The Japanese Writing System

 

Historically speaking, Japanese has no writing system on their own. Its writing system has started when they start importing Chinese scripts at the 4^th century. The ancient writing system of Japan is Classical Chinese or Japanese-Chinese style. Thereafter, they start using Chinese characters to write Japanese called man'yōgana (“Ten Thousand leaf syllabic script”). This style was used mostly in their phonetic values.Japanese scripts – Hiragana and Katakana were Chinese characters that were used in phonetic values to write grammar. During the 11^th century, GenjiMonogatari (Tale of Genji) literature emerged.

Every grammar follows certain rules. Learning another language such as Japanese is a challenge to all learners. You can learn other languages by many ways – browsing internet, buying books and the most effective, immersing oneself to the language. The highly recommended rocket japanese is one of these ways. Rocket Japanese has reading exercises to round off its curriculum.  Its program is considered to be one of the most comprehensive online. Learning how to write, speak and read Japanese language is not an easy task.Practice and commitment are key points on writing Japanese.Writing Japanese is certainly difficult yet an interesting and fun act. What makes it interesting is because of its completely different structure.The modern Japanese system is a combination of Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji. In addition, it may also include Roman letters (romaji).

The three Japanese scripts are kanji, hiragana and katakana. Hiragana and Katakana is together referred as kana. Hiragana and Katakana has 48 characters each where each character has a single syllable. Hiragana is used to write most of the native Japanese words. Katakana is used to write borrowed, foreign words like “soccer ball”. Kanji characters are from the Chinese language.

There are almost 2000 Kanji characters that are commonly used.If you want to learn to write in Japanese, you must know how to use its Japanese scripts – Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana. However, if one finds it hard to write it out in Kanji, you can write it in either Hiragana or Katakana (Kana).It is a good start to learn primarily Hiragana and Katakana (Kana).

You can be very good in Kana (Hiragana and Katakana) even in short periods of time. It is easy and not discouraging to learn. Hiragana and katakana are almost identical characters. On the other hand, Katakana has simpler syllables compared to Hiragana.When it happen that you mastered Kana (Hiragana and Katakana), Kanji will be less intimidating to learn.

Japanese has a very unique way of writing system. Japanese language is written from top to bottom and it is read from right to left. When you open a Japanese book, start scanning at the back and read from up to down. Actually, this horizontal form of writing Japanese scripts was first used during the Meiji Period in Western dictionaries.

Those who have just begun learning Japanese will find writing enjoyable than speaking the language. With repetition and constant training, Japanese language is not hard at all. Yes, that's true especially with rosetta stone japanese. In Rosetta Stone Japanese, the student is expected to repetitively practice enunciating words until he feels comfortable in thinking of and saying these words out loud. One is advised against translating the words into English.  Through constant repetition, in time, a student starts to think in Japanese.

 

 

 

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