Today is the day!
So, you want to learn Japanese?
Had enough of anime dubs? Dreaming of exploring the streets of Kyoto or Takayama? Maybe you just want to read the signs, order some delicious Japanese food, or at least figure out where the bathroom is!
Well, you’ve come to the right place!
Before we get started, let’s get one thing straight:
You are not going to become fluent in Japanese in 30 days.
Anyone promising that is probably trying to sell you something.
What we can do is help you build a solid foundation in Japanese, develop good study habits, and learn some of the essential skills you’ll need as you continue studying.
And it all starts right here.
What is hiragana?
Japanese has three main writing systems: hiragana (ひらがな), katakana (カタカナ), and kanji (漢字).
Don’t let that intimidate you! We’re going to tackle them one step at a time.
Today, we’re starting with hiragana.
Hiragana is one of two phonetic scripts used in Japanese. The other is katakana, which we’ll introduce tomorrow. Together, these two writing systems are called kana.
Unlike the English alphabet, where individual letters are combined to create sounds, most hiragana characters represent a complete sound unit. Technically, these units are called morae, but you don’t need to worry about that terminology just yet.
For example:
These are the five basic vowel sounds in Japanese. They’re also the foundation for learning the rest of the hiragana chart.
There are 46 basic hiragana characters. Once you learn to recognize them, you’ll be able to start sounding out Japanese words, even if you don’t know what they mean yet.
Pretty cool, right?
Now, don’t expect to memorize all 46 characters immediately. Some will be easy to remember, while others will look almost identical at first. That’s normal.
The important thing is to practice recognizing each character and connecting it with the correct sound.
Your hiragana cheat sheet
To make things a little easier, we’ve put together a downloadable hiragana chart!
You can print it out, hang it above your desk, keep it in a notebook, or use it as a reference while you’re studying.
You don’t have to memorize every character before moving forward. In fact, we’d rather you take your time and learn them properly than rush through everything and forget it tomorrow.
If you’re not a big fan of charts, try making your own flashcards. Write a hiragana character on one side and its pronunciation on the other. Say the sound out loud every time you flip a card.
Learning to recognize the characters is important, but connecting them to their sounds is what will help you start reading Japanese.
And speaking of practice…
Climb the Hiragana Ladder
Reading about hiragana is one thing. Actually recognizing those characters is where the learning happens!
That’s why we’ve created the Hiragana Ladder, an interactive practice tool to help you recognize Japanese characters and remember their sounds.
Here’s how it works:
- Choose how many characters you want to practice.
- Look at the hiragana character displayed on the screen.
- Select the correct pronunciation from four possible answers.
- Get it right, and you’ll climb another step up the ladder!
Get something wrong? No problem!
The ladder will show you the correct answer and, when possible, help you understand why you might have confused two characters. You’ll also see that character again later in the round.
The goal isn’t to get everything right the first time. It’s to learn the characters well enough to recognize them the next time you see them.
Choose your level
Start with the 46 basic hiragana characters. This is where we recommend beginning, especially if today is your very first day learning Japanese.
Ready for something a little more challenging? This level includes additional sounds made with marks called dakuten (゛) and handakuten (゜), along with combinations using smaller characters like ゃ, ゅ, and ょ.
For example, か (ka) becomes が (ga) when we add dakuten. And き (ki) combined with a small ゃ creates きゃ (kya).
We’ll explore these in more detail as you continue learning. For now, just know that Japanese uses a few additional marks and character combinations to represent more sounds.
Now we’re getting somewhere! Instead of individual characters, you’ll practice reading short Japanese words.
For example, ねこ (neko) means “cat,” while いぬ (inu) means “dog.”
You don’t need to memorize the vocabulary here. The goal is to recognize the characters and work out how the words are pronounced.
Our recommendation: Start with 10 or 15 characters at a time. Once you’re getting comfortable, try a longer round or move to the next level.
You can also review the characters you missed at the end of each round.
Remember, there’s no prize for rushing. But there is a pretty good reward for practicing: you’ll actually start being able to read Japanese!
Why do we start with hiragana?
You might be wondering why we’re spending so much time learning these characters instead of jumping straight into useful Japanese phrases.
Good question!
One of the great things about Japanese is that its writing system gives you a relatively consistent way to represent pronunciation.
English, on the other hand, can be a bit of a nightmare.
Think about the words though, through, and tough. They look similar, but they’re pronounced very differently.
Japanese doesn’t usually throw quite as many surprises at you when you’re learning to read its phonetic scripts.
Once you understand the sounds represented by hiragana, you’ll be able to start reading unfamiliar Japanese words aloud, even without knowing their meanings.
Now, there are some important details we’ll eventually need to cover, such as long vowels, doubled consonants, and a few particles that are pronounced differently from what you might expect.
Japanese also uses something called pitch accent.
You might have heard people describe Japanese as a tonal language, but that’s not quite right. Japanese pitch accent is different from the tone systems used in languages such as Mandarin Chinese.
Pitch can affect the meaning of certain Japanese words, but that’s a topic for another lesson.
For today, let’s focus on learning the basic sounds and getting comfortable recognizing the characters.
Don’t worry about sounding like a native speaker right away. Just practice saying the sounds clearly and consistently.
Let’s read some Japanese!
Now that you’ve started learning hiragana, let’s put those characters to work!
Below are 20 common Japanese words and expressions.
Some of them contain characters or combinations you might not recognize yet. That’s okay! You’re not expected to know everything on Day One.
Use your hiragana poster, sound things out, and see how many characters you can recognize.
And remember, romaji is simply Japanese written using the Roman alphabet. It’s useful when you’re first starting out, but our goal is to help you become comfortable reading the Japanese characters themselves.
| English | Hiragana | Romaji |
|---|---|---|
| Hello | こんにちは | konnichiwa |
| I (neutral) | わたし | watashi |
| I (often masculine/casual) | ぼく | boku |
| You | あなた | anata |
| Goodbye | さようなら | sayounara |
| See you later | じゃあね | jaa ne |
| How are you? | おげんきですか | ogenki desu ka |
| Nice to meet you | はじめまして | hajimemashite |
| I’m fine! | げんきですよ | genki desu yo |
| Pleased to meet you / I look forward to knowing you | よろしくおねがいします | yoroshiku onegai shimasu |
| Good evening | こんばんは | konbanwa |
| Good morning (polite) | おはようございます | ohayou gozaimasu |
| Japan | にほん | nihon |
| Japanese language | にほんご | nihongo |
| Japanese person | にほんじん | nihonjin |
| Excuse me / Sorry | すみません | sumimasen |
| I’m sorry | ごめんなさい | gomennasai |
| Thank you | ありがとう | arigatou |
| Yes | はい | hai |
| No | いいえ | iie |
Wait a second… why is は pronounced “wa”?
You may have noticed something a little strange.
The word こんにちは (konnichiwa) ends with は, which we just learned is pronounced “ha.”
So why are we saying “wa”?
Great observation!
In こんにちは and こんばんは, the character は is being used as a grammatical particle. When は serves as the topic particle, it’s pronounced “wa” instead of “ha.”
You don’t need to understand all of that grammar right now. We’ll talk more about particles later in the challenge.
For today, remember that は is normally pronounced “ha,” but as the topic particle, it’s pronounced “wa.”
You’ll encounter a few other spelling and pronunciation conventions as you learn Japanese, but we’ll introduce those as they become relevant.
Your Day One challenge!
You’ve made it through your first lesson!
Now, before you head off to watch another episode of your favorite anime, let’s make sure you’ve practiced what you’ve learned.
Here’s your challenge for today: 0 of 4 done
If you’re feeling ambitious, keep practicing! Work through more of the 46 basic characters, or try a harder level of the Hiragana Ladder.
Just remember, learning Japanese is a marathon, not a sprint.
You don’t need to learn everything in one day. What matters is that you come back tomorrow knowing a little more than you did today.
Practice, make mistakes, and keep going. That’s how you learn.