| After you start learning Japanese, you will soon | | | | and it is not so difficult to imagine the picture of a |
| come across the three different writing systems. | | | | key from looking at the character. |
| Kanji, katakana and hiragana - although daunting at | | | | 2. When you are practising writing the characters, |
| first, it is possible to learn them. It is best to start | | | | write them very large. This will really test you, if |
| with one at a time. Try learning Hiragana first as it | | | | you are able to write them in a very large size, |
| can be done in a few days if you are serious. | | | | then you really know the characters. Many people |
| Here are some tips for learning Hiragana fast: | | | | try to hide the fact that they don't really know all |
| 1. Look for pictures that will help you remember | | | | the strokes by writing them very small. |
| the characters. If you can see an image when | | | | 3. Write and pronounce all of the Japanese words |
| you look at the character you will be able to | | | | that you already know. You may think that you |
| remember and write them much more easily. For | | | | don't have a very large vocabulary yet, but there |
| example, you could remember the character 'shi' | | | | are many words that you are familiar with in |
| by associating it with the picture of a fish hook. | | | | English that come from Japanese. Here are a few |
| Another example of an easy way to remember | | | | examples - karate, sake, kimono, sushi, sashimi. |
| one of the hiragana characters is to think of the | | | | You should now know how to pronounce those |
| character ki as a key. It is pronounced like 'key' | | | | words properly and write them. |