Master Japanese with ImaWakatta

Nope, but it's a fair question to ask because they probably do look as foreign as the rest of these new symbols.

「 and 」are basically the Japanese equivalent of English quotes ("). We'll often use them to highlight particular words here on ImaWakatta.

Hiragana is used for words of Japanese origin, while katakana is used for "loan words".

"Loan words" are borrowed, and often altered, from other languages like English, German and French.

For example the katakana word 「アニメ」 (pronounced "anime") means "animation".
"anime" is borrowed from the English word "animation". Also note how it's been shortened, this is pretty common for katakana.

Kana is the term of both hiragana and katakana.

A kana table is a handy grid of symbols arranged in a way to easily learn.

There is nothing wrong with only using hiragana and katakana when starting to learn Japanese. In fact, it's quite natural.

However, Japanese native speakers prefer to use kanji where possible because it is more efficient to read. You often have multiple hiragana "compressed" into one kanji.

Kanji can also carry a lot additional meaning. Take the following Japanese sentence, spelt only with hiragana:

にわ　には　にわ　にわとり　がいる

A keen eye will note that 「にわ」("niwa") is repeated three times! (A really keen eye will note that 「には」is also "niwa", but that's a topic for another day.)

This translates to:

"there are two chickens in the yard".

In this sentence 「にわ」has three meanings:

• にわ = yard
• にわ = two (counters for birds)
• にわとり = chicken

This same sentence can also be expressed with kanji instead.

庭 には 二羽 鶏 がいる

Note 「にわ」is now three different kanji. This makes it far easier to know the meaning of each 「にわ」.

To fully read and write Japanese you'll need all three, as they serve different functions.

Sure, kanji can be feel overwhelming, but your kanji is built up over time. And of course, we'll help you along the way!