Japanese Writing
By Celine A.
Scripts
The Japanese writing system has three scripts, Hiragana, Kanji, and Katakana. Hiragana and Katakana consist of a little less of 50 letters. Hiragana is mostly used for grammar. It represents every sound in the japanese language. It helps you understand Kanji better. That means you can write everything in Hiragana. It is written up and down. Katakana is used for words from other foreign languages. It can also emphasise words. It is only used for certain words. My name, Celine, in katakana is セリーン. In Hiragana it is せりいん. The pronunciation of Celine would be Se-ri-i-n in Japanese. Japanese writing can be very confusing to learn but one mastered, it can be very fun.
Kanji
Although Kanji is a Chinese writing script, it is the most used for writing in Japan. There are no spaces in Kanji so it might be difficult and confusing to read. Kanji is actually an adapted way of Chinese letters. It is used in Hiragana and Katakana. Kanji fisrt came to Japan in coins, letters, swords, and other items imported from China. The Japanese had no certain type writing system at that time. Rarely anybody in Japan could read Chinese. Then the people started to change the letters and mix it up with common Japanese marks and slashes. That made it easier to read. Soon, it became the most common script in Japan.
Katkana
Katakana is a Japanese script used to help make foreign words easier to understand. Not everybody in Japan can write, read, and speak English, French, Spanish, etc. This is used for beginners learning to translate words, mostly kids.
Hiragara
Hirigana is another form of Katkana, Hiragana is used to write extremely difficult kanji, It simplifies the whole thing. This is also used for people beggining to write kanji too.