For the first session of MangaCon, we covered some basic rules for reading Japanese. They are;
-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. For hiragana: vowels and "k". Katakana is the same. Kanji is below.
If you want to learn a little more on structure and sentence building, these two sites will help.
Beginners' Japanese Journal
Power Japanese
Hito, nin, jin: person
Sun: hi, -bi, nichi, ni
Day: ka
Numbers:
Ichi: 1
Ni: 2
San: 3
Shi/Yon: 4
Go: 5
Roku: 6
Shichi/Nana: 7
Hachi: 8
Kyuu: 9
Juu: 10
