Read and Write Japanese: Comprehensive Hiragana and Katakana

Introduce the hiragana ま み む め も, demonstrate stroke patterns, and build vocab like matsuri festival, umi sea, mono thing, and oni demon.

This lecture introduces the hiragana らりるれろ r-series with five new characters and ten words, explains the soft r versus l sound, and guides practice.

Explore the g series in unit 10 of module one by applying the diacritics marker to form g sounds, with vocab such as kagi, hongo, and English language.

Explore the diacritics marker in Japanese, learn four characters with dakuten variations, and study eight new words, including typing notes and an outdated usage.

Learn the kana ばびぶべぼ and apply the same marker to new words, including bentall (Japanese box lunch), culture, explosion, ring, thief, and the idea of hope or wish.

This unit introduces combining i-ending syllables with ya, yu, and yo to form new sounds (kya, kyu, kyo, gya, gyu, gyo). It covers six characters and twelve words.

Learn three new kana characters and six words in unit 18 of read and write Japanese, including folklore terms like hanya and the celestial maiden with magical clothing.

Master the final hiragana unit っ by doubling the following consonant to signal a breath, practice five words, and refine your pronunciation with recitation as you move toward katakana.

Learn the basics of katakana, including loanword use and the dakuten markers. Follow a five-word-per-unit approach across kana series, with katakana-only combinations practiced later.

Master katakana by learning the same vowel sounds as hiragana, focusing on stroke order, line shapes, and accurate pronunciation for each character, starting with a, i, u, e, o.

Learn to write katakana ka ki ku ke ko with correct stroke order, line alignment, and parallelism; practice each character 15 times using examples like car, key, cake, and coco.

Learn the katakana characters タチツテト with stroke-order tips, parallel line rules, and grid-alignment guidance, then practice each character 15 times along with related vocabulary.

Learn the katakana characters ma, mi, mu, me, mo with guided stroke order, line angles, and spacing; practice each character at least 15 times, using examples like マスク and ミニスカート.

Learn to write and recognize katakana characters ヤ ユ ヨ ワ ヲ ン, with stroke-order tips and practice guidance, including common abbreviations like mp3 and wifi.

Learn special katakana transliteration for foreign words, focusing on writing names and words in katakana, with examples like chess to chat, zebra, and typing z using zebu.

Practice katakana by writing new characters and spelling Italian words, German foods, and Chinese dishes—mozzarella, pretzel, schnitzel, and Chinese green onion cake—with 15 repetitions per character.

learn how to write foreign loanwords in katakana, such as whiskey, vodka, Halloween, and mineral water, using the ウィウェウォ sequence and the relevant kana rules.

Explore practical Japanese writing conventions, including western left-to-right and vertical writing, punctuation placement for commas and periods, and how kampai is written in kana.

Learn to render English names in katakana through guided practice, exploring pronunciation beyond rigid rules, and a 60-name drill that encourages independent writing and comparison.

Master kanji numbers one to ten via writing and basic readings, with two exceptions. Extend to counting up to 99 by combining ten with units, and learn counting down rules.

Explore kanji for animals, including tiger and dragon with old and new variants. Learn writing steps, pronunciations, and meat-related kanji for beef, pork, and chicken, plus practice tips.