Japanese Character Writing For Dummies

Learn to write 100 Japanese characters

If you want to join the ranks of more than 128 million speakers of Japanese worldwide, this book should be your first stop! Whether studying for school, business, or travel, learning to write the Japanese Kanji characters is essential to gain a working knowledge of this language.

Japanese is considered to be the most complicated writing system in the world, with tens of thousands of characters. But with Japanese Character Writing For Dummies, you’ll find easy step-by-step instructions for writing the first 100 Japanese Kanji characters with ease.

• Includes online bonus content featuring videos, downloadable flashcards, and printable writing pages
• Offers easy-to-follow instruction for writing 100 Japanese characters
• Helps you take your understanding of the language to a new level
• Shows you how to use the written word to communicate with native speakers

Learning to write Japanese Kanji characters is fun — and now it’s fast and easy too!

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Foolish Assumptions 2

Icons Used in This Book 2

Where to Go from Here 3

Chapter 1: Wrapping Your Head around Japanese Writing and Pronunciation 5

Brief History of Three Writing Scripts: Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana 5

Taking a cue from Chinese writing — Kanji 5

Creating writing scripts better suited to Japanese — hiragana and katakana 6

Pronouncing Japanese Sounds 7

Making Variations of Sounds 8

Two diacritical marks 8

Long vowels 9

Small ya, yu, yo 9

Small tsu 10

When to Use Kanji 10

Chapter 2: Exploring the Nature of Japanese Kanji 13

Getting to Know the Four Types of Kanji 13

Pictographs 13

Simple ideographs 14

Compound ideographs 14

Phonetic-ideographic characters 15

On’yomi versus Kun’yomi Readings 15

Okurigana 15

Kanji compounds 16

Sound shifts in kanji compounds 16

What Are Kanji Radicals? 17

Positions of Radicals 17

Writing Kanji 18

Stroke order 18

Types of strokes 19

Chapter 3: 105 Characters 21

Appendix: Blank Grids for Extra Practice 75

Hiroko Chiba, PhD, is professor of Japanese at DePauw University, where she teaches all levels of Japanese language and directs the Japanese language program.

Vincent Grépinet is the author of the French language editions of Japanese For Dummies and Korean For Dummies.

Practice your way to writing 105 JAPANESE CHARACTERS with stroke-by stroke instructions and plenty of space to practice!

Write and recognize 105 basic kanji characters

More than 128 million people speak Japanese. The first step toward becoming one of them is learning to write the kanji characters that make up this ancient language, and here's the perfect place to start! Although Japanese is considered one of the most complicated writing systems, this step-by-step guide makes it easy to start writing these characters and provides an initial understanding of the language. You'll find examples of how each kanji is used, the order for drawing the lines, space to practice, and much more.

Inside...

• Discover the origins of kanji script
• Find out how characters are structured
• Understand line order
• Grasp hiragana annotations
• Explore kanji compounds
• Practice writing each character
• Learn various pronunciations