So, every day, I look forward to my hot, relaxing bath before I crawl into my (cold) bed. I really have to tell you about the winter hardships in Japan 😅

I wish I could be my cat 🐈‍⬛️

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will start in January! And of course all the other every day things like podcasts, reels, posts about Japan(ese language), etc.

New Year that even they are running around.
I am currently preparing for many things: Christmas, New Year, gift giving season お歳暮(せいぼ o-seibo), 大掃除(おおそうじ oosouji) big cleaning/tidying before the new year, preparing for an exchange student coming early January for a home stay - and a new course that

In my online introductory video course, you'll learn your first characters and words, as well as your first sentences in Japanese. Sign up for my Japanese language learning newsletter and get the course for free:
japanesewithmanu.com/newsletter

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Is this from shichi-go-san?

Art by momoirominto - from my book "Japanese for Beginners" (current status: proofreading - publishing date early 2026)

In case you can already read hiragana and katakana, my book "Reading Japanese for Beginners" is a wonderful way to practice/improve your Japanese:
www.amazon.com/Reading-Japa...

In my online introductory video course, you'll learn your first characters and words, as well as your first sentences in Japanese. Sign up for my Japanese language learning newsletter and get the course for free:
japanesewithmanu.com/newsletter

#japaneselesson #japaneselanguage #japanesewithmanu

Roma means Rome, and ji means character – like the ji in kanji. Caution: The pronunciation is NOT RomaNji.

Romaji is used to transcribe Japanese into our alphabet, so that even people who don't speak Japanese can read train station names, etc.

Since Japanese doesn't distinguish between L and R, the words "lamp" and "ramp," for example, sound the same to Japanese speakers.

Are you wondering about that fourth writing system I mentioned? That would be romaji, the Roman characters (our script).

Katakana, on the other hand, is used when foreign words and names are written in Japanese. I write the non-Japanese part of my name in katakana: マヌ "Ma-nu."

It's not about how the name is written, but how it is pronounced.

Hiragana is used for the variable parts (i.e. the grammatical parts, such as the endings of verbs). So when we want to write walked, walking, etc. then "walk" is represented with a kanji and -ed -ing or are represented with hiragana.

There are some interesting historical details about this family name, but we'll get to that another time.

Let's take a look at how all three systems are used.

Kanji are used for nouns, adjectives and adverbs, and verbs (their roots). In the verb "to walk," this would be "walk."

Hiragana are a simplification of kanji. For example, hiragana a あ is a simplification of 安, which was originally pronounced a. Katakana, in turn, are parts of kanji, e.g. i イcan be found in the first kanji of my family name, Ito 伊藤.

it initially imported all its characters from China. However, the grammar and pronunciation of these two languages were quite different. To better represent the Japanese language and its grammar in writing, hiragana and katakana were developed.

In contrast, kanji do have meaning in themselves – e.g. the kanji of kanji 漢字. The first character is the old word for China 漢, and the second one, 字 means character. So altogether we have Chinese character. Prior to the fifth century AD, Japan did not have its own writing system;

Well, let's start from the very beginning. What are syllables?
In Japanese, syllables are a combination of a consonant and a vowel – e.g. the syllable か ka. It's a combination of k and a. Each syllable has a distinct pronunciation, but they have no meaning on their own.

Thank you!✨️ Had a good flight back, and after around 24 hours of being on the road, I made it back home safely!

Also, get my book Reading Japanese for Beginners. For example, here:
amzn.asia/d/7bBmjh6 (Japan)
a.co/d/4mcLCiG (US)
a.co/d/gwFwCx5 (Canada)

It's available on every amazon marketplace and with some online bookstores in the US/Canada

=I have returned just now

That's what the person coming back home says to the one who stayed back home.

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