Learn the Katakana M column
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| Hi everyone! Welcome to BASIC JAPANESE WRITING. The fastest, easiest and most fun way to master the Japanese alphabet! |
| You've learned these 30 katakana characters from the previous lessons. |
| In this lesson, you'll learn five new katakana characters. |
| マミムメモ |
| The first Katakana character for this lesson is マ. マ. |
| Think of マ as a *MA*NTA RAY. |
| Katakana マ is written in 2 strokes. |
| The first stroke starts as a horizontal line then it turns sharply and makes a diagonal line going towards the center. |
| The second stroke is a short diagonal line touching the tip of the first stroke. |
| Make sure the second stroke is short and slanted so your マ won't be confused for a katakana ア |
| Ok, let's see it again. |
| Ok, next up is the katakana character ミ. ミ. |
| To remember ミ, look for the line in the *MI*DDLE |
| Katakana ミ is written in 3 strokes. |
| It's basically 3 parallel diagonal lines, each going from the upper left down to the bottom right. |
| Ok, let's see it again. |
| The third one is the katakana ム. ム. |
| ム looks like a *MOO*SE'S antlers. |
| Could you tell マ from ム? Here's an easy way to do it. Just look for the horizontal line. If it's above then it's a マ and if it's under then it's a ム! |
| Katakana ム is written in 2 strokes. |
| The first stroke is a straight diagonal line going to the bottom left. It then turns sharply and makes a shallower diagonal line going here. |
| The second stroke is a short diagonal line touching the end of the first stroke. |
| Ok, let's see it again. |
| This is the katakana character メ. メ. |
| Just draw a rectangle around it and you got *MAI*L! |
| Katakana メ is written in 2 strokes. |
| The first stroke is a long curved diagonal line going from the upper right down to the lower left. |
| The second stroke is a short diagonal line cutting through the middle of the first stroke. |
| Ok, let's see it again. |
| And our final character for this lesson is the katakana モ. モ. |
| モ looks very similar to its hiragana counterpart. The only difference is that the third stroke doesn't intersect the first one. |
| Katakana モ is written in 3 strokes. |
| モ is also written in a similar way to the hiragana も but without the top sticking out. Also, take note that their stroke order is different. First, draw the two parallel, horizontal strokes. |
| For the third stroke, draw a line starting from the first stroke, cutting only through the second stroke. When it reaches the bottom, it bends to the right. |
| In order to make your writing look neat, make the second stroke a bit longer than the first stroke. |
| Ok, let's see it again. |
| Let's see all the characters again. マ, ミ, ム, メ, モ. |
| Quiz time! |
| Now, let's review what you've learned. I'll show you a character or a word and give you time to say them. Ready? |
| ミ. |
| た. |
| Which one is the katakana ム? (pause 3 sec) It's this one! |
| It's the first character I taught you! あ. |
| チ. |
| モ. |
| ボ. |
| ゲーム. This means "games" including arcade and video games. |
| スマホ. スマホ is the abbreviation and the more common term to refer to a smartphone in Japan. |
| メモる. This means "to take a memo" or "to take note." |
| イメージ. This actually refers to an illustration as opposed to an actual picture. |
| デジカメ. It means "digital camera." |
| マスコミ. Here's another abbreviation that means "mass communication" or "media." |
| けしゴム. けしゴム is an "eraser." It literally means "erasing rubber." |
| メキシコ. This means "Mexico." Ole! |
| Great job! As I've said before, Katakana is used to write foreign words and names. So why don't you try and write your name in the comments using Katakana! We can also help you with the spelling since it can be tricky sometimes. |
| Ok, let's wrap up this lesson by recapping what you've learned. |
| In this lesson, you learned the katakana characters マ, ミ, ム , メ and モ. |
| よくできマミた！You've now mastered 81 Japanese characters. |
| Are you planning on travelling to Japan? Find out many useful words like ホテル, トイレand クレジットカード in the next lesson when I teach you the katakana characters in the R-column. |
| Before you go, practice writing the following words on your own! |
| [pause] |
| And to learn MORE Japanese, go to JapanesePod101.com. |
| Hey listeners! Do you know the most difficult katakana words to say? In this free lesson, we'll teach you them! A few of them may surprise you! Click the link to see the full list of the most difficult katakana words to say now! |
| See you in the next lesson! またね！ |
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