Learn how to read and write katakana characters, ラ, リ, ル, レ, ロ
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| みなさんこんにちは。(Mina-san, konnichiwa) Hi everyone, I am Chihiro and welcome back to JapanesePod.com’s Kantan kana. In the last lesson, we learned the katakana characters ヤ(ya), ユ(yu) and ヨ(yo). Now there are less than 10 left and you will learn all of them now. How is your studies coming along? If you see some characters you don’t know, be sure to go back and review. Now let’s take a look at the next five katakana characters. |
| We will begin with ラ(ra) 1, 2. It looks like a フ(fu) that has a line above it. Here is ケラケラ(kerakera), onomatopoeia for the sound of laughter and this is カラオケ(karaoke), “karaoke” which is actually two words put together. カラ(kara) is short for 空っぽ(karappo) meaning empty and オケ(oke) is short for オーケストラ(ōkesutora) “orchestra”. |
| Next up is リ(ri). 1, 2. If you remember the hiragana り(ri) this one looks quite similar but unlike hiragana, the two strokes on the katakana リ(ri) are never connected and the first stroke doesn’t have a はね(hane). Here is リスト(risuto), “list” and here is イタリア(Itaria), “Italy”. |
| Okay next up is ル(ru). 1, 2. Now you can write アルコール(arukōru), “alcohol” and サルサ(sarusa) “salsa” as in the sauce or the dance. |
| Here is レ(re) just one stroke. Think of it as the last stroke of ル(ru) on its own since it comes right after ル(ru) it should be easy to remember. Let’s write オムレツ(omuretsu) “omelet” and エクレア(ekurea) “Éclairs”, a sweet French dessert filled with custard. |
| Our last character for today is ロ(ro). 1, 2, 3. A nice way to remember this is, squares don’t “ロー(rō).” Now you can write メトロ(metoro), “metro”, a good one to remember if you are in Tokyo. And カロリー(karorī) “calorie”. |
| Now let’s have a short quiz. I will show you a word in katakana and you read it. Bonus points if you remember what it means. |
| サルサ(sarusa) “salsa” |
| カラオケ(karaoke), “karaoke” |
| メトロ(metoro), “metro” |
| Now it’s time for Chihiro’s tip. On many formal documents, there will be a space to write your name in katakana on top of the row, you would usually write it. Since a similar kanji has several different ways to read it, this is important for the Japanese to write their names in kanji so that their names won’t be mispronounced. |
| This is also important if you write your name in Roman letters so that the Japanese can read your name properly. So do you know how to write your name in katakana yet? For those who don’t, we will be learning the last katakana letters in the next lesson. So you will know how to after that. I will see you then. |
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