How to Read Japanese

Japanese Alphabets

Japanese has three different alphabets. Let's look at the differences between them. I'm sure you have heard of Sumo wrestling, that "Sumo" is Japanese as you may know. Using that lets look at the Alphabets Japanese uses.

Japanese Vowels

If you want to be sure your reading the Romanji Japanese correctly, this is part you need to keep in mind. Japanese vowels only have one pronounciation unlike English an many other languages. The main point in reading Romaji Japanese is to use the right vowel pronounciation. See the below tables

Japanese Hiragana (ひらがな)

Most Japanese Hiragana characters are usually a combination of an English Consonant plus a Vowel. for example k(constinant) and a(vowel) together "ka" is one character "か"　(don't forget to use the right a pronounciation from above)

here is a table with all the Japanese hiragana

Japanese katakana (カタカナ)

Like Hiragana, most Japanese Katakana characters are usually a combination of an English Consonant plus a Vowel. for example k(constinant) and a(vowel) together "ka" is one character "か"　(don't forget to use the right a pronounciation from above)

here is a table with all the Japanese katakana

Japanese Kanji

Originating from China, Kanji are characters with meaning and usually have multiple readings. A single Kanji can be, but is not always a whole word by itself. Modern Japanese is about 90% Kanji. There are over 2000 commonly used Kanji in Japanese. Full list of the commonly used Kanji can be found here.
Below we'll just look at a few examples:

In conclusion we should say, Kanji is not like Hiragana or Katakana in that you can't just go out and memorize it in a few days. Learn it as you learn Japanese. It should not be the focus of a begginer in Japanese. When you learn a new Japanese word, try looking up the Kanji it is written with. Review the meanings and readings of each Kanji the word uses, and you will start to remember the Kanji as they reapear.