanji range from about 5000 to 10,000. Kanji is known as han zi or 漢字 in Chinese.
Learning Japanese Hiragana Characters
The Hiragana script has 46 basic kana characters. Each of them represents one syllable. They can be
combined to form more complex syllable to form approximately 100 syllables. Learning of
hiragana characters is normally done by memorisation. Here is a hiragana list for your reference:

a i u e o
あ い う え お
K+vowel か き く け こ
ｓ さ し す せ そ
ｔ た ち つ て と
ｎ な に ぬ ね の
ｈ は ひ ふ へ ほ
ｍ ま み む め も
ｙ や - ゆ - よ
r ら り る れ ろ
w わ - - - を
ｎ ん - - - -

Learning Japanese Katakana characters

Katakana characters are used to express foreign characters in Japanese. Most of these words have an
English origin. Some of them originate from German, Spanish or other languages. For instance, the
Japanese Katakana ベッド(beddo) is derived from the English word- bed. Another good example
will be コーヒー (kohi), which is derived from the English word – coffee. Here is a list of Japanese
Katakana (consisting of the 46 basic syllables) for your reference. They are normally memorized by
hard just like the list of hiragana above.

a i u e o
ア イ ウ エ オ
K+vowel カ キ ク ケ コ
 ｓ サ
ｔ タ
ｎ ナ
ｈ ハ
ｍ マ
ｙ ヤ
r ラ
w ワ
ｎ ン
シ ス
チ ツ
ニ ヌ
ヒ フ
ミ ム
- ユ
リ ル
- -
- -
セ ソ
テ ト
ネ ノ
ヘ オ
メ モ
- ヨ
レ ロ
- ヲ
- -

In recent years, new variations of katakana have been added. This is because the Japanese has been
under influence from foreign languages which are “borrowed”. This new syllables exist only in
katakana and not hiragana. They include “ti”, “tu”, “di” and “du”. Here is the list of modern
katakana additions:

a i u e o
t テイ トウ
d デイ ドウ
f フア フィ フェ フォ
v ヴァ ヴィ ヴェ ヴォ

These modern katakana can be used to express certain foreign words such as “duet”, “vest” or tuner.
Learning Japanese Kanji
Kanji is used to write uninflected words such as nouns or inflected words such as verbs and
adjectives. Kanji are used to substitute some hiragana terms. For example, watashi (I) can be written
as わたし or 私。The choice is normally a matter of usage. Kanji is normally used in magazines,
newspapers and other formal publications. Below are the 20 most popular kanji for beginners.

S/N Kanji Japanese Pronunciation English Meaning

1. 野望 yabou 　Ambition
2. 空 sora Sky
3. 愛 ai Love
4. 信念 shinnen Belief
5. 龍 ryuu Dragon
6. 神 kami God
7. 自由 jiyuu Freedom
 8. 名誉 meiyo Honour
9. 星 hoshi Star
10. 精神 seishin Spirit
11. 宇宙 Uchuu Universe
12. 欲望 yokubo Desire/wish
13. 美 bi Beauty/Beautiful
14. 友情 yuujou Friendship
15. 塩 shio Salt
16. 砂糖 satou Sugar
17. 部屋 heya Room
18. き ki Tree
19. 猫 neko Cat
20. 傘 kasa Umbrella

Other Resources:
These lists of resources are suitable for beginners learning Japanese:
Learn Japanese Podcast - This website provides basic beginning Japanese podcasts.
Rocket Japanese - This website provides software resources for Japanese learners.
Anki – This freeware allows flash card uploading for studying on the go. Suitable for Palm OS.