While not necessary at all to learn, enjoy, or even get good at Karate, knowing some basic Japanese can help to add to one's enjoyment and understanding of Karate and Japanese culture. It's also just nice to know you're pronouncing things correctly.
# Karate Words
See Vocabulary
# Pronunciation
This is an excellent article with information on pronouncing Japanese (opens new window)
# Reading Japanese
# Hiragana
A writing system of Japanese, hiragana is phonetic so if you can read it, you can say it (unlike English). Tofugu present an excellent resource on learning to read hiragana here (opens new window) They also go over correct pronunciation of sounds.
# Katakana
Katakana is another writing of Japanese, it uses the exact same sounds as hiragana and is just another way to represent the same sounds. It's usually reserved for things like loan words or for providing emphasis (kind of like how use capital letters to SHOUT.) Here (opens new window) is another excellent resource for learning from Tofugu.
# Kanji
Kanji is the most difficult of Japanese alphabets to learn and the characters themselves originated in China. Wanikani (opens new window) is an excellent resource for learning kanji, however for the average person's needs (looking up what a kanji means), using a dictionary like Jisho (opens new window) is probably enough.
# Resources
Some resources for learning Japanese
- Spaced Repetition and Japanese: The Definitive Guide (opens new window): An intro to what I consider one of the best tools for learning in general (not just languages)
- Tofugu (opens new window): All kinds of articles around learning methods and resources (as well as about Japan and it's culture)
- Tae Kim's Guide to Japanese (opens new window): Mostly grammar but goes over pronunciation
- Reddit's /r/LearnJapanese's Starter Guide (opens new window): A community dedicated to Japanese learning, filled with resources for learning