Back in the day there was no writing system in Japan. Then one day some Chinese Monk Dudes came to over and introduced the Chinese characters “Kanji” to the Japanese people. Of course Kanji was crazy difficult and required lots of study to master, so mostly the rich folks could learn. Then one day some people said “Hey, this Kanji thing really sucks!! There has got to be a better way!!”. So what they did was simplify some of the Kanji into characters that represented the sounds of the Japanese language. Then the first form of Kana was introduced. Later they were like man how the hell are we going to know if the word is a Japanese word, or a borrowed word from another language? So they thought, lets make another alphabet to be used with foreign or borrowed words. Now the common folk and the rich people alike had ways to communicate using the written word.

The End.

References if you want to read the full story:
Japanese writing system
Hiragana
Katakana

Digg Verification Code b0235d42541c4a5190591041b8667022

“a”, “bu”, “na”, “i” = Dangerous in English (The yellow letters on the sign).  あぶない

Hopefully it will be approved in a week or two!?

To Eat = Ta Be Ru = た　べ　る　＝　食べる

To Drink = No Mu = の　む　＝　飲む

To Go = I Ku = い　く　＝　行く

To Come = Ku Ru = く　る　＝　来る

To Sleep = Ne Ru = ね　る　＝　寝る

To Do = Su Ru = す　る　＝　する

Well I am starting to mess around with the design on the iPad version of Kana Sounds, the Hiragana and Katakana App.  The screen capture above is what I am leaning toward right now. Since the iPad has a lot of screen real estate I decided to use it

Stay tuned!

Here is a screen capture from the Yahoo! Japan website. I thought it would be cool to show you how World Cup was written in Katakana, so here you go.

ワールドカップ　(Waarudo Kappu）＝　World Cup

南　＝　みなみ　= mi na mi = South

アフリカ = A Fu Ri Ka = Africa

大会 = 　たいかい    = taikai  = Big Meet (literally)

The first example here is from Fukuoka Magazine. You will notice that there is Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana on the main headline. With this picture we will ignore everything except for the Katakana. It says カラだ　or “ka” “ra” “da” if you sound it out. “Karada” is a Japanese word that is usually written in Kanji or Hiragana, and it means “Body” as in your body.

Now you must be saying “TIME OUT”!! Katakana is supposed to be for borrowed words from other languages!! Why are they doing this? Why are they trying to confuse me? Well there are probably several reasons for this:

1. It looks cool
2. Artistic balance
3. It’s a headline so they are trying to attract attention
4. If they used Hiragana it would blend in with the particles
5. They are trying to confuse the gaijin studying Japanese (Joking)

Unfortunately, this type of thing happens all the time, so you just have to get used to it. It is going to confuse the hell out of you, especially when you are a beginner. Hell I’m sure it confuses some Japanese people too!

The Kana Sounds App is my first time programming for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Also, it’s really my first time programming in a long long time. The iPhone was the first platform that really got me excited enough to actually want to code! As this is my first “real” App, I am still a newbie so I welcome any advice or recommendations.

The App itself was made to teach you how to read Hiragana and Katakana, two “alphabets” from the Japanese language.  Instead of just making a simple flashcard program I decided to do more of a multimedia flashcard set. Each button on the screen plays the correct Japanese pronunciation. A  female Japanese native speaker was used for the sound files.

The interface is a simple tab bar navigation with vertically scrolling pages. Just swipe up and down to navigate through all the characters. For the buttons I used the “Touch Up Inside” option with coding it, which means it plays the sounds once you lift off your finger.  This is a little inside baseball but most people who make Apps use this method so I didn’t want to stray too far away from the norm.

Eric