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Learn Japanese with JapanesePod101.com! Welcome to JapanesePod101.com’s Kantan Kana. Japanese has three writing systems: Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. In this series of twenty-five lessons, you will learn both Hiragana and Katakana, collectively known as Kana. Over twenty-five lessons, we will teach you Japanese Kana using simple steps, showing you the correct stroke order, helpful tricks for memorization, and proper usage in common Japanese words. If you want to get started reading and writing Japanese, this is THE place to start. You’ll learn Japanese mere minutes with these audio and video lessons, so join us for Kantan Kana from JapanesePod101.com!
Learning Japanese with JapanesePod101.com is the most fun and effective way to learn Japanese. In this lesson, we move on to the second set of katakana - カ、キ、ク、ケ、and コ, and we’ll teach you a few words you can write with these characters. Are you ready to learn more Japanese characters and words? Visit us at JapanesePod101.com where you will find other language-learning content, including other great Japanese videos like this one, audio podcasts, review materials, blogs, iPhone applications, and more Japanese learning resources. Leave us a message while you are there!






This entry was posted on Friday, October 15th, 2010 at 6:30 pm and is filed under Kantan Kana . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
14 Responses to “Kantan Kana #15: Katakana カ, キ, ク, ケ, コ”
at 6:30 pm
Here’s the second lesson covering katakana!
at 7:12 am
Katakana really is much harder to read than Hiragana, isn’t it! When we were in Japan recently, I found that my Katakana reading skills improved greatly as there were signs everywhere that were written in Katakana, so I’d always be sounding out the words and trying to figure out what their English equivalent was!
This series is great, because it’s one thing to be able to read Hiragana or Katakana; it’s a completely different skill being able to write it. Thanks for the lessons.
at 6:51 am
ありがとうございました!
at 12:48 am
アりがとウ
I’ve learned very much and can remember, it’s very easy once you get to learn Hiragana.
But i have one question about this lesson.
The stroke or line that was in this lesson, what does it mean, i noticed that i can write ka and the stroke to make it to a car.
But i still don’t really know what the Horisontal stroke means, or the vertical ones that where used in this lesson.
I don’t want to sound stupid, but just wondering.
Thank you very much for these kantan kana lessons, they are really helpful
at 11:17 am
Hello Lars,
That horizontal line ー prolongs the vowel of the syllable before it.
So that means that カ is “ka” and カー is “kaa”.
A lot of the time when we transcribe an English word that has an “r” at the end into Japanese, we use the ー character in place of the “r” (like in car, カー). Hope that helps!
at 6:36 am
Thanks Jessi, it really helped, thanks
at 9:10 pm
…can i ask you something?? How is my name written in japanese….my name is Kevin by the way……..
at 6:47 am
im still confused about what katakana is used for
at 9:14 am
Widget-san,
Your name would be ケビン (Kebin) in Japanese
renessa-san,
Katakana is used for writing words that come from other languages and foreign names (so your name would be written using katakana). A lot of food names are written using katakana, so you’ll find katakana is helpful for reading menus too
at 6:16 pm
Quick question
I noticed that the printed “Ku” has the first “diagonal” extend up beyond the horizontal line, while the video you would write it to connect. Is this difference between the written and the printed an important one?
Keep up the good awesome work!
at 10:46 am
John-san,
Good question
Actually some of katakana&hiragana have differences between printed and hand written ones.
For “ku,” I think it is better to connect the first stroke to second one because it help you to distinguish hand written”ku” and “ke.”
I hope this helps and keep listening!
at 8:28 am
at 8:32 am
Konbanwa Chihiro-San!
Watashi wa Göran des. Hajimemashite!
Sumimasen, but the last word you taught us that is spelled “コア”, would that be the English “core” or “corps?”
Gomen. Wakaremasen.
/Göran
at 12:15 pm
Göran-san,
That is “core”
I hope this helps.