We’ve covered 6 lines of Katakana
a-ka, or sa-ta, na-ha, and now we’re up to the  ma & ya

I was waiting to do this lesson because I had nothing relevant to say about the kana. Luckily, today I found my topic. Well, won it I should say. In class today, we played a round of Katakana bingo.  Last time we played the Winners got 2 little bags of Japanese Candy & everyone else just got a single piece. Today, I won the bingo game & was given a bottle of Ramune, a Japanese soda. (Tastes like THIS, if you’ve tried either.) It’s kind of a pain to open, but there were several of my classmates that knew how it worked. The neat thing about this soda is the bottle. It’s called a codd-neck bottle, and is sealed by a marble & the pressure from the soda, very clever. A quick youtube search will get you TONS of how to “open ramune,” but most of them pronounce it wrong. It’s not  “RAMOON” it’s ra-mu-ne like all good Japanese students know.

When I get more, I”ll make my own “How-to video.” Now I just need to get the marble out…

But on with the Show!

One of the biggest problems I’ve encountered with Katakana is that ア (a), マ (ma) & ヤ (ya) look so similar. Just note the angles of the vertical straight lines, & if & where they cross the top part.

マ   ミ   ム   メ   モ
ma mi mu me mo
ヤ ユ   ヨ
ya yu yo

hiragana my-ya

Some words using these Kana:
ラ ム ネ
ramune

ニューヨーク
Nyuu- Yo-ku
New York

Practice!

がんばって
Ganbatte!