Module No.

2
GEE 104 – Foreign Language

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This is a three (3) unit course that includes learning Japanese alphabets (Hiragana and
Katakana) and vocabularies. It also deals with understanding basic sentence patterns, grammar,
and translation. A small dialogue in the style of a question and answer is given to show how
the sentence patterns are used in practical conversation. This is also an output- based course
with the application of concepts through simple conversations. The conversations include
everyday expressions and greetings.

Total Learning Time: 3 hours per week (1 week)

OVERVIEW

Nihongo as a Japanese language is quite complicated in the sense that it consists of three
(3) systems of writing. These are Hiragana, mostly cursive which are often used for native
Japanese words, Katakana for foreign words like the names of countries, people other than
Japanese and the Kanji which is closely similar to the Chinese alphabet.
Learning to how to write, read and converse in Japanese is quite a challenge for many
since its alphabet is totally different from the one most of the people in the world are familiar
with, the Romaji or the English alphabet. It is also different in the sequence of vowels and
consonants. It has many twists here and there that may require a lot of patience in doing so.
Writing Hiragana is the first step to learning Nihongo. So let’s get started.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of this module, the students are expected to:

1. identify and read Hiragana characters
2. write Hiragana characters correctly and patiently

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INDICATED CONTENT

1. Hiragana Script/Alphabet
(Used for writing native Japanese words)

DISCUSSION

The first step to learning Japanese language is to learn Japanese alphabet. or at least, to
learn the sounds that exists in the Japanese language. There are absolutely no “tones” in
Japanese alphabet like in many other Asian languages and there are only 2 exceptions in
Japanese alphabet does not contain letters but, instead, contains characters and technically, they
are not alphabets but character sets.
There are three types of letters in Japanese.

1. Hiragana (phonetic sounds) are basically used for particles, words and parts of
words.
2. Katakana (phonetic sounds) are basically used for foreign/loan words.
3. Kanji (Chinese characters) are used for the stem of words and
convey the meaning as well as sound.

There are 5 vowels in the Japanese language.

1. a pronounced as “ahh”
2. i pronounced like “e” in eat
3. u pronounced like “oo” in soon
4. e pronounced like “e” in elk
5. o pronounced like “oh”
All Hiragana characters end with one of these vowels, with the exception of n. The only
consonant that does not resemble that of English is the Japanese “r”. it is slightly “rolled” as if
it were a combination of d, r and l.
Hiragana is basically used to express 46 different sounds used in the Japanese
language. We suggest you start learning Hiragana, then Katakana and then Kanji. If
you learn Hiragana first, it will be easier to learn Katakana next. Hiragana will help
you learn Japanese pronunciation properly, read Japanese beginners' textbooks and
write sentences in Japanese. Japanese will become a lot easier to study after having
learned Hiragana. Also, as you will be able to write sentences in Japanese, you will

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be able to write E-mails in Hiragana.
Katakana will help you read Japane se menus at restaurants. Hiragana and
Katakana will be a good help to your Japanese study and comfortable living in Japan.

To master Hiragana, it is important to practice writing Hiragana. Revision is also

very important - please go over what you have learned several times.

LEARNING HIRAGANA SCRIPT/ALPHABET

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Chart I is known as Gojuuon –zu which literally means table of 50 sounds. Letters i
（い）,u（う） and e（え） appear more than once in the table. Another syllable n （ん）
is included. It doesn’t belong to any row or column. In total, 46 letters (45+1) are counted as
gojuuon.

The first row – あ、い、う、え、and お are five vowels of the Japanese alphabet.
Letters in the same column contain the same vowel. Letters in the same row are considered to
contain the same consonant. Letters お、and を is used only as particle in a sentence.

Exceptions:

1. The Hiragana は (ha) is pronounced “wa” when it immediately follows the topic
of the sentence. this Hiragana character is usually only pronounced “ha” when it
is part of a word.
2. The Hiragana へ (he) is pronounced “e” when it is immediately follows a place or
direction. both of these are very simple to detect.
Note:
You probably noticed in the chart above that there are 2 Hiragana characters
pronounced as “zu” and 2 Hiragana characters pronounced as “ji”. The Hiragana
character つ“ and ち” are very rarely used.

Chart II known as dakuon which literally means turbid or murky sound. It is

the voiced sound of か、さ、た、and は – row syllables. Dakuon is indicated with
two small dots called dakuten (often called tenten). Pronunciation of じ and ち“ , つ”
and ず are the same.

Chart III is similarly known as Youon a combination of the consonant of i-

column syllables and the ya, yu and yo. for example, k + ya = kya. Youon is described
by i-column letters plus the や、ゆ、and よ but is written smaller than the first letter
or syllable.
Chart IV also known as Handakuon literally means half – turbid or half –
murky sound. It is indicated with a small circle often called maru.
Sokuon is a pause (no sound) between two syllables. it is described by small
つ . It is found when two consonants are found a word like sakki (さっき)、hisshi
(ひっし) 、itta (いった) and yappari (やっぱり).

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Additional Rules in Hiragana

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TASK / DRILL / EXERCISE

Perform the drill below for Hiragana. Do it for several times as to familiarize the alphabet.
How to correctly write each letter is done for you.

DRILL AND PRACTICE OF INDIVIDUAL LETTERS

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EVALUATION

Part I. Write the following in Hiragana:

1. kya
2. ha
3. ba
4. tsu
5. su
6. gyo
7. byu
8. fu
9. n
10. za
11. kasa
12. kagi
13. rei
14. neko
15. hidari
Part II. Write the following Hiragana words/phrase into Romaji form:

1. ほん
2. かばん
3. すき
4. にんじん
5. せんせい
6. がっこ
7. いきます
8. ただいま
9. おねがいします
10. どうもありがとうございます

FURTHER READING / ASSIGNMENT

Continuation of Writing Japanese Words Using Hiragana Script

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REFERENCES

Books
1. Minna no Nihongo I.2007. ISBN978-4-88319-107-9 C0081.3A Corporation. Tokyo,
Japan.
2. Sigeo, Masaroni. 2012. Prime Nihongo. Park Publishing Service. Greenhills, San Juan
City, Metro Manila
3. Learn to Speak Nippongo the easy way. 2014.ISBN 971-08-1278-5National Book
Store. Mandaluyong City, Metro Manila
4. Japanese KANA Workbook published by University of Fukui International Student
Center

Website

1. https://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+learn+katakana+and+hiragana&oq=how+ro+le
arn+Kata&aqs=chrome.2.69i57j0i13l8j0i10i22i30.13344j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-
8#kpvalbx=_xZovYYycFZLv-QbMhqaYCw44

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