Japanese Writing System

ごめんあさい！わたしわにほんごがべんきょうします。(Sorry! I've been studying Japanese)

Hey everyone! My Japanese has changed a lot since I last posted on this blog! I completely forgot about it and I was about to start another! I don't know if anyone actually reads this, but I apologize anyway! (^_^')

I can't believe that I was only reading Manga and watching Anime when I last posted! I'm actually studying the language now. I have Hiragana nearly completely down now and I'm slowly working on Katakana. For some reason I don't like Katakana though... Kanji looks incredibly intimidating... T.T

I won't be able to give you a full update on my Japanese right away, so I'll do that over time. I think I'm planning to leave sometime next year to move to Japan! I'm very excited! I've got a job and I'm saving like crazy!

OK! So, here is something new for all of you to learn today (If your brand new to Japanese anyway)

The Japanese Writing System!

Japanese is split into three different alphabets. Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji. 

Hiragana is the basic alphabet. It's what all the kid's start off with and what most of the Manga are written in. On it's own it's terribly hard to read because there are no spaces between words! There are 48 characters in this alphabet

Katakana is for foreign words and names. I thought I wouldn't need it much, but the Japanese use a lot of foreign words and it's pretty important for understanding names! There are also 48 characters in this alphabet.

Kanji is the most intimidating. It's those complicated pictures that are difficult to write. What really makes it intimidating though is that fact that there are over 50,000 characters!!! 0.o I heard it takes 3,000 just to read a newspaper! 

Combine all three of these together and you can read Japanese!

I'm working only a bit on reading to tell the truth. Reading is very difficult and without knowing any vocabulary I find it pointless. So I'm working on speaking more than anything. :)

Thanks for reading!

Feel free to comment if you have any questions or suggestions!

~Mina

Getting Started: Anime and Manga

Alright! The first thing I'm going to talk about is how I got started.
I'm not totally sure when I first became interested, but it mostly happened only two or three years ago. It started with Anime and Manga. I loved to read and watch them in my free time and found it all greatly entertaining. I was rather interested in the culture after awhile and a big turning point for me was when I read "Sunshine Sketch". It's a very adorable manga packed with lots of Japanese culture. I loved it and wanted more! Since then I've read all sorts of Manga and found great websites for Anime!
Anime and Manga has its downsides of course. There's a lot of sexual content if your not careful. Not that I'm affected by it, (I just ignore or skip it) I just wanted to warn my younger readers. If your under thirteen then I suggest you stick to any Manga rated A for all ages.(Ratings should be on the back of book) What I like to do is research a tad before I start a new Anime and with Manga read inside the first or second page. (Most have the rating and why)
For those of you interested in Anime I suggest two sites!
http://www.crunchyroll.com/
This is probably the best! Almost all the videos are free and they have a massive selection! I use this for the majority of my Anime.
http://www.vizanime.com/
Not as wide of a selection, but from what I've seen everything is free. I don't use this as much, but it has a couple shows I follow.
Oh! Youtube! If you can't find a certain anime on either site then try finding it through Youtube! Funanimation has a good selection as well!
Now, if you've already peeked at these sites then you may have noticed something. They are all Japanese. Yes, there is no English dub on these sites. There are subtitles though, so you shouldn't have any trouble understanding what's going on. The reason I love these sites so much though, is because I learned a lot of Japanese from watching shows! Even if your not concentrating on repeating and memorizing every word they say it will still rub off. It's almost like Japanese immersion with subs!
If you still want the anime in English, well then you can try Netflix.
So for starters I suggest reading Manga and watching Anime! If you really get into it, then continue on!
If anyone requests it I'll write a list of some that I loved!

~Mina

Introduction

Hello!
My name is Mina. At least, that's the name I go by online. I'm currently finishing highschool and putting together all of my plans for my big future! I have two large dreams I plan to follow. This first is to become an author. Whether I become famous or not doesn't matter, I just want to publish one of my books.
The next is where this blog comes in! I want to teach English in Japan!
Now, here are some of the reasons your probably reading this:
-Interested in Japanese, both in culture and language
-Currently learning and searching for some tips and tricks to learn more.
-Have a dream close to my own and looking for ideas on how to accomplish it
-Accidentally stumbled on the blog and bored, continue reading.
By no means is this blog the "right" way to do things. This is simply the way I'm doing them.
Please enjoy yourself as you follow my journey!

~ Mina