Basic Japanese Character: Hiragana

As a Malaysian Japanese, with Chinese educational background during my primary school. I am able to speak fluently in Bahasa Melayu, English, and Mandarin. I was raised in a multicultural environment where I have to learn my own race - the Japanese culture, Japanese language, Japanese social norms, and the long history of 20,000 years. In my whole life, I encountered numerous occasions - meeting with strangers, friends, teachers, or even a leader wanted to learn the Japanese language. For that reason, I am writing this dedicated to all my social circles and the public to learn, enjoy, and achieve your long term goals. 

To learn the Japanese language, it's important to have fundamental knowledge in Hiragana - the basics of Japanese pronunciation. By mastering Hiragana, you have mastered the first step to learn the Japanese language.

In most of my experience attending courses in Malaysia requires you to spend months or even years to learn Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji all at once. This is way too long for you to migrate to Japan or even master your second or third language - in my case, the fourth language. I still remembered clearly when I had to spend almost 3 months straight at Takamatsu (高松) - a city located at the central of Kagawa Prefecture (香川) for a homestay. I learned Hiragana 2 weeks tops and another week for Katakana. As you memorize well on Hiragana, Katakana will flow easily to remember due to the characters are almost identical to one another. However, this might vary one to another as some of you could read all Hiragana for few days or even after a few hours. 

The following characters and pronunciation are Hiragana.

 あ    い    う    え    お

A        I      U     E     O

か        き        く        け        こ

KA     KI     KU     KE     KO

さ        し        す        せ        そ

SA     SHI     SU     SE     SO

た        ち        つ        て        と

TA     CHI     TSU     TE     TO

な        に        ぬ        ね    の

NA     NI     NU     NE     NO

は        ひ        ふ        へ        ほ

HA     HI    HU     HE     HO

ま        み        む        め        も

MA     MI     MU     ME     MO

ら        り        る        れ        ろ

RA     RI     RU     RE     RO

や    ゆ    よ

YA     YU     YO

 

わ    を    ん

WA     WO     N

We still not done here yet, there are still additional 25 characters with additional diacritical marks and short parallel lines. Interestingly, the basic Higarana's character is added with a small circle or diacritical marks that will change the whole pronunciation. Before you proceed to the next 25 additional characters, make sure you have mastered 46 characters above. Remember - learn to understand the characters, write it down on a piece of paper, exercise without the pronunciation, and repeat. 

が        ぎ        ぐ        げ        ご

GA     GI     GU     GE     GO

ざ        じ        ず        ぜ       ぞ

ZA     JI     ZU     ZE     ZO

だ        ぢ        づ        で       ど

DA    DJI     DZU     DE     DO

ば        び        ぶ        べ        ぼ

BA     BHI     BU     BE     BO

ぱ        ぴ        ぷ        ぺ       ぽ

PA     PI     PU     PE     PO

In the final part, there are another 33 additional characters. In my own personal experience, I have to admit that these are the most difficult part. By knowing the fact that you have to combine two characters to form one pronunciation or single syllable, is indeed challenging. The question is, how do I overcome this?

Again, you've to master 46 basic characters of Hiragana and 25 characters with additional diacritical marks and short parallel lines. From there, add another last 33 characters. Before you start, you'll have to change your perspective and mindset of learning Japanese. It is easy, trust me. Even it's contradicted with my initial idea, but bare in mind, there are only 3 small characters to form a new single syllable; ゃゅょ with the other きしちにひみり. 

If you are aware of the pronunciation, the 7 chosen Hiragana ends with the letter "i".

き        し        ち        に        ひ        み        り

KI        SHI        CHI        NI        HI        MI      RI

and

ゃ      ゅ      ょ 

YA     YU     YO

To emphasize and combine with the characters, please look at the characters below

きゃ     きゅ     きょ

KYA     KYU     KYO

しゃ     しゅ     しょ

SHA     SHU     SHO

ちゃ     ちゅ     ちょ

CHA     CHU     CHO

 にゃ     にゅ     にょ

NYA     NYU     NYO

ひゃ     ひゅ     ひょ

HYA     HYU     HYO

みゃ     みゅ     みょ

MYA     MYU     MYO

りゃ     りゅ     りょ

RYA     RYU     RYO

ぎゃ     ぎゅ     ぎょ

GYA     GYU     GYO

じゃ     じゅ      じょ

JA         JI         JO

びゃ     びゅ     びょ

BYA     BYU     BYO

ぴゃ     ぴゅ     ぴょ

PYA     PYU     PYO

Congratulation! You're now have mastered 81 characters of Hiragana. Starting from here, it's easy for you to read and understand Kanji through Hiragana. Speaking of Kanji, the total Kanji you have to memorize is only 2,000 Kanji - the average number of Kanji virtually every adult in Japan or 3,000 Kanji for well-educated Japanese and 5,000 Kanji for technical expertise. To sum, there are over 50,000 Kanji in Japan.

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