From Zero to Japanese Literate - Romaji, Katakana, Hiragana and Kanji

From Zero to Japanese Literate

 

Three Ways of Writing

There are 3 ways of writing in Japanese that I know of - Romaji, Katakana, Hiragana, and Kanji

1. Romaji

    You can read this. It's just Japanese spelled out in Roman characters.
    "Ni-hon-go" is in romaji. "Nihonggo" is wrongly spelled romaji.　Hahaha!  :)
    Some Japanese- English dictionaries and phrasebooks are in romajii.
    But you can use only so much romajii.
    
    Examples:    
            Ni-hon-go　- Japanese language
            Ni-hon-jin - Japanese person
            Ni-hon -  Japan (country)

2. Katakana   
    Still not very very useful. Real Japanese way of writing    
    but is used to write foreign words and names only.

    
    Examples：
            バスケットボル　- basketball (ba-su-ket-to boru)
            アイリン　- Aileen (A-i-rin)
            パソコン　- PC - personal computer (pa-so-kon)

3. Hiragana
    Very very useful. Along with Kanji, used to write Japanese words.
    It uses a phonetic interpretation, meaning, what you see is what you read
    - no silent letters anywhere. It is similar to Filipinos' abakada.   

    Examples:
            にほんご　- Nihongo
            にほんじん - Nihonjin
            にほん - Nihon　            

4. Kanji
    Pictographic representation of syllables, derived from Chinese characters.
    Unlike Hiragana where one Hiragana character has one reading,
    One Kanji may have many readings, and also, meanings!
    so much familiarity is required to interpret Kanji.
    
    Examples:
           本　- hon (book)
           日本　－Nihon (Japan)
           日本語　－Nihongo
   
    Great for Kanji practice: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~kanji/
    The site above has brushstrokes demos and sample sentences per Kanji
    that can be listened to!