How Do You Learn To Read Japanese?
Japanese is not the easiest language to read for many reasons. Instead of one alphabet being used to write all words of a language, Japanese uses three writing systems all at once. In the same sentence you will see either two or three of the systems mixed in together, stressing the importance of knowing all three. Japanese has a completely different system of writing than English. In Japanese, there are no letters that represent one sound, but characters that represent syllables (with the exceptions of the vowels and n used at the end of some words). Vowels: a, e, i, o, and u all have their own characters in all scripts. The vowels are read and pronounced similarly to the way they are in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in stomping, o as in oval, and u as in huge). The other characters/syllables are formed by adding consonants in front of the vowels. Ch and Sh sounds stay together and additionally combine with vowels. There are no separate s, c and h to use. Try breaking down
