Katakana

Katakana, the sister script, is identical in sound to hiragana and uses the same five vowels.
Only the shapes are different.

It is the script Japanese uses for words borrowed from other languages and for the sounds of things.

When you travel, katakana is the script that most often rewards you, because once you can sound it out, you discover that many of the words are borrowed English hiding under Japanese pronunciation.

The word "hotel" is written in katakana,
"taxi" is written in katakana,
"ramen" (which is really Chinese noodles) on a shop sign is often written in katakana,
"Terebi" is television,
"Kōhī" is coffee,
"Toire" is toilet.

Because the sounds are identical to hiragana, the five vowels carry over without change.

Where hiragana is round and flowing, katakana is angular and sharp, built from short straight strokes.

Here is the full set of katakana, laid out exactly as the hiragana chart, so you can see that only the shapes have changed.

	a	i	u	e	o
—	ア a	イ i	ウ u	エ e	オ o
k	カ ka	キ ki	ク ku	ケ ke	コ ko
s	サ sa	シ shi	ス su	セ se	ソ so
t	タ ta	チ chi	ツ tsu	テ te	ト to
n	ナ na	ニ ni	ヌ nu	ネ ne	ノ no
h	ハ ha	ヒ hi	フ fu	ヘ he	ホ ho
m	マ ma	ミ mi	ム mu	メ me	モ mo
y	ヤ ya		ユ yu		ヨ yo
r	ラ ra	リ ri	ル ru	レ re	ロ ro
w	ワ wa				ヲ wo
n	ン n

The same two marks appear here as well.
The dakuten strokes soften a consonant, so カ ka becomes ガ ga.
The handaku circle turns the h row into a p, so ハ ha becomes パ pa.

A long vowel is not written by repeating the vowel but by a single horizontal bar, called chōonpu.
So the long oo in a borrowed word is a bar, and rāmen appears as ラーメン, with the bar holding the a long.
When you see that bar, simply hold the vowel before it.

Between the two kana charts you now have every basic sound in the language, and every one of them rests on the same five pure vowels.

Hiragana

Here is the full set of hiragana, the script used for native Japanese words.

Read across each row as the consonant joined to the five pure vowels.

	a	i	u	e	o
—	あ a	い i	う u	え e	お o
k	か ka	き ki	く ku	け ke	こ ko
s	さ sa	し shi	す su	せ se	そ so
t	た ta	ち chi	つ tsu	て te	と to
n	な na	に ni	ぬ nu	ね ne	の no
h	は ha	ひ hi	ふ fu	へ he	ほ ho
m	ま ma	み mi	む mu	め me	も mo
y	や ya		ゆ yu		よ yo
r	ら ra	り ri	る ru	れ re	ろ ro
w	わ wa				を wo
n	ん n

A few of these are not spelled the way an English eye expects.

The し in the s row is "shi", not "si".
The ち in the t row is "chi", not "ti".
The つ in the t row is "tsu", a single sound, the "ts" of "cats" followed by "oo".
The ふ in the h row is "fu", a soft "f" made with both lips rather than teeth.
The ら row is closer to a light "d" or a flap than to an English "r", but "r" is the accepted spelling.

Two more marks change the consonant, not the vowel.

A small pair of strokes, called dakuten 濁点だくてん, softens a sound:
か "ka" becomes が "ga",
さ "sa" becomes ざ "za",
た "ta" becomes だ "da",
は "ha" becomes ば "ba".

A small circle, called handakuten 半濁点はんだくてん, turns the h row into a p: は "ha" becomes ぱ "pa".
The vowels underneath stay exactly the same.

Finally, two things about rhythm.
A small つ before a consonant marks a short silent pause, a doubling of that consonant, as in the "tt" of "Nippon".

And ん is the one lone consonant, an "n" or "m" sound that stands by itself.

When you reach a Japanese word later, sound it out by these five vowels and it will be close to right.

Katakana, the sister script used for words borrowed from other languages, sounds identical to hiragana and follows the same five vowels.

Japanese "kana" pronunciation

The following brief introduction to Japanese sounds is not intended to teach you to read, but rather to give you an idea of what sounds are available in Japanese.

English, and especially American, readers make pronunciation guesses based on their ABC, and those guesses are almost always wrong because Japanese writing in the so-called "romaji" alphabet is based on Latin, not English.

The good news about learning it is that, unlike English, Japanese is very consistent. Once you learn it, you will be able to read correctly for the rest of your life.

I am not saying Japanese does not have its own problems, but to keep things simple, let's focus on the vowels.

There are only five vowels, and each one makes exactly one sound every time, with no exceptions.

The five vowels:

The "a" sounds like the a in "father". It is never the "a" in "day" or the "a" in "cat".
The "i" sounds like the "i" in "machine". It is never the "i" in "ice".
The "u" sounds like the "u" in "boot". It is never the "u" in "cube".
The "e" sounds like the "e" in "bed". It is never the "e" in "me" and never the "a" in "day".
The "o" sounds like the "o" in "boat", but shorter and without letting it glide into "oo" at the end. It is never the o in "hot".

That is all you need to remember.

The long vowels

Each of the five vowels can also be long, meaning the same sound is simply held for twice as long.
The sound does not change, only its duration.
I mark a long vowel with a bar over the letter, called a macron: ā, ī, ū, ē, and ō.

The "ā" is a long "aa".
The "ī" is a long "ii".
The "ū" is a long "uu", as in the shū of Shūdōkan 修道館しゅうどうかん.
The "ē" is a long "eh".
The "ō" is a long "oh", as in "dō", the way 道どう is pronounced.

Length is not decoration. It can change the meaning of a word.
The training hall is a dōjō, 道場どうじょう, with both o sounds long.
The school is 修道館しゅうどうかん, with a long u and a long o.

Common pronunciation mistakes

Here are a few examples:

Karate is pronounced 空手からて, with the last syllable not "tee" but ending in "e", as in "energy".
It is true that the original name for Okinawan hand fighting was "tī", and it uses the same Chinese character for "hand" 手て as in karate 空手からて. However, the word "karate" is purely Japanese and should be pronounced according to Japanese standards, again, ending in "e", as in "energy".

The rice wine, or "sake", is 酒さけ, ending in "e", as in "energy", not "sa-kee".

However, "saki", meaning "point", is 先さき , ending in "i", as in "machine" and not "sa-kay".

My name, Uki, is 宇気うき, ending in "i", as in "machine", not "yoo-kay".

Japanese syllables

Every other sound in the language is a consonant placed before one of these five vowels, and the consonant does not alter the vowel.

The "ka" is "k" plus "a", pronounced like the start of the word "comma".
The "ki" is "k" plus "i", as in "key".
The "ku" is "k" plus "u", as in "cooper".
The "ke" is "k" plus "e", as in the name "Ken".
The "ko" is "k" plus "o", as in "comb".

The same pattern repeats for every other consonant.

Visiting Japanese schools

Probably the most important reason to practice the Japanese language nihongoにほんご ・ 日本語にほんご is to visit actual schools in Japan.

I know this sounds far-fetched for a white-belt teenager in an American or European town, but it is a real possibility.

Many schools welcome black-belt kuro obiくろおび ・ 黒帯くろおび practitioners to visit their school dōjōどうじょう ・ 道場どうじょう for two weeks to improve their art. Remember, it would be polite to wear the white belt shiro obiしろおび ・ 白帯しろおび as you arrive, out of respect for the school and the "beginner's mind", shoshinしょしん ・ 初心しょしん attitude.

I think everyone should dream of such a visit and strive to make it happen.

Why We Use Japanese in the Dojo?

I have been practicing martial arts in Poland, Okinawa, Japan, Chicago, and Washington State.

Three continents, three national languages, a single set of commands in Japanese. 

Similarly, when using the first computer I purchased (Atari 800XL), I never changed the system settings to the local Polish language. Somehow, even back then, I knew that if I wanted to take computers seriously, I needed to learn in the language of origin. To this day, when I see family or friends struggling with Polish menus, I helplessly shrug my shoulders despite being an architect and a director-level software developer.

It is called lingua franca in trade business, or lingua latina in intellectual circles. 

Europe has had Latin and especially Greek for the past three thousand years. Scientists, clergy, and lawyers use Latin names to be precise in biology and medicine, and even in everyday writing (e.g., for "et cetera", "et al.", and thousands of other words). Everybody knows enough Greek to understand what "geo-logy" or "anthropo-morphic" means.

The worldwide community of Japanese martial arts practitioners uses Japanese. 

This is not because Japanese is particularly easy, nor does anyone expect practitioners to become fluent.

We learn Japanese so we can distinguish the nuanced difference between, for example, the two "hook-punch swings", kagi-tsuki and furi-tsuki. OK, I am showing off.

The alternative, which is translating everything into the local language, would shatter the single most important thing that connects us to each other and to the source: the integrity of the common art.

Until this point, I have avoided using Japanese names in my writing, except for commonly known terms like "karate" or "dojo". 

However, as I am writing this publication, I want to learn and practice just enough Japanese to build a common language for the art.

Please expect to see notation such as this, and I will explain the rest as we progress.

- <ruby>kagi-tsuki<rt>かぎつき</rt></ruby> ・ <ruby>鉤突き<rt>かぎつき</rt></ruby> 

- <ruby>furi-tsuki<rt>ふりつき</rt></ruby> ・ <ruby>振り突き<rt>ふりつき</rt></ruby>