PROCEDURE
Japanese is normally written with a mixture of two syllabaries (kana) and Chinese characters (kanji) . In kana writing, symbols represent syllables without reference to meaning, whereas kanji regularly stand for sound plus meaning. More will be said about both systems later.
The first eight lesson of this web site introduce kana. Students should go through these lessons, concentrating first on the reading and then the writing of each new symbol and the examples provided. They should practice until all the Japanese material included (1) can be read in random order, accurately, rapidly, and without any hesitation, and (2) can be written accurately and rapidly, given either oral dictation of the Japanese, or the romanized equivalent of the Japanese.
For the Kanji Reading Lessons, each of which introduces twenty-five new Chinese characters (kanji), the following procedures are suggested:
Step-1 Kanji: Note the shape of each new character, its pronunciation(s) (which may or may not occur as independant words), approximate English equivalent(s), and examples of usage in compounds. Pay careful attention to the significance of any special symbols that occur in this section. Proceed immediately to the examples of usage in miscellaneous phrases and short sentences. These examples use a variety of politness and formality styles in order to provide maximally varied contexts) which occur below each character. Practice reading these, both aloud and silently, concentrating on comprehending as you read.
Step-2 Kanji: Practice writing the new symbols.
Step-3 Kanji: Repeat Step 1 until reading is smooth and fluent. Vary the order of reading the examples.
Step-4 Kanji: Review writing, using as the stimulus either oral Japanese dictation or written English equivalents of the phrases and short sentences that follow each new Kanji.
Step-5 Kanji: Reading Drills: Practice reading the drills both aloud and silently until you can read them fluently. Vary the order. Concentrate on understanding as you read. If you are unsure of any grammatical pattern that occurs, search Jôyô 96 for an explanation.
Variation Drills
include a variety of sequences that exemplify a similiar underlying pattern.
Response Drills
include a set of sentences followed by formalized responses which exhibit a similiar pattern. (These are not necessarily conversational sequences.)
Transformation Drills
include a set of stimulus sentences followed by the sentences that result from the operation of one particular transformation. (For example, all stimulus sentences might be transformed to the negative.)
Combination Drills
include pairs of independant sentences which are combined into single complex sentences, all of which have a similiar underlying pattern.
Step-6 Supplementary Question Drill and Exercises: Practice reading and answering orally the question drill and/or exercises immediately following the reading drills. Those students who wish to develop a writing skill should repeat the drill, writing the answers.
Step-7 Contextual Reading: Each lesson, beginning with Kanji Reading Lesson 1, has a contextual reading section. The buildups for kanji reading practice at the beginning of this section should be practiced both silently and aloud until reading is smooth and fluent. Concentrate on comprehending as you read. Review the initial introduction section on any kanji that was not immediately recognized.
Step-8 Reading Selection: Read the selection aloud, phrasing according to the units into which the material is divided. Try to comprehend each unit as it occurs. Read rapidly through the selection once only.
Step-9 Notes on the Reading Selection: Read the notes.
Step-10 Reading Selection: Repeat Step 8 as many times as necessary, until reading is fluent and comprehension complete.
Step-11 Questions on the Reading Selection: Answer these questions orally and/or in writing, insofar as possible without referring back to the reading selection.
Step-12 Supplement: Read the supplement and complete any exercise that is included, according to directions.
Step-13 Review: Before proceeding to the next lesson, review the previous lesson by rereading the reading selection and writing in Japanese orthography all romanized Japanese included in the Notes on Reading Selection.
A final note: there is absolutely no necessity to use valuable class time for all the steps described above. Class hours are more profitably spent spot-checking the students' reading capability, discussing the reading material orally, and answering question drills orally. Most of the steps outlined above should be followed by students outside of class.
Those who conscientiously work through this text, following all recommended procedures and moving ahead to a new lesson only after the previous lesson is adequately internalized, can expect to acquire a solid basic foundation in Japanese reading. They will be thoroughly familiar with all the kanji that have been introduced, through recurring contact in assorted contexts, and they will be ready to move ahead into materials that add to their kanji repertoire.
INTRODUCTION
The first four lessons introduce katakana, the syllabary used primarily for writing loanwords (i.e., words borrowed from foreign languages). Katakana is also used to represent native Japanese items that are intended to stand out in the context in which they occur. The use ofkatakana in Japanese often corresponds to the use of italics in English: katakana occurs frequently in advertisements; it is also used in writing items that represent something strange or unusual from a linguistic point of view (for example, in quoting foreigners' errors in Japanese); and it is often used in writing onomatopoeic words-i.e., those that are supposed to represent their meaning by their sound (example: gatagata representing a rattling sound). In addition, katakana is used in writing telegrams and, together with kañzi, in writing legal documents.
While most current linguistic borrowings by the Japanese is from English, there are many loanwords derived from other languages. For example, among place names, Suisu 'Switzerland', Itaria 'Italy', and Doitu 'Germany', all have non-English origins. The emphasis in the lessons that follow, however, will be on the reading of Katakana as it is used to represent loanwords of English origin. In particular, foreign place names and personal names (as in the meesi, or business cards of foreigners who do business in Japan) will be used as examples in the introduction of each new katakana symbol. The writing of kana should, of course, also be mastered. After learning to read a symbol, students should practice writing, working back from the romanization of the examples to the original kana.
NOTES
When the Japanese borrow English words and phrases, these loanwords are pronounced in a way that approximates the original pronunciation but conforms to the sound system of Japanese. This entails many adjustments, since the sound systems of Japanese and English bear little resemblance to each other. For example, because the sound system of English is more complex, one Japanese sound often represents several sounds in English: Japanese b may represent English 'b' or 'v'; Japanese oo may represent the vowel or dipthong of English 'stalk' or 'stoke'; Japanese si may represent English 'she' or 'see', and so on.
A further problem is the fact that while most borrowings are based on pronunciation, there are often a variety of pronunciations for any given item in English, and some borrowings are derived from the original English spellings. For example, Japanese aruminyuumu comes from British English 'aluminium'; and English 'margarine' occurs in Japanese as maagariñ (ma-a-ga-ri-ñ) conforming to its spelling rather than its pronunciation in English.
In loanwords, Japanese consonants as represented by romanization generally correspond to the English consonants represented by the same letters in the writing system, although the actual sounds the letters represent in the two languages are far from identical. Thus, r in Japanese is used to represent the markedly different initial consonant of English 'road'. However, there will also be many divergences from this kind of correspondence, partly because of the vagaries of English spelling. For example, the 'c' of 'cent' is represented in Japanese as s, while the 'c' as well as the 'k' of cake are represented by k. Other divergences, that result from the phonological structure of Japanese, will be discussed below.
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