こんにちにゃあ！Welcome to Kiki+Koko: Let’s NihonGO!! Online, the Blog, brought to you via the World Wide Web. Today, it’s time to get out your pens and pencils and a piece of recycled paper—repeat as many times as you like whilst saving the Earth, it’s a pretty okay planet—we’re going to show you how to write the second set in this li’l thing called hiragana, 【かきくけこ】! 

After this, you’ll be able to write our names using hiragana!

Kiki   = 嬉嬉 = きき
Koko =  興子 =こうこ

Now, I suppose would be the time for a fun-fact. While we romanise 興子 properly as Kouko, there’s lots of liberties that can be taken when westernising a name. Like Yoko Ono’s true name kanji is 洋子 which is usually romanised as Youko. But, she usually spells her name using katakana オノ・ヨーコ as someone who is usually born in a non-Japanese nation would spell their name. But, that’s all the fun facts for today. Onto the lesson! …In just a moment:

If this is your very first time with Japanese language, you skipped lesson 1, or  and maybe all you know is that you want to learn Japanese, then maybe you’re asking yourself, what’s a hiragana or what are these squiggles I’m looking at?. If so, we recommend you take a quick read of How Do You Write in Japanese? | Japanese Writing System Demystified (Let’s NihonGO!!) and just come back to this later when you have a good grasp on how this whole thing called Japanese writing works. If you’re not sure what stroke order is or why it’s important, you can take a look at our article:🤔Do I REALLY need to learn Stroke Order? | 6 Reasons Why {or Why not?} | What is Stroke Order? (Let’s NihonGO!!)

頑張りましょう！Let’s do our best!

And, don’t forget our helpful computer friend, QUIZBO™, who’s here to show you how each hiragana character is written using the latest and most advanced technology we have available to us: arrows.

But, honestly, it gives you a chance to go at your own pace with these! Don’t worry, we’ll give you tips on some of these if there’s anything else you need to know.

How to use stroke order

Before we properly begin, we figured it would be best to give you a quick overview on how to read these diagrams. For each character, there’s mostly 3-4 strokes that are written in a specific order. Each number signifies which stroke should come first. Start where the circled number begins and write the stroke in the direction in which the arrow is pointing. If you want to see what each step looks like and what yours should look like at that stage, then take a look at the squares on the right. They squares are ordered up to down and right to left in Japanese order. And, that’s the whole of it!

Take out your pencils and paper, your tablets and styli, Let’s write hiragana! 

Let’s NihonGO!!

Protip: You might see き written with the third and fourth stroke combined, but it’s supposed to emulate the trailing of the brush- In handwriting, you’ll notice it written this way more often. There’s cute and fancy handwriting meant to mimic fonts, but for now, you don’t have to pay any mind~ 

Protip: Well, this isn’t much of a protip, but this looks like a duck mouth, cheering you on with their quacks. 

Protip: The tail at the end of the first stroke is where it trails off for the quick second stroke. But, it’s not uncommon to see け with just a curved line.

And there you have it! かきくけこ! Be sure to return often and practise frequently to help them stick in your mind. Never underestimate the power of repetition! And, if you ever get overwhelmed with your studies, just take a quick break and start fresh. Every moment won’t be like a wonderful trip to the moon, but you’ll feel a sense of accomplishment as you work towards your goals!

Helpful Kiki+Koko: Let’s NihonGO!! References:
          

We hope this was/will be helpful for you on your Japanese learning journey!
Until next time, thank you for visiting! And have a lovely day!