-Written Japanese doesn't have spaces between the words.
-There isn't any punctuation except for the "maru" (circle).
-Japanese has a certain order that has to be followed.
Another rule to remember:
-Japanese is a combination of hiragana, katakana, and kanji.
We went through the descriptions of the different writing systems;
-Hiragana is the first system that's learned. It is used for native Japanese words.
-Katakana is the second system that's learned. It is used for foreign words and emphasis. It's seen on alot of signs.
-Kanji is the final system. It's the pictographs, and the hardest system to learn.
We started learning how to write all three systems, and at the end of class I handed out the assignment (translate the page in "What's the Word") and directed them to the MangaCon(version) blog and the Beginners' Japanese blog ( http://risingsunwetaskiwin.blogspot.com/) if they want to learn a little more on structure and sentence building.
Hiragana and katakana:
Vowels:
K system:
This is the site where the kanji pictures come from. It's also a good resource if you want to look up combinations.
Kanji:
Sun: hi, -bi, nichi, ni
Day: ka
Moon: tsuki, getsu
Month: gatsu
Tree: moku, ki, boku
Mountain: yama, san, -zan
River: kawa, -gawa
Rice field: ta, -da, den
Man: hito, jin
Person: nin
