Japanese Writing System

There is no such thing as a "letter" in the Japanese writing system, they only have somewhat like: Characters or Syllables. And these characters could be categorized into three types:

1. Hiragana

(Derived from Chinese characters) Hiragana is the basic writing system used by the Japanese. They are the first characters introduced to children in class. They are basically the same with the Roman Alphabet in their system. All words can be written using Hiragana. They  are also used like subtitles (except that they are written above the character) for Kanji characters.

2. Katakana

(Derived from Chinese characters) Katakana syllabary is only used when
writing foreign words introduced into the country. Words like "cup", "chocolate" , "elevator" and other foreign words and names are written through this writing system.

3. Kanji

Are Chinese characters adopted by the Japanese, some simplified and now used in daily conversations. In Japan, the knowledge/wisdom of a person is measured on how many Kanji characters he knows, and you bet this is the hardest part in learning the Japanese language.



That is all for today!