starting my ABC's....

Now everyone has at one point taken a forgein language. It was the first couple years of spanish and by the end you could say, Hello, my name is ____ or where is the bathroom, I would like one taco and a burrito (those are a given by the way lol) and possibly if it really stuck, where am I and how do I get "there" as you point to the map or where your hotel is. With all of this we all started from the beginning, the abc's of spanish, at first they're easy just say the english version with an accent but then with the "h's" and "w's" it becomes different but we can still get the general idea, plus spanish is still letters like english.

Well, today was the first day I truly attempted at looking and disecting what the Japanese alphabet is all about...this was my reaction.
1. what is this?????
2. where do I even start?
3. wait...how is there 2 alphabets?
4. they look exactly the same, I don't understand...
5. i give up...

I called and researched...found the answers and wow what a duzzy this is going to be. it's not just the regular flash cards you make 2 days before the test and study...
1. they have "characters" so it's not like you can just make up names to remind you on what it would look like or how it sounds...it's literally like trying to get a 6th grader to do calculus. They see that there are symbols and numbers, but what the heck are you supposed to do with it?!!
so after the first few minutes of just starring at it lol...i've come to understand this.

1. The 2 types of their "alphabet" are the Hiragana and the Katakana.

• Both have the exact same pronunciations for the words but when spelling, that is when they have differences, found that out as I tried spelling my name and well the combination was almost at 6 and all different letters!..
• the Hiragana is used when spelling traditional Japanese words and phrases like "hello" is kunichiwa, everyone knows that but if I wanted to write my name out it would look completely different.
• their "alphabet" is based off of pronunciation. "hello" could also be said "ha-lo" and you can spell it with those sounds. こんにちは
• the Katakana is for forgein names like mine リゼット (in katakana) or ice cream, it is said like aisu kurimu アイスクリーム

2. Now after just learning about the alphabet I started to write and was stumped once again, when a friend said, now careful with brush strokes! yikes! what else???? at this point nothing else can suprise me, I do know from asking other friends that are from the Asian countries, that there are more formal ways in speaking, but until then that's just a whole other ball park.

Basically now, i'm just on the bench waiting to play t-ball...not even thinking about stepping onto the plate ;)

Until next time..

Lisette J. Rice-Nichols