Aimless Drifting

[skater8108679]

Yesterday I bought premium, all was fine and dandy. Watched a few introduction videos, then though that I missed something. "Why am I learning phrases before learning Hiragana and Katakana?". Then I found Katan Kana videos, these were very helpful for me at first, but then I got to lesson #12. I feel that the use for the small "tsu" and "combined sounds" were rapidly glazed over, leaving me confused. I checked the notes, alas, it's still the same. I found the study tools for hiragana, but I still feel like I'm aimlessly drifting since I have no idea how "tsu" or "combined sounds" work.

tl;dr: How do I do this? Seriously. Help this incompetent person, please. I would like to learn kana but the audio lessons assume to much on beginners.

[community.japanese]

skater8108679-san,
kon'nichiwa! Sorry for confusing you...
Don't pressure yourself to understand all those immediately, becasue you'll get them all right with
more lessons (with more actual words; not only hiragana, but as words)

Small "tsu" represents a "short pause". For example, train ticket in Japanese is きっぷ and it's pronounced as "kippu".
In Japanese, we originally didn't have "tl" or "dr". Combined sounds are like きょ (kyo) in とうきょう (toukyou).

When you learn words, you'll understand better how to write and how to pronounce. So, I hope we can help you
to be more confident, and to enjoy learning hiragana, katakana and kanji!
Please feel free to let us know anything you want to know. We're happy to help you!

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

[skater8108679]

skater8108679-san,
kon'nichiwa! Sorry for confusing you...
Don't pressure yourself to understand all those immediately, becasue you'll get them all right with
more lessons (with more actual words; not only hiragana, but as words)

Small "tsu" represents a "short pause". For example, train ticket in Japanese is きっぷ and it's pronounced as "kippu".
In Japanese, we originally didn't have "tl" or "dr". Combined sounds are like きょ (kyo) in とうきょう (toukyou).

When you learn words, you'll understand better how to write and how to pronounce. So, I hope we can help you
to be more confident, and to enjoy learning hiragana, katakana and kanji!
Please feel free to let us know anything you want to know. We're happy to help you!

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

Thanks for the quick response. Should I be looking at vocabulary to learn the kana, or should I be grinding them? I already know the stroke orders and most of the hiragana(excluding combined sounds).

[mmmason8967]

I found Katan Kana videos, these were very helpful for me at first, but then I got to lesson #12. I feel that the use for the small "tsu" and "combined sounds" were rapidly glazed over, leaving me confused. I checked the notes, alas, it's still the same. I found the study tools for hiragana, but I still feel like I'm aimlessly drifting since I have no idea how "tsu" or "combined sounds" work.

Most of us put off learning hiragana and katakana until we'd been doing Japanese for a while and reached the point where not knowing them was becoming a problem. You've very wisely started much sooner. However, the Kantan Kana series assumes you're like the rest of us and already have a familiarity with Japanese pronunciation, so it doesn't spend much time explaining the sounds that small-tsu or kana-compounds represent. I'll try a quick run-down to see if I can get you up to speed...

There are lots of Japanese words that have doubled consonants when they're written using the English alphabet. For example, Nippon (Japan), kippu (ticket), kekkon (wedding), makka (bright red) and natto (fermented beans). There is a particular way that these doubled consonants are pronounced, and it's not the same as the way that an English speaker pronounces them.

The double-p in kippu is not the same as the double-p in "slipper"; it's like the double-p in "slip past". Similarly, the double-k in makka is not like "blackout"; it's like "black cat". If you say "slip past" at normal speed, you'll arrive at the "p" at the end of "slip", hold it for a beat, and then let it go for the start of "past". The actual result is that you say "sli-", do a slight pause, then say "past".

In hiragana, that slight pause is represented by a small tsu. So makka is written まっか and the っ is telling you to pause for a beat when you arrive on the か before letting it go: ma-pause-ka. If it helps, think of the っ as being attached to the character that follows it.

Compound kana are pretty simple. There are some sounds in Japanese that can't be written with a single hiragana character. This is dealt with in the same way we deal with it in English: you put two characters together to make the sound. For example, in English we have "th", "ch", "sh", "qu" and so on. In Japanese there's a character for "shi" but there isn't one for "sha", so "sha" is written using the "shi" character followed by a small "ya" character, like this: しゃ.

The main thing to beware of with compounds is that they represent a single syllable: be careful not to pronounce them as two syllables. That's no problem with something like "sha" but a bit harder when you get to something like "ryo".

Hope this helps!

マイケル

[community.japanese]

skater8108679-san, マイケルsan,
kon'nichiwa
Thank you, マイケルsan, for a great adivice!! skater810679-san, if you know already those strokes,
you can find words from anywhere. You can use those videos, vocabulary, or even Lesson Notes!
Or, if you have some words that you want to know how to write, you can start from there.
By the way, can you already write your name? That's be the first with Katakana

Natsuko (奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

[skater8108679]

Thanks both of of you.

Edit: Most places seem to suggest I should learn kana first, because being able to read what's written makes faster progress.
And not knowing them first means relying on romaji so idk.

[graynod]

マイクルさん、ありがとう！ (Michael, thank you!) Your "slip past" and "black cat" examples are excellent!

skater8108679-san, don't worry too much, you will be seeing plenty of the kana (not meaning to scare you). You might want to use an IME on your computer, or get an editor (I use JWPce, it's free), and start writing some of the things you study, or some daily diary entries, or emails, or entries in flash card software. I still have trouble remembering a few of the katakana, since I don't see them to often. Now that I am working on kanji more and more I will admit that I have let study of the kana slide, even if I am weak on something like "ヌ" I can usually tell what it is by the rest of the word so I don't even think about it to be honest.

I hope that's encouraging! You can do it. It's probably not as aimless as you think, you have to start somewhere. And for what it's worth, I think you're doing great getting the kana under your belt, no one who can read the kana wants to read romaji anymore! がんばって、新年おめでとうございます！ (Good luck, and Happy New Year!)