Song: Romance

by: Buck-Tick

-----------------------------------------KATAKANA------------------------------------------

Bah~ I'm too lazy to rewrite the pronunciation techniques. Basically they sound exactly the way like hiraganas (look for the hiragana label in the sidebar), but as you can see, the writing is different.

Hiraganas have more curves and rounds but Katakanas is more...straightforward? Like they have sharp ends....some even look like chinese words.

So why have Katakanas when they sound just like hiraganas?

They are used to represent foreign words, names and the likes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katakana

Because i'm lazy like that =P

For example Doresu.

It means Dress. Yes, that dress in english. They borrowed this word from English.

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So what's next for me after i learn japanese? My target will be Korean but i will have to see if i got the chance and time to learn it.

D-I-Y Korean without CD is pure hell. I tried to do it once. Truth to be told i wanted to learn Korean instead of Japanese but it's because of that failed D-I-Y that i D-I-Y Japanese instead. It was only after 2-3 years of D-I-Y that i finally got the chance to take Japanese lessons =\

--------------------------------------------KANJI--------------------------------------------

When i started D-I-Y-ing Japanese, i was most interested in the Kanji part because they look similar to Chinese but have totally different pronunciations so i started my quest to look for a website, books that will teach you how to pronounce Kanjis one by one.

But sadly i didn't manage to find one and i was baffled why there was none. I couldn't find the answer so i started building my knowledge of kanji by listening to songs and reading the lyrics.
It was only when i was in Sec 4 and when i stumbled across a Kanji "dictionary" in my tuition teacher's house.

I borrowed that dictinary from him and began to use it for my reference. And i found out why.

There were simply too many kanjis and for each kanjis, there are sometimes at least 2 pronunciations for it.

Now i understand why there's seldom any websites solely for kanjis. The webmaster must be real dedicated to the Japanese Language if he/she were to explain each and every word.

Anway, simply explaining, Kanjis have 2 categories of pronunciation:

Onyomi - chinese reading of Kanjis

Kunyomi - the japanese way of reading Kanjis

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Frankly, i think the best way to learn kanji is thorough music. And get yourself a Kanji dicttionary so you can check for the pronunciations when you are unsure of that kanji.

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So finally complete my "tutorial"!

Zann sort of reminded me about my Japanese tutorial.

So now...completed! :)