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How to Teach Kana - by Noriko Inagaki

Contents
  1. General Introduction
  2. Timetable for Teaching Kana
  3. Suggestions for Hiragana Lesson Plans
  4. Suggestions for Katakana Lesson Plans
  5. Summary / Attached materials
1. General Introduction 

Learning any new language is difficult. Learning a new alphabet for a particular language is a real challenge. For learners of the Japanese language, it is a triple challenge, because the Japanese language employs three different writing systems: Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji. For people who have never used anything other than the Roman alphabet, it is a really big hurdle. Some textbooks do not start teaching kana at the beginning and instead use Roman characters (English orthography). However, once students have started to use Roman characters instead of Kana, they find it even harder later on to switch to Kana. Therefore, at the SOAS Language Centre, except for the Japanese Survival Course, all students are expected to learn Hiragana in their first two weeks, together with a general introduction to the Japanese language. Different teachers may each have their own preferred method of introducing Kana. This article aims to provide some suggestions on how to teach Kana together with some material that teachers can use for teaching Kana in their classrooms. I also attach some documents which might be useful for Kana teaching.

2. Timetable for Teaching Kana 
2.1 Hiragana Teaching

In SOAS Beginners Japanese I Term 1, two lessons (each two hours) in the first two weeks are allocated especially for learning Hiragana. However, I assume that teachers will also provide a general introduction to the language, and some speaking practice such as introducing oneself, exchanging greetings, asking about nationality and occupation in Week 1 and 2 as well as introducing Hiragana. So the following plan is made so that Hiragana can be taught alongside other content as one part of a particular day’s lesson. I spread the Hiragana teaching over three weeks (Week 1, 2 and 3). Each will take approximately 40 minutes. I usually give a Hiragana test 1 in Week 5 (filling in a chart and writing simple words taken from Week 1 and 2 homework) and a Hiragana test 2 in Week 6 (testing the writing of more complicated words, taken from Week 3 writing practice sheets).

Week 1: General introduction to the Japanese writing system:

  • Function of each writing system
  • Basics of Japanese sounds (five base vowels, mora (a unit of sound in Japanese))
  • Hiragana Syllabaries (consonant/vowel, pronunciation of し、ち、つ、ふ )
  • Learning to write from あいうえお to なにぬねの
  • Homework: Learning to read all Hiragana, Learning to write up to な行

Week 2: Revision:Card game with the characters they learned (up to の ): done in two groups.

  • Learning to write from はひふへほ to ん
  • Voiced and Semi-Voiced sounds が行、ざ行、だ行、ば行、ぱ行、
  • Contracted sounds –Sounds with small やゆよ　 e.g. きゃ、きゅ、きょ　　　
  • Voiced and Semi-Voiced Contracted sounds e.g. ぎゃ、ぎゅ、ぎょ、ぴゃ、ぴゅ、ぴょ
  • Homework: Learning to write all Hiragana and Voiced, Semi-voiced and contracted sounds

Week 3: More rules of the Japanese writing system and sounds

  • Long vowels
  • Contracted Sounds
  • Glottal Stop (words with small つ )
  • Sound of ん
  • Listening practice
  • Homework: Learning to write many words following the above rules

Revision:

Week 4: Revision of Week 1-3 if the teacher can make time for this. I don’t myself usually.

Week 5: Hiragana Test 1(filling in a Hiragana chart and writing simple words)

Week 6: Hiragana Test 2 (testing writing of words with small つ or contracted sounds)

2.2 Katakana Teaching

After students have become comfortable with Hiragana, I introduce Katakana in Weeks 6 and 7. For Katakana, it should take only about 20-30 minutes, because most students will now be familiar with the concept of syllabaries and usually find writing Katakana much easier than Hiragana.

Week 6: Katakana introduction

  • Learning to write アイウエオ to ナニヌネノ
  • Homework: learning to read all Katakana and learning to write up to ノ

Week 7: Learning to write ハヒフヘホ to ン

  • Writing Katakana rules differing from Hiragana
  • How to express Long vowels in Katakana
  • Use of small アイウエオ to express foreign sounds
  • e.g ファイト、フィリピン、ウェスト、ウォッチ
  • Homework: learning to write all Katakana

Revision:

Week 8: Revision of Week 6 and 7 if a teacher can make time

  • e.g Reading Katakana words in pictures, country names, etc.

Week 9: Katakana Test

  • Students learning how to write their own names.

 

3. Suggestions for Hiragana Lesson plans 

3.1. General Introduction to the Japanese Writing System (Week 1)

Historical Development:

Chinese books were first brought to Japan between the 3rd and 5th centuries A.D. Subsequently, the Japanese borrowed the Chinese writing system. This early Japanese writing system adopted from China went through adaptive modifications and eventually certain characters were simplified for specifically phonetic purposes, resulting in the kana syllabaries, unique to Japanese. Kana syllabaries are 'alphabets' based consistently on phonetic syllables (e.g. Consonant – Vowel combination) rather than single sounds. The writing system underwent more than a few changes over the next thousand years, finally reaching something like its present form following a 19th century movement to 'unify speech and writing'. This system was subject to further simplification and reform after the Second World War. Consequently, modern Japanese uses a combination of (1) Kanji, (2) Hiragana and (3) Katakana.

The Modern Japanese Writing System:

  1. Kanji – Chinese characters (kanji) are used for writing the major content words — words with semantic content such as verbs, nouns, and adjectives. There are currently 1,945 officially approved characters for use in the media, etc, although quite a few more are actually in use.
  2. Hiragana – a total of 46 basic letters, more if modified letters (letters with voicing, reduced-size letters, etc.) are included. Hiragana is used for writing grammatical markers and endings and also used for indigenous Japanese words or words for which writers choose not to write using Kanji.
  3. Katakana – a total of 46 basic letters just as in Hiragana. Katakana is used to write foreign words, foreign personal names, place names and other proper names. Sometimes some onomatopoeic words are written in katakana.
  4. Roman letters and Arabic numbers borrowed from the West are also used in Japanese.

Some students may already have some knowledge of the Japanese writing system, so the teacher can begin by asking the class if anyone knows how many writing systems are being used in Japan . Another good way of introducing the Japanese writing system is by self-discovery. I usually ask students to look at their newly acquired textbook (Minna no nihongo, pink book) as an authentic Japanese text sample and to identify the different characters in it. First, we look at the front cover of the book. Students can point out different types of script. A teacher can write Hiragana and Katakana words on the board and show the differences between them (Hiragana is more rounded). It is easy to distinguish Kanji from Kana (Hiragana and Katakana). The front cover contains Roman letters, Hiragana, Kanji, Roman numerals and Katakana. It is good for the teacher to pronounce Katakana words so that students can recognise that they are foreign words. Then we look at the preface ( まえがき ) . The teacher can ask students to point out how many katakana words there are in each paragraph. Also you can ask students if they noticed any other things. They usually notice Japanese punctuation such as maru ( 。 ), ten ( 、 ) or kakko ( 「」『』 ) . This is a good opportunity to introduce the Japanese version of the full stop, comma and parentheses.

3.2 Introducing Hiragana syllabaries

1) Introducing Base Vowel sounds (a i u e o) in Japanese (Week 1)

The Japanese sounds are based on five vowel sounds, a i u e o. They are used alone or are attached to either a consonant (k+a= か ) or a consonant plus a semi-vowel (k + y + a = きゃ ) . So Japanese sounds always end with one of these basic five vowels. The exception to this is the terminal ん , which is not followed by vowels. There are no clusters of consonants like ‘str’ as in ‘street’ in English. The word ‘street’ will be pronounced as ‘su to rii to’ in Japanese. Japanese linguists claim that Japanese do not operate with syllables as in English but with mora. A mora is a unit of sound in Japanese, which is like one beat. Consider that there are beats of drums with equal intervals. Each beat or mora ends with a vowel sound.

2) Introducing Hiragana Syllabaries (Week 1)

Write five vowels a i u e o vertically on the whiteboard. Then put letters, k, s, t, n, h, m, y, r, w at the top from left to right as below.

xwrymhntskxx
x          A
xx x   chishi  I
xx   fu tsu   U
xx x       E
x          O

 

The teacher points to the first vertical row and reads a i u e o and points to the next vertical row and ask students to pronounce the characters. Students will read ka ki ku ke ko. Similarly, you keep reading each line. It is important to highlight words such as Shi (not ‘si’), Chi (not ‘ti’) Fu (not ‘hu’).

× means there is no character for that box. After students have learned all the sounds of Hiragana, the teacher can give out a Hiragana chart (HiraChart1.pdf). I also give out a Hiragana Sheet that students can cut out and use to make their own study cards.(50hiragana.pdf)

Websites

There are several helpful web sites. Some students, especially Chinese students, may find it helpful to have a chart of the derivation of hiragana. (OriginofHiragana.pdf). Some sites have animated stroke order and/or sound and other sites have games for practicing Hiragana.

3.3. Teaching how to write Hiragana
1) Week 1 ： From あいうえお to なにぬねの

After introducing Hiragana syllabaries, students practice writing Hiragana. In this programme, the teacher introduces half of the Hiragana in Week 1 (from あいうえお to なにぬねの ). I give a practice sheet (Haiueo.pdf), a stroke order sheet (Hstroke.pdf) and show the Hiragana pages of Kunio Ogawa’s Kana Can Be Easy (Japan Times), which has mnemonic picture devices for each character. Some students find this very helpful, though some other students may not find it so useful. The teacher can write each character on the whiteboard emphasizing that following the correct stroke order is very important. Students can trace over the first pale character on the practice sheet and then write each of them about four times. Students should learn to read all the Hiragana characters and learn to write up to なにぬねの as homework.

2) Week 2 From はひふへほ to ん、 Voiced and Semi-Voiced sounds, Contracted Sounds

Following a similar method, the teacher can introduce the rest of Hiragana (from はひふへほ to ん ) (Hhahifuheho.pdf) and students can practice them. Then the teacher introduces voiced and semi-voiced sounds.(HiraChart2.pdf). The teacher asks students to pronounce the sound of /k/ and to touch their vocal cord. There should be no vibration. Then the teacher asks the student to vibrate the vocal cord and it turns into a /g/ sound. The teacher explains the difference between voiceless and voiced sounds. Following the Hiragana chart, the teacher can point out other pairs: /s/ and /z/, /t/ and /d/. For はひふへほ , the teacher explains that (fu) is a bilabial fricative sound (a blowing sound using both lips). But /b/ is a bilabial stop sound and its counterpart is /p/.

After explaining voiced ( 濁音 ) and semi-voiced sounds ( 半濁音 ), the teacher now explains contracted sounds ( 拗音 ). (HiraChart2.pdf) My method of introducing contracted sounds is as follows: there are only three such sounds やゆよ , but they can aggressively invade other characters which are vulnerable. Vulnerable characters are all I-line characters. So やゆよ invades I-line characters (a teacher should point out I-line characters on the chart) and explain that they are pronounced in combination with these characters. Suppose き was invaded by や , what sound does it produce? It is kya. Similarly, し＋や = Sha, ち＋や = cha, に＋や = nya, ひ＋や = hya, み＋や = mya, り＋や = rya. Since やゆよ are invaders, not main characters, they are written with a sub-script character next to the main characters. きゃ、しゃ、ちゃ、にゃ、ひゃ 、 みゃ、りゃ . 　やゆよ can be added to voiced or semi-voiced sounds as well as in ぎゃ、じゃ、びゃ、ぴゃ . The homework for this week should be to learn to write all the Hiragana characters, including characters which have voiced, semi-voiced and contracted sounds.

3.4 More rules about the Japanese writing system and sounds (Week 3)

By this time, students should be able to write Hiragana reasonably comfortably. Then the teacher can explain further rules about the Japanese writing system and sounds and students can practise writing them.

1) Long Vowels

A long vowel is pronounced twice as long as the ordinary vowels あいうえお . If you count the length of the vowel あ as one, the length of the long vowel ああ is counted as two. So you count two beats when you pronounce long vowels. In Hiragana, あいうえお are added to the character which needs to be lengthened. For example, おば あさん (oba asan), おじ いさん (oji isan), ゆ うき (yu uki), え え (e e), お おき い (o oki i). This long vowel writing system is sometimes irregular. For example, the same long o sound can be written with お or う depending on the word. お おきい , お うじ . So students must note the spelling carefully when they learn new vocabulary.

2) Contracted Sounds

Contracted sounds (character with small やゆよ ) constitute one mora, i.e. one beat for that contracted character. For instance, ひ や く constitute three beats, but ひゃ く constitutes two beats. Glottal Stops (words with small つ ). Small やゆよ are written in a smaller size (sub-script).

3) Glottal Stop (words with small つ )

Some words contain a short break between sounds. This break constitute one mora and is one mora in length. It sounds like ‘butter’ spoken with a Cockney accent. Japanese uses small つ to indicate this empty beat. In Roman English script, the consonant which follows this empty sound is doubled to express this. きって (kitte), おっと (otto), ざっし (zasshi), にっき (nikki).

4) Sound of ん

ん never appears at the beginning of a word. It constitute one mora. ん is pronounced differently according the sound that comes after it. If it is followed by a bilabial sound (a sound using both lips), ん is pronounced /m/. If it is followed by /k/ or /g/, ん is pronounced ng as in ‘ha nger’ in English. When the teacher uses a handout, it is important to emphasise to students that ん sounds vary.

3.5 Pronunciation practice and Listening practice

After introducing all the sounds, it is good to give listening practice. Give examples of pairs of sounds which are similar and ask students to circle the one the teacher read. 1 . おじさん (ojisan) / おじいさん (ojiisan), 2. かこ (kako) / かっこ (kakko), 3. じゆう (jiyuu)/ じゅう (jyuu), 4. ざっし (zasshi) / さっし (sasshi), 5. おと (oto)/ おっと (otto), 6. えんぴつ (empitsu)/ えぬぴつ (enupitsu), 7. きのう (kinoo)/ きの (kino), 8 . りょこう (ryokoo)/ りょうこ (ryooko). This kind of practice helps comprehension in listening and writing in Japanese. I use the attached document for this practice. Students should practice both listening and pronouncing words. (ExercisePron.doc)

3.6. Revision / Test

The teacher can give a first simple Hiragana test in Week 5. I give a test which includes an empty chart of Hiragana syllabaries and some easy words (hiraganatest.doc) in Week 6, I usually give another test which tests how to write more difficult words with contracted sounds (hiraganatest2.doc).

4. Suggestions for Katakana Lesson plans 
4.1 Introduction of Katakana syllabaries

Since students are now familiar with Hiragana , it should not take much time to introduce Katakana. Katakana are also derived from Chinese characters, but Katakana are formed by selecting parts of particular Chinese characters. (DerivationsofKatakana.pdf). The teacher can use similar methods to those of teaching writing Hiragana. Since students already know Hiragana syllabaries, the teacher can go straight into teaching how to write Katakana. The teacher can give out a Katakana chart (KataChart1.pdf). A Katakana sheet which students can cut out and make into their own study cards is also useful. (50katakana.pdf). Some useful sites for Katakana are as follows:

4.2. Teaching how to write katakana
1) Week 6 From アイウエオ to ナニヌネノ

I give a practice sheet (Kaiueo.pdf) and a stroke order sheet (Kstroke.pdf), and show the Katakana pages from Kunio Ogawa’s Kana Can Be Easy (Japan Times), which has picture mnemonic devices for each character. The teacher can give out homework for further practice.

2) Week 7 From ハヒフヘホ to ン

This week you can teach the rest of Katakana: from ハヒフヘホ to ン . (khahifuheho.pdf). After teaching all the characters, the teacher needs to highlight some Katakana rules, different from those of Hiragana.

  1. For long vowels in Katakana, a lengthening marker ( ― ) is used rather than a vowel あいうえお as in Hiragana. For instance, Soup will be written as スープ , cake will be written as ケーキ .
  2. A combination of normal sized letters and small-sized アイウエオ are used to write foreign words. The combined character constitutes one mora. For example, ウィンク (wink), ウェスト (west), ウォークマン (walkman), クィーン (queen), シェーク (shake), チェンジ (change), ティー (tea), ファイル (file), フィンランド (Finland), フェリー (ferry), フォーク (fork).
  3. Vi is usually written as ビ . However, in order to distinguish between B and V sounds, the V sound is sometimes expressed as ヴ . Victoria can be spelled as ビクトリア or ヴィクトリア .

Since Katakana words are usually foreign words, it is easy for students to recognise them. Any word starting with “p” has to be a foreign word and all are written in Katakana. It might be a good idea to show some street signs in pictures. Students will be delighted to be able to read signs such as マクドナルド (McDonalds), コーヒー (coffee), コインロッカー (coin locker), ビデオ (video), テレビ (television), ホームページ (home page), カレーライス (curry rice).

Good Katakana practice such as writing country or capital names or reading menus can be found in the Self-Study Kana Workbook (Three-A Network).

4.3 Revision / Test

Since there is a course end examination in Week 10, I usually give a Katakana Test in Week 9. The format is similar to the Hiragana Test 1. (katakanatest.doc) In Week 9, I also teach the class how to write their own names. Students can copy not only their own names but classmates’ names for practice.

5. Summary / Attached materials 

Different teachers have different ways of teaching Kana. Similarly different students have different way of learning Kana. The suggestions for teaching plans mentioned here are based on my own methods of teaching. I hope they are of some use to other teachers. I have attached documents that I created for teaching Kana here and there in this article. You are free to download them and make multiple copies for distributing to students. I list them here again in this summary for ease of search. The documents are in MS Word (doc) and/or Acrobat (pdf) format.

Downloadable documents:

This document in MS word format httkana1.doc and in Acrobat format httkana1.pdf

For Hiragana
  1. Hiragana Chart 1 (50 on chart) HiraChart1.pdf
  2. Hiragana Chart 2 (Voiced and Semi-Voiced Sound, Contracted Sound) HiraChart2.pdf
  3. Hiragana characters for making cards 50hiragana.pdf
  4. Origin of Hiragana (chart which shows original Chinese characters) OriginofHiragana.pdf
  5. Hiragana stroke order chart Hstroke.pdf
  6. Practice sheet of Hiragana writing 1 あいうえお to なにぬねの Haiueo.pdf
  7. Practice sheet of Hiragana writing 2 はひふへほ to ん Hhahifuheho.pdf
  8. Pronunciation Practice (Week 3) ExercisePron.doc
  9. Hiragana Test 1 (Week 5) hiraganatest.doc
  10. Hiragana Test 2 (Week 6) hiraganatest2.doc
For Katakana
  1. Katakana Chart 1 (50 on chart) KataChart1.pdf
  2. Katakana characters for making cards 50katakana.pdf
  3. Origin of Katakana (chart which shows original Chinese characters) DerivationsofKatakana.pdf
  4. Katakana stroke order chart Kstroke.pdf
  5. Practice sheet of Katakana writing 1 アイウエオ to ナニヌネノKaiueo.pdf
  6. Practice sheet of Katakana writing 2 ハヒフヘホ to ン khahifuheho.pdf
  7. Katakana Test (Week 9) katakanatest.doc

N.B. Since some typescripts are different from handwriting scripts of Kana, I used FC-Kyokashotai L fonts for all Kana practice handouts. You need this font to show Hiragana and Katakana characters in handwriting scripts. If you don’t have FC-Kyokashotai L fonts, alternative fonts such as Mincho will be used, though unfortunately the texts do not appear in an ideal format for practising Kana.

Noriko Inagaki, SOAS Language Centre, November 2005