Katakana and Kanji charts ❤️

So I was on WeHeartIt.com again and I came across the adorable Japanese character charts again! They're handy to keep on your phone just in case you need a 'lil help with your Hiragana and Katakana!

1. 

Here's the Hiragana chart I posted up a few days ago

2. 

Here's a Katakana chart with a little guest appearance from Totoro-San from My Neighbour Totoro!

3. 

This is a pretty handy chart for learning basic kanji you'd end up using quite a lot. All of them except for 曜(よう) are on the Leaving Cert Japanese course. The kanji 日 and 本 make up 日本 which is Japan! Kanji such as 月 and 火 are used with 曜日 to make days of the week! E.g. 月曜日(げつようび) is Monday! It's meaning is actually Moon Day.

かわいい Hiragana Chart!!

I was browsing Weheartit.com and I stumbled across this adorable hiragana chart! They also apparently have katakana and kanji charts to match, かわいいですね！

Katakana Part 2 (Ms,Hs, Ys, Rs, Ws and N)

こんにちは！ Welcome to Part 2 of the Katakana alphabet. My next post will be about adding Ten-ten to characters and then I'll begin posting topics. Stay tuned for my post on countries!

The 'Ms' Line

Ma = マ someone is opening their mouth! This is Ma for mouth.

Mi = ミ Oh no, it looks like a cat scratched me! This is Mi for me.

Mu = ム this was a lovely piece of Toberone until a moose came along and took a big bit out of it. This is Mu for moose.

Me = メ this looks like a metal sword. This is Me for metal.

Mo = モ I put worms on my fishhook so I hope I get more worms. This is Mo for more.

The 'Hs' Line

Ha = ハ haha someone broke this stick! This is Ha for haha

Hi = ヒ Look at this man. He is sitting. This is Hi for he.

Fu = フ this is the fool's hat. This is Fu for fool.

He = ヘ This is an arrow pointing to Heaven. This is He for heaven.

Ho = ホ this is a Holy Cross. This is Ho for Holy.

The 'Ys' Line

Ya = ヤ this is one hairy Yak. This is Ya for Yak.

Yu = ユ who's number 1? You are! This is  Yu for you.

Yo = ヨ look at this lovely carton of yoghurt. This is Yo for yoghurt.

The 'Rs' Line

Ra = ラ Look at this random piece of random floating up over the bowl! Ra is for Ramen.

Ri = リ these are reeds in a river. Ri is for reeds.

Ru = ル your rude friend tries to push you into a volcano. Ru is for rude.

Re =  レ You decide to take a rest. Re is for rest.

Ro = ロ look at this lovely round rock! Ro is for rock.

The 'Ws' Line

Wa = ワ Your baby sister got a new tooth and she won't stop crying! Wa is for wah.

Wo = ヲ you got some new dentures. Oh wow, you're getting old! O is for old.

N

N = ン This is a ship with only one sail. This is N for one sail.

This is the end of Katakana! From now on, I will using a mixture of Hiragana and Katakana in my posts so keep practising your characters! Thank you to everyone in my Japanese class last year who came up with these ways of remembering Katakana. さようなら for now!

Alphabets - Different Types

There's 4 different types of alphabets in Japanese. 

1. Kanji

 Kanji are Chinese characters that the Japanese have adopted for their language. There are over 10,000 characters in this alphabet. There are two different types of pronunciation, the Chinese pronunciation(Onyomi/おんよみ) and the Japanese pronunciation.(Kunyomi/くよみ)

E.g. - 山 (mountain)

2. Hiragana

Hiragana is the basic Japanese phonetic alphabet. It contains 46 characters. This alphabet is used most often and is used for native Japanese words that don't have kanji. 

E.g. - やま (mountain)

3. Katakana

Katakana is used for translating foreign words into Japanese, such as 'anime'  into 'アニメ'. It also has 46 characters. 

E.g. - ヤマ (mountain)

4. Rōmaji

This is Japanese words written in English, for example, 日本語(Japanese) would be written as Nihongo in Rōmaji. This alphabet is targeted towards non-Japanese speakers or beginners. 

E.g. Yama (mountain)