Addition to particles は /WA/, の /NO/ and か/KA/, which were introduced already, your child learned new particles.
Particles are probably one of the most difficult and confusing aspects of Japanese sentences. A particle (JOSHI in Japanese) is a word that shows the relationship of a word, a phrase, or a clause to the rest of the sentence. Some particles have English equivalents. Others have functions similar to English prepositions, but since they always follow the word or words they mark, they are post-positions. There are also particles that have a peculiar usage which is not found in English. Most particles are multi-functional.
は/WA/: topic marker. It is written with the hiragana は ha, but it is pronounced WA when it is used as a topic particle.
e.g. WATASHI WA JOHN SMITH DESU. "I am John Smith."
の/NO/: possession, noun linking
e.g. JOHN NO TOYOTA "John's Toyota"
HPA NO SEITO "Students of HPA"
か/KA/: question particle. Makes a sentence into a question. When forming a question, the word order of a sentence does not change in Japanese; rather just adding this question particle か at the end of a sentence.
e.g. ANATA WA NIHON-JIN DESU KA. "Are you Japanese?"
と/TO/: To conjoin nouns
e.g. Tom TO Jerry "Tom and Jerry"
も/MO/: "also"
e.g.: WATASHI MO "Me, too"
Hiragana for R+ vowels:
Also, your child learned more hiragana:
ら/RA/, り/RI/, る/RU/, れ/RE/ and ろ/RO/
Japanese "r" is similar to Spanish "r". It is quite different from English "r", and using English "l" is better. Therefore, Japanese people have difficulty distinguishing English “l” and “r” sounds, play vs. pray, lice vs. rice etc.
To pronounce Japanese "r", flick the tip of the tongue against the gum behind the upper teeth. There are variations in the pronunciation of this sound, but the one I described here is the Tokyo standard pronunciation.
Speaking of "R", Nissan GT-R new modle debutted at the Tokyo Motor Show last month. Nissan has not sold GT-R here in US, but they will sell this modle in US. I wish I could buy this iconic and legendary Japanese sports coupe...
