Learning Kana - problem with jp101 beginning lessons

[shogul6306]

Hello everyone, I'm slowly getting a feel for Kana and was looking at the lesson notes for the beginning lesssons of this site. In beginning lesson #1 (Self Introduction), I ran into something that didn't match my expectations though.

My problem is this.. most of it makes sense and I understand how it works, but for the phrase "watashi wa Natsuko desu", the kana "わたし は なつこ です" are used. I was expecting "わ" for the particle wa, but instead ran into " は", which I read as "Ha"... what gives?

Thanks

[peachrules]

When used as a topic marking particle, " は" is read as "wa". This might take a little getting used to, but you should soon pick up on it fairly easily.

99% of the time you use "ha" for ha in a word. except for very rare cases like konbanwa and konnichiwa. so if you hear "ha" in a word, its a safe bet to use "ha" hiragana and likewise for "wa"

[shogul6306]

I figured it was something like that.. thanks!

[kagawashaun]

watch out for へ as well.