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katakana or hiragana
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katakana and hiragana , which is often used in Japan? does anyone know? or we have to master them both? |
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Re: katakana or hiragana
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Well Hiragana is mostly used in place of difficult Kanji or everyday japanese words, and Katakana is used mostly for foreign words. garasu=glass amerika=america ko-hi-=coffee etc. Since, I think, Japan is influenced by a lot of foreign culture, I think learning both would be very helpful. but for a foreigner, katakana might be useful to learn first ^_^ I learned them both in about a week; |
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Re: katakana or hiragana
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well, ultimately u ought to master them both.
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current favourite(s): niconico douga!!!!! |
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Re: katakana or hiragana
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by
on 2006-02-15 22:04:58 (edited 2006-02-15 22:05:48)
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billboards in town often are in katakana, because its trendy. hiragana is used all over the place, too. if you study japanese, it is a good idea to learn how to write both hiragana and katakana as quickly as possible. most japanese classes include it in the first few weeks of curriculum for this reason. EDIT: you guys beat me! :P 
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Re: katakana or hiragana
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by
on 2006-02-15 23:44:57 |
Hiragana and Katakana are used depending on the situations, as described by the others who answered. You'll have to master them both as well because without them, you won't get anywhere in the language. But if you want to be more proficient in the language, you'll have to tackle Kanji as well.    |
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Re: katakana or hiragana
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You need to know kanji. It's part of the daily structure of speech. |
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by bishi baka
on 2006-02-19 10:37:08
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Hiragana is usally most used and I should know. Katakana is very hard though because only certain words are written in katakana. Hiragana is going pretty well for me though. How good can you get around Japan with just knowing hiragana(in terms 'a reading things)? I know I have to know the language too.  |
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Re: katakana or hiragana
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by Roadkill2580
on 2006-02-19 22:06:38
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Huh...so I suppose your question is, which is more valuable? Well, hiragana is the system Japanese kids learn first. Later on comes katakana, then kanji. Hiragana is basically a "elementary" system, but like most things elementary, everything is built off of it and therefore it is most important. Hiragana is used for words native to Japan. Take the word, yume, which means dream, for example. This would be written in hiragana. But let's say you wanna write beer, which is biiru. That would be written in katakana, which is used for foreign words. Then there's kanji...Kanji is pretty much Chinese, except it's altered for the Japanese language. It's also a bunch of pictures, hieroglyphics almost. This is the most advanced writing of Japanese, as some characters can be up to thirty strokes long. The modt strokes for hiragana without dakuten is about five strokes, but most are only about three strokes long. (There are 46 characters in hiragana and katakana WITHOUT dakuten. The number just about doubles is use dakuten, which alters the sound) For those who are not native to Japan, you'll probably only know hiragana and katakana if you ever go there, and you may be learning kanji, but not know it. Don't fear, there is something called furigana. You see, just like our parents teach us to read by making us read signs like STOP, so do Japanese parents. If a child comes across kanji and obviously they don't know it, furigana will help them. Furigana is hiragana, except it's next to the kanji so whoever is reading it knows what to pronounce. So really, you don't NEED kanji to live in Japan, though it is very helpful. But as long as you know the language, hiragana, and katakana, you shouldn't have much trouble getting around.
There's only one thing guaranteed in life. Death.
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Re: katakana or hiragana
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| Sometimes traditional Japanese words can be written in katakana. I'm not exactly sure why, but I think it's for emphasis. |
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by bishi baka
on 2006-02-20 13:50:10
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I heard that katakana is like the Japanese verison of italics. It's used for foriegn or exxagerated words to make them stand out more. I know about the furiganas too. I need furiganas to read something in Kanji. I'm kinda teaching myself I bit 'a kanji by typing a phrase and putting the furigana on top. That kinda helps. |
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Re: katakana or hiragana
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well, i actually enjoy learning kanji. im learning on a free japanese website. this way, i can get my brain working cos my place here is sad and doesnt have any challenges for my brain. also i can test my brain's capacity. test how hard it can work...weird huh? anyway, www.thejapanesepage.com. enjoy! and ãŒã‚“ã°ã£ã¦
black cat
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by bishi baka
on 2006-02-21 13:58:16
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interesting. I'll have to check that out. thanks for the site. |
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Re: katakana or hiragana
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by koneko-chan
on 2006-02-24 16:44:26
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| kanji is used much more than hiragana or katakana, but between hiragana and katakana, I would say that you should learn both, since not everything in Japan is in hiragana, or native tongue :P |
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Re: katakana or hiragana
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oh, gosh, and I know only katakana :P I have hiragana but haven't learned it yet but I can't find kanji... can some one PM me!
meow!!;3
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Re: katakana or hiragana
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You could try to search on Google. Does anyone know some good sites to write in the correct strokes for kanji? |
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Re: katakana or hiragana
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by bishi baka
on 2006-02-28 14:55:07
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I know alittle bit 'a kanji and that mostly comes from looking at something with furigana on it. |
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Re: katakana or hiragana
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I think it would be best to learn hiragana first. Then later katakana. Most signs in Japan are in kanji, but on top it's in hiragana. |
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Re: katakana or hiragana
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by
on 2006-03-10 14:54:47 |
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@touryuu This is an excellent site for Kanji. |
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Re: katakana or hiragana
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Hiragana looks prettier XD
Fushicho
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Re: katakana or hiragana
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You need to know all three katakana, hiragana, and kanzi. They use all three all the time... Knowing Hiragana is like knowing the letters A, B, and C... and knowing katakana is like knowing D, E, F, and G, and then Kanzi is like knowing all the other letters. Err, I'm not trying to say that they line up with English letters, but they use them all, just like we use all the letters of the English alphabet. If you want an example, just go to some of the threads written in Japanese on this board. Some words are written with katakana (usually loan words, words with complicated kanzi that are just unused, words that want special emphasis in colloquial text, sometimes when sounding out words, when immitating a foreigner speaking, etc.) and then all the other words are written with combinations of hiragana and kanzi (some are just one or the other, or some have both.) For example, with verbal words, the "stem" part that stays the same is most of the time a kanzi, then the part you conjugate is hiragana. But all three are used all the time. You can't really have a normal written text (besides like... single phrases like on street signs and things) without using all of them. |
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