Felicity Online Japanese

LECTURE 2-1: あ Row (Five Vowels)

Main Points:

① The pronunciation learning;

② The writing learning;

③ Introduction of “standard order practice”, “reverse order practice”, “linking

practice” and “random practice”

The first row in Gojuonzu:

a i u e o
 Felicity Online Japanese

Two things we need to deal with in order to master each KANA.

↓
How to pronounce and how to write.

Whenever we pronounce in Japanese, there is no need to open our month too

wide. And we shouldn’t either read them too loud.

Notice the Hiragana here are the ones with the order of strokes. That means to a
certain KANA, there is a specific order to do each stroke.
Felicity Online Japanese
 Felicity Online Japanese

Remember whenever you practice with the lecture, writing, at least repeat five
times to each hiragana. And when you just start like today, you may feel like, “I’m
not writing, I’m actually drawing”, “The things I write look so strange and not
good”.

But that’s okay, because it is a specific period of time that everybody have to go
through. And it only takes around four days.And after one week, when you write
them again, you will feel it’s very natural to write them.

That’s why, every day after the class, you need practice writing them again for a
least another 10 times to make yourself accustomed to Japanese writing system.

The way to practice pronunciation

Standard order practice
あ → い → う → え → お

Reverse order practice

お → え → う → い → あ

Linking practice
あ → い → う → え → お → え → う → い → あ

Random practice
Simply pick up the ones we’ve learnt randomly and pronounce them.