Hiragana Chart ひらがな
Assignment: Hiragana Chart FL-170-003
My first memories around learning to read and write are few, but my most vivid recollections come from the first years of elementary school. I can clearly recall a day in Kindergarten when I was being tested on letters. The teacher sat each student down and would quiz them on recognizing letters (as well as which hand was your right, and which was your left). When it was my turn, I remember looking over her shoulder and above the blackboard, along which ran a decorative illustration of all the letters of the alphabet.
That's right: my first memory of learning to read involved cheating on a test. (Coincidentally, I also didn't know my left hand from my right.)
Later, in first grade, I remember another sit-down test with the teacher. We had to read a very simple children's book to her. The pages contained illustrations of a boy and his dog, and phrases like: "See Jack run. Run Jack, run."
In this image, Jack speaks just like a real human child.
I cheated on that test as well. I couldn't read everything in the book, but I had heard my classmates run (Jack run) through the pages so many times, I just recited it to her.
Later, there were endless drills on cursive letters. Countless silent minutes in class as I worked at matching how each letter's curves and swirls intersected the dotted marks that ran down the center of each wide-ruled notebook line. Soon came further drills where we were to connect the letters so they ran together into words.
Little did I know that twenty years that entire system of writing would be abandoned. Or that by adulthood my handwriting would devolve into an unruly block-lettering chicken-scratch that was nearly unintelligible to anyone but myself. (Mostly. Once in a grocery store, while looking down at a list I had written, I spent fruitless minutes trying to decipher the final item. "Does that say.... fan???")
I learned Hiragana through brute force repetition last year. I remember the first four columns came easily, the characters for vowels, K, S, and T all nestling easily into my mind. Whether through fatigue, or having filled the leaky jar of my memory, the N-column was where I first hit trouble. Is this "nu" or "ne"? What was "ni" again? From there every successive column was won through sheer determination (and about a hundred repetitions each on my iPad Hiragana app).
Although it wasn't easy to carve those new neural pathways, there were some fun moments along the way. After the 675th consecutive time of forgetting "ni", I mentally pictured the hiragana に as a representation of the leader of the "Knights Who Say Ni" from Monty Python.
We shall make you write 'Ni' again if you do not appease us.
I enjoy writing Hiragana now. Even though it is the first baby-step to learning Japanese, demonstrating my knowledge through reading and writing it feels like a triumph. I couldn't do it before, and now I can. I've forced my brain to change, to learn, to grow. I'm proud of myself!
Although fonts cause differences, our roman/english alphabet feels much more rigid than hiragana: lots of straight-lines, vertical bars and crossbeams. I imagine ancient romans striking the characters into stone with sharp chisels. Hiragana flows, curves, dances. When I look at it I imagine inky brushstrokes on paper. The characters are already interesting, and I know my understanding of them is still very basic. I know that Hiragana characters are simplified versions of Kanji, and though I don't know all the roots, I am excited to uncover those mysteries as I continue to study.
As for any future tests... do I have to go first? 😅
Hi Eric. Very interesting post. I never did learn cursive writing. I think it is interesting in the English language. My Great Grandmother still writes long letters to us in tiny cursive and I try to decode it. I am also enjoying learning to write in Hiragana.
ReplyDeleteFirstly I would like to say that you tells stories really well. I was so invested in your passage and related well to a lot of what you said. It makes sense that writing hiragana can come pretty naturally to you when you finally found a way to write English in a way that fit you: Cursive~
ReplyDeleteI also love the differences you pointed out in the way each language was taught or originated.
Eric-san,
ReplyDeleteI feel like your earliest memories of learning in elementary is more of a testament to modern society trying to help very young humans figure out how to communicate - it is hard! Even if you're surrounded by it.
Great job on committing so much hiragana to memory!