My next mission is to learn the second alphabet in Japanese: katakana. It works in a similar way to hiragana, but is used for foreign words and words with foreign origin, like the Japanese word for 'computer' = 'konpyūta'. Hilarious, but good for me as it makes it a hell of a lot easier to remember words. There are so many examples like above. Coffee = kōhī, and on and on.
Decievingly alike hiragana characters, katakana is built up in the same fashion and each hiragana has a katakana equivalent (why they don't simply use hiragana for everything? Trust me, I'm asking myself the same question).
As such, compare these two: カ (katakana) and か (hiragana). They both represent the sound 'ka'. You can clearly spot the difference between them of course, but they do look fairly similar. I'm not entirely sure whether this feature makes it easier or more difficult to memorise. I think it might be the former.
Another 50-or-so characters to learn! On we go. Later today I've got a class on Japanese film. Could be interesting!
Jo x
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