Learning Japanese *Rinen's Corner #.5*

My Totoro pouch :3.  I'm working on editing...and I'm not good at it lol
My Neighbor Totoro (c) Studio Ghibli

It's finally here...! My (arguably) beautiful post on learning Japanese *^_^*

You're probably wondering why I called it 'Rinen's Corner'. Wonder no more :)! Here's why: When I moved back to Vermont as a Junior, I took Japanese at Essex High School under the bestest language teacher anyone could ever hope to have, Yukari Muramoto-sensei. 

Normally, I would call her Muramoto-sensei...but she put an American twist on her name by allowing her students to call her Yukari-sensei. Anyway, everyone who studied under her was given a Japanese-style name, so my name, Lynanne, became the closest-sounding equivalent that matched into the kana system: Rinen （リネン）. 

Yukari-sensei would periodically instruct us regarding Japanese culture and linguistic peculiarities (aka important stuff we needed to know), and when she did, she'd make a worksheet and label it 'Yukari's Corner'.... 

And although I'm not even remotely as familiar with Japanese as Yukari-sensei :D, I wanted to honor her teaching and tradition. Hence, Rinen's Corner! Woot!

So...what am I going to be sharing in this corner?

Seriously, though--I had a LOT of ideas about where I wanted to start. I finally settled on the obvious: getting started. (Good call, right? My brilliance is blinding sometimes, so uh, you might need to get out your sunglasses...) 

But how do you just 'start learning' Japanese? The first thing that pops into my mind as I consider the 'learning environment' is resources.

So for this post, I'm going to be sharing *resources*, along with a tutorial on how to introduce yourself/discover your 'Japanese' name, and a proverb. 

In my next corner--coming September--I'll attempt to give a mini-lesson that targets reading, listening, writing, and speaking. I'd also like to have a proverb/poem (I'd love to feature some of the Hyaku-nin isshu...!) and a bit of culture :), as well as some prayer requests. 

Just keep in mind: I'm a writer, and keeping up with The Blog is challenging! These posts may not be 'the best ever+infinity+1', you know?

Anyway, I really wanted to highlight some places to get out there and start learning Japanese without breaking the bank--apps, websites, books--to start off because that's going to make your learning experience about 150% easier and more fruitful. (My l33t math skills are also blinding.) 

Ok, let's get acquainted with the alphabet(s) first.

There's kana, which encompasses 1) ひらがな hiragana (used for native words that aren't affiliated with kanji, like ありがとう　arigatou, thank you) and 2) カタカナ katakana (used for foreign words like コラ cola, coke; or to draw attention for say a business sign). *Tae Kim is fantastic!

Hiragana tends to be more delicate and 'curvaceous' than katakana, which is largely linear. 

Then there's the one Japanese language students dread: 3) 漢字 kanji. Kanji are Chinese characters that have been integrated into Japanese...and man, are there a lot of them. At least 1,600 of them fall into the category of 'daily use' O_O! Kanji looks different than kana, but still uses same sounds.