Learn the Hiragana 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! |
| BASIC JAPANESE WRITING |
| You've learned these 30 hiragana characters from the previous lessons. |
| In this lesson, you'll learn five new hiragana characters. |
| まみむめも |
| The first hiragana character for this lesson is ま. ま. |
| Try looking at it as a MAN in a MASK and you'll remember ま. |
| Hiragana ま is written in 3 strokes. |
| Start with this two parallel horizontal lines. Both of them go from left to right. |
| The first horizontal line is slightly longer than the second one. |
| The third stroke starts from the top, cuts through the first two strokes, then makes a loop at the bottom. |
| To keep a good balance, try not to make these two horizontal lines too long. They should be just a little bit wider than the loop at the bottom. |
| Ok, let's see it again. |
| Ok, next up is the hiragana character み. み. |
| Think of it as the musical note MI. Do, re, み! [sing this one] |
| Hiragana み is written in 2 strokes. |
| The first stroke starts with a short horizontal line, goes down, makes a loop at the bottom, and finishes off with an arc. |
| The second stroke is a curved vertical line that cuts through the end of the arc of the first stroke. |
| Ok, let's see it again. |
| The third one is the hiragana む. む. |
| む looks like a cow and what do cows say? MOOOO~ |
| Hiragana む is written in 3 strokes. |
| む starts in a similar way to the character す. First, draw a horizontal line. |
| But unlike す, this should be a bit to the left. |
| Next, starting from the top, cut through the first stroke, then make a loop towards the bottom. After the loop, retrace the same line but unlike す do not flick your pen yet. |
| Instead turn to the right, make a horizontal line, then turn upwards and stop right here. Do not pass the first stroke. |
| The third stroke is a short slanted line above where the second stroke stops. |
| Ok, let's see it again. |
| This is the hiragana character め. め. |
| Does め remind you of this character? The one where the chopsticks are holding some NOODLES? |
| But look! This part is now missing. This means that the chopsticks dropped some noodles and made a MESS! |
| Hiragana め is written in 2 strokes. |
| め is written just like ぬ except for this loop at the end. So first, draw a curved, slanted line. |
| The second stroke starts at the same height as the first stroke, but curves opposite it, then finishes with a big wave. Instead of the loop in ぬ, flick your pen at the end of this stroke. |
| To have a good balace make sure the proportions of the spaces are correct. |
| Ok, let's see it again. |
| And our final character for this lesson is the hiragana も. も. |
| To remember も, just imagine it as a MONITOR lizard. This part is its huge, long tail. |
| ま and も might be confusing because they look similar, but just remember that ま is the one with the MOUTH. |
| Hiragana も is written in 3 strokes. |
| First, draw a fishing hook shape starting from the top and ending with a flick. It looks like a Hiragana し, right? |
| The second and third strokes are two parallel horizontal lines intersecting the first stroke. |
| Ok, let's see it again. |
| Let's see all the characters again. ま, み, む, め, も. |
| 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? |
| め. め actually means "eye." |
| む |
| ぱ |
| Which one is the hiragana ぬ? [pause 3 sec] It's this one holding more NOODLES. |
| か. |
| つ. Just like a tsunami. |
| さ. Remember not to mistake it for ち. |
| まち. This means "town" or "city." |
| This could be あめ which means "rain" or あめ which means "candy." |
| あたま. It's an important part of your body. It means "head." |
| This is きもの. It literally means "something you wear." |
| ためいき. [make a sighing noise] It means "sigh." |
| まいにち. まいにち means "every day." Speaking of which, I hope you're practicing every day! |
| Try saying this long one: (pause 3 sec) Was it difficult? Yes, it is. むずかしい means "difficult." |
| Great job! Do you have other mnemonic suggestions to make remembering hiragana easier? Share them in the comments below! |
| Ok, let's wrap up this lesson by recapping what you've learned. |
| In this lesson, you learned the hiragana characters ま, み, む , め, and も. |
| よくできました！ You've now mastered 35 characters and 61 Japanese syllables: |
| Do you know what a ぬいぐるみ is? You're going to find out what this cute word means next time when we tackle 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 guys! Are you interested in learning another language? Did you know that, in addition to Japanese, we offer many other languages as well? We have a total of 34 different language sites to be exact! Chinese, Korean, and Spanish just to name a few. Which language would you like to learn with us? |
| See you in the next lesson! またね！ |
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