Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

みなさんこんにちは。(Mina-san konnichiwa.)
Hi everyone and welcome back to JapanesePod101.com’s kantan kana. In the last lesson, we learned the Hiragana characters は(ha), ひ(hi), ふ(fu), へ(he) and ほ(ho). If you are not feeling confident about those, review the last lesson before continuing on here. You’ve already learned 30 Hiragana characters so far. Great job. Only 16 left to go.
So let’s get started with ま(ma) . 1, 2, 3. This might also remind you of the right side of the character ほ(ho). The difference is, in ほ(ho), the vertical line doesn’t go past the top stroke but in ま(ma) it does.
くま(kuma) is “bear”.
And まち(machi) is “town” or “neighborhood”. You will hear this word a lot in place names around Japan.
Next this is み(mi). First, one long stroke like this and then one short one like this. Have you ever had Miso soup?
みそ(miso) is bean paste used a lot in Japanese food.
And みせ(mise) is store.
Now let’s move on to む(mu). 1, 2, down and around and up. When written the loop on む(mu) looks like it’s at the corner but when printed, it’s a bit higher up.
The word むし(mushi) means “bug”
And むかし(mukashi) means “a long time ago”.
Next is め(me). First we do one short stroke and then a long one here like this. Don’t confuse め(me) with ぬ(nu). ぬ(nu) has a loop but め(me) doesn’t. め(me) by itself is “eye”.
nother word is まめ(mame) which is the Japanese word for “Beans”.
Our last character today is も(mo). 1, 2 and 3. This character might remind you of ま(ma), but ま(ma) has a loop to the left and も(mo) has an open hook on the right.
もも(momo) is “peach”
And もの(mon) is “thing”.
Now let’s have a short quiz. I will show you the Hiragana and you read it. Bonus points if you remember what it means.
くま(kuma), “bear”
むし(mushi), “bug”
もも(momo), “peach”
Now it’s time for Chihiro’s tip. How is your kana learning going? If you are having a tough time learning the characters, why not check out the Hiragana chart on JapanesePod101.com’s learning center. You will be able to see all the kana, watch the stroke order and hear them pronounce by a native speaker. Don’t just get stuck in one learning method. Mix it up for best results.
Do you feel like taking やすみ(yasumi) or rest, when you are ready, we will show you how to write that word and many others in our next lesson.

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