Learning Japanese - The Basics

How are you getting on?
O genki desa ka. おげんきですか。

Questions in Japanese do not end with a question mark.
The final particle "ka" represents a question mark at the end of the question.

Yes. I'm fine.
Hai, Genki desu. はい、げんきです。

In reply, a positive answer must begin with "Hai" for yes.

In Step 1, memorizing the Hiragana Chart is quite a task
especially if you are learning Japanese for the first time.
I made another chart with only the Hiragana and Romaji letters.
This may be easier to read.

Basically, the first line is made of 5 tones that are read from left to right.
Then k,s,t,n,h,m,y,r,w,n are added to the 5 basic tones to form the next set,
the ka series and so on.



Although Hiragana, Romaji and Katakana are written differently,
they all share the same set of sounds.
Coscom has an excellent audio e-Book which is free for learning Basics.



* Listen to all 5 tones in each line, and feel the rhythmic pattern.
In this case, it is read from left to right, top to bottom.



Credits : Audio e-Book from Coscom.