Double Consonants Hiragana, Hiragana Combinations, and Nationality

We have completed all hiragana, including double consonants and hiragana combinations!!

Confusion Points in Hiragana:

は /HA/ vs. ほ /HO/:
Note that the first has only one horizontal, and that the second does not have a line protruding at the top.

ね /NE/, わ /WA/ and れ/RE/:
Note that the first has a funky piggy tail curl, which the second misses. Also, the first two curl to the left, the third to the right.

め /ME/ vs. ぬ /NU/:
The first has no piggy tail curl.

い /I/ vs. り /RI/:
Note that the first is long-shorter, while the second is short-longer.

ろ /RO/ vs. る /RU/:
Note the curl difference.

さ /SA/ vs. ち /CHI/:
Simply note the direction.

さ /SA/vs. き /KI/:
Remember to count the horizontal lines.

お /O/ vs. あ /A/:
Note that the first is one connected vertical plus curl, while the second is most definitely two strokes.

Double Consonants:
When writing in hiragana, the double consonants (/KK/, /PP/, /SS/, or /TT/) are expressed with a small つ /tsu/ in place of the first consonant. See the examples below:

school GAKKO がっこう

slowly YUKKURI ゆっくり

magazine ZASSHI ざっし

a little CHOTTO ちょっと

Hiragana Combinations:
When a や/YA/, ゆ /YU/, or よ /YO/ sound follows certain characters in Japanese, the sound is shortened and so instead of two separate characters, the sound is written as the combination of the first character and a small version of the や, ゆ, or よ.

For example, SHOYU (soy source) is written しょうゆ, and GEISHA is written げいしゃ.

By the way, did you know the main actress of movie "Memories of a Geisha", Ziyi Zhang, is not a Japanese but she is a Chinese?

Anyway, students will have hiragana test on Tuesday, December 4th.

Nationality:

Also, students learned how to say their nationality and ask someone's nationality.
To say your nationality, put じん (JIN), which means person, after the name of your country.

"WATASHI WA (= I ) [country name in Japanese] JIN (= person) DESU ( = am) ."

For example, "I am an American." would be "WATASHI WA A ME RI KA JIN DESU." in Japanese.

America ("A ME RI KA" in Japanese) and Canada ("KA NA DA" in Japanese) fit the Japanese syllabary very neatly but some countries have to be changed quite a bit. Can you guess what these countries are?

1. CHUU GO KU
2. FU RA N SU
3. O O SU TO RA RI A
4. KA N KO KU
5. SU PE I N
6. DO I TSU
7. GI RI SHA
8. I GI RI SU
9. NYUU JII RAN DO
10. RO SHI A


Have a wonderful weekend!





Answers:
1. China
2. France
3. Australia
4. Korea
5. Spain
6. Germany
7. Greece
8. England
9. New Zealand
10. Russia