The Japanese language
Here you'll be able to find information about the japanese language. You'll also find learning resources that will come in handy when trying to learn to speak, read and understand japanese.
The Japanese writing system
One of the largest obstacles when learning the Japanese language is the writing system. Not only are the characters totaly different from the latin alphabet, but there are three different sets of them. Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji.
Hiragana and Katakana
Hiragana and Katakana are, much like the latin alphabet, phonetic characters where every character represent a sound. The characters alone has no meaning aside from the sound they represent.
The Kana (Hiragana & Katakana) are, with the exception of a handful of them, built up as a syllable starting with a single consonant followed by a vowel.
Kanji
Kanji are basically a subset of the characters used in Chinese. The Kanji are idograms, i.e. every character has not only a sound but also a meaning.
- Some Kanji examples
More to come...