MODULE 1 Practicing Japanese Writing
Introduction
In modern Japanese, the hiragana and katakana syllabaries each contain 46
basic characters, or 71 including diacritics. With one or two minor exceptions, each
different sound in the Japanese language (that is, each different syllable, strictly each
mora) corresponds to one character in each syllabary. Unlike kanji, these characters
intrinsically represent sounds only; they convey meaning only as part of words.
Hiragana and katakana characters also originally derive from Chinese characters, but
they have been simplified and modified to such an extent that their origins are no longer
visually obvious.
Learning Outcomes
At the end of this module the students should be able to:
Students will learn the essence of Japanese Writing Form using their common
lettering format.
Students will be able to understand words, sentences by the use of Hiragana
Hone calligraphy; its forms, brush and strokes.
