Families, Part 2: Kanji 人 and Hiragana Practice

Let's learn our first kanji and practice what we've learned about hiragana.

The Kanji 人

As we've discussed previously, Japanese uses three collections of characters: hiragana, katakana and kanji. Even though you will not be expected to memorize the following, we're going to explore our first kanji, which is 人.

To begin with, look at the following to see the stroke order for this kanji. The image below is an animated gif showing the stroke order, but it does not loop. If you would like to see the order again, reload the page.

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Kanji Readings

In Japanese, kanji often have multiple readings, including a Japanese reading and a Chinese reading (Japanese kanji were borrowed from Chinese characters and often carry over readings from Chinese). For this kanji, we have two readings:

Japanese reading: ひと (hito)
- この　人 = kono hito: this person
- その　人 = sono hito: that person
- あの　人 = ano hito: that person over there
Chinese reading: じん (jin)
- にほん人 = nihon-jin: Japanese person
- アメリカ人 = amerika-jin: American person

Kanji Meaning

The basic meaning of 人 is person. Can you see a person in this Kanji? This kanji has more than two ways to read, and the chart shows it read as hito and jin. Hito is the Japanese reading and jin is the Chinese reading. You may also notice that the Chinese reading is attached to another word, while the Japanese reading stands alone as its own word. You will learn more about Kanji in Lesson 36, but keep this in mind as you work on your lessons.

Suffixes: -go and -jin

There are two different suffixes added to the names of countries:

ご = used for the language
人 (じん) = used for the people

Please look at the chart below to explore the difference with examples.

**Using Suffixes with Country Names**
Country	+go（ご）	+jin（人＝じん）
Japan	にほん＋ご＝にほんご nihon + go = nihongo	にほん＋人＝にほん人（にほんじん） nihon + jin = nihon-jin
America	アメリカ＋ご＝えいご amerika +go = eigo*	アメリカ＋人＝アメリカ人（アメリカじん） amerika + jin = amerika-jin

*Note: Americans speak English, so we use eigo.

Hiragana Reading Practice

Practice reading the following words with your partner. Partner B covers the roomaji and the English translations. Partner A tells Partner B which words to read. For example, Partner A says, Number 3.* Partner B reads ふね correctly as fune.

Listen to the words from the list at a slow speed first to get a sense for the sound. Listen as many times as you like and pause to repeat each word. The narrator begins each word by saying the number (ichi - hai, etc.).

**Hiragana Reading Practice**
Hiragana 1-5	Hiragana 6-10	Hiragana 11-15	Hiragana 16-20
はいひとふねほしにほんご	ははへいじつほしいへいたひく	へいせいふたつひがしはたちふつか	ほくせいひふはこひたちはなす

*For a greater challenge, use ichi-ban, ni-ban, san-ban, yon-ban, go-ban, roku-ban, nana-ban, hachi-ban, kyuu-ban, juu-ban, juu-ichi-ban, . . ., juu-yon-bon, . . ., juu-nana-ban, . . ., ni-juu-ban.

Once you are comfortable, listen to the words again, but at a normal pace for a native speaker. This time, there is no number read before each word. Can you still understand each word?

Roomaji Readings

Below are the roomaji readings for each hiragana with English meaning.

**Roomaji Readings**
Roomaji 1-5	Roomaji 6-10	Roomaji 11-15	Roomaji 16-20
hai (yes) hito (person) fune (ship) hoshi (star) nihongo (Japanese language)	haha (mother) heijitsu (weekday) hoshii (want) heitai (soldier) hiku (pull)	Heisei (era name) futatsu (two) higashi (east) hatachi (twenty) futsuka (second)	hokusei (northwest) hifu (skin) hako (box) Hitachi (company name) hanasu (speak)

Culture Note: Heisei Era

In Japan, two calendar systems are in use - the Western one with which you are familiar and the Japanese one. The Heisei Era began when Crown Prince Akihito became Emperor in 1989 after the death of his father, Emperor Hirohito. The second year of his reign (1990) was Heisei 2-nen, and 1991 was Heisei 3-nen. Emperor Akihito became the 125th in an uninterrupted royal line which is said to date from 660 BC! Which era is it now? Which year of the era is it?

Practice Activity: Hiragana Reading

Read each of the following words aloud, then write it in your notebook in both hiragana and roomaji. Check your answers by turning the card over. In your notes, circle the hiragana you need to review.

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