不求谌解

I have been learning Japanese for over a week now, and this week has mainly focused on the basics. This includes the structure of the Japanese language, the reading and pronunciation of the 50 sounds.
Why learn Japanese? The direct reason is that a week ago, I read an article on Minimalist, titled "Talking about the Redesign of the Origin of the 50 Sounds". The author is an independent developer who has a strong pursuit of product design and experience. Then I tried out the app on my iPad. It is more like a work of art than a learning app. So, I decided to start learning Japanese immediately (cool).
Of course, there are many other reasons, such as the pleasant sound of the Japanese language, wanting to learn Ruby, and enjoying listening to Japanese songs.
Japanese cuisine is about to begin, and having just the app as a resource is not enough. As a complete beginner in learning Japanese, I didn't even know what the 50 sounds were at first. So, I decided to choose an introductory course on MOOC. There are many courses on MOOC about learning Japanese, and after watching the video introductions of the courses, I chose "Free and Easy Japan" as my introductory course for beginners. While learning Japanese, I can also learn about Japanese culture and famous attractions. Amazing!

Learning Method#

Composition Structure#

Mixed Writing is a characteristic of expressing Japanese characters.

• Manyoshu Kana: Using Chinese characters that have the same pronunciation as Japanese to write Japanese, to supplement the use of Chinese characters to record Japanese kana, which is relative to "true names" (Chinese characters), and "假" means "borrowing".
• Japanese Kanji: Mainly used to express the names of objects and actions.
• Hiragana: One of the phonetic characters in Japanese, evolved from Manyoshu Kana, similar in shape to Chinese cursive script. It is mainly used to annotate the pronunciation of Japanese Kanji, as well as some grammatical particles and auxiliary verbs.
• Katakana: Invented in the early Heian period to read Chinese characters¹. It is simplified from the regular script of Manyoshu Kana. It is mainly used to write loanwords and onomatopoeic words.
• Romaji: Mostly used in signs and advertisements.

Japanese Kanji#

Chinese people learning Japanese naturally have an advantage. Because both Chinese and Japanese inherit the shape and meaning of ancient Chinese characters, and many words in modern Chinese are borrowed from Japanese translation language in the Meiji period. However, many Japanese Kanji have the same shape as Chinese characters, but completely different meanings.

Common Japanese Kanji in travel

Japanese Kanji to pay special attention to

Learning the 50 Sounds#

The 50 sounds are the foundation of learning Japanese, but they can also be a headache for beginners. It is a common problem for most people to have difficulty remembering and mixing up the kana. There are many methods for memorizing kana, and the method I am currently using is based on etymology. Of course, you can also try visual memory. Here, I want to emphasize a sentence from Kevin, the developer of the 50 Sounds Origin app, "I believe that learning Japanese is not simply learning kana, vocabulary, and grammar. It should start with the culture behind it, resonating and identifying with it."

Pronunciation#

Pronunciation is also a very important part of learning the 50 sounds. Fortunately, Chinese Pinyin includes the Romanized pronunciation of Japanese.

Tone

• Mouth shape remains the same
• Tone remains the same

Clear Sounds#

Note:
In the sa row,

し => Pronounced like "xi"
す => When pronouncing, use a mouth shape similar to "u"

Voiced Sounds#

There are four rows, and two dots are added to the upper right corner of the corresponding clear sounds. The mouth shape and tongue position are the same as the corresponding clear sounds, but the vocal cords vibrate slightly earlier than the clear sounds.
Note:
In the za and da rows, there are two pairs of kana with the same pronunciation, but in Japanese words, じ and ず are preferred.

Semi-Voiced Sounds#

Add a small circle to the upper right corner of the ha row.

Note:

Long Sounds#

In Japanese, the length of vowels affects the meaning of words. The length of a long vowel is roughly twice that of a short vowel, and one kana is one beat, so the length of a long sound is two beats.