Beginner Japanese/Introduction to the Japanese Language

Reading

• Japanese Phrasebook — Greetings and farewell.
• introduction to the Japanese language.

Words to know

•  Kanji : Chinese ideographic characters.
• Kana: The syllabaries used to write Japanese words and particles using characters that represent syllables. The two syllabaries are called hiragana and katakana.
•  Rōmaji : Romanized Japanese.

Quiz

Please write all answers in lowercase and rōmaji, where applicable.

1   How would you write, "Cats eat mice" in Japanese?

2  English is an SVO (Subject Verb Object) language. What kind of language is Japanese? (Answer is possible with three letters or all written.)

3  What is the name for people of higher status and lower status (comma separated)

4  How many general-use characters set forth by the Ministry of Education should one know in order to be literate in Japanese?

5  What is the name of the group of general-use characters set forth by the Ministry of Education one should know in order to be literate in Japanese?

6  What are the names of the two syllabaries that make up the writing form Kana (comma separated)?

Learning Activites

• Research more about the Japanese language and improve the Wikipedia entry on the Japanese language
• Add more questions to the above quiz

Beginner Japanese

Introduction to the Japanese Writing System →