Welcome to Kiki+Koko: Let’s NihonGO!! Online, Japanese language lessons transmitted via Internet for availability through the Earth’s very own World Wide Web.

If you’ve been through lessons あ through こ, then congratulations! You’ve learnt 10 new characters totally different to the roman letters you may be used to– That’s quite the feat, and it’s only going to get more fun from here. If you haven’t had a look at the previous characters or don’t know them yet, we still think it’s best to start in order, but hey, we’re just glad you’re here.

Think of when you first started learning your native alphabet as a child– reading and writing probably didn’t take a day, it took a while of immersing yourself and recognising the characters over and over. So, if you’re ever stuck, then just remember that you’re already doing something above and beyond, here. It’s already quite impressive to even start to learn, and you should feel accomplished making it this far. That being said, you’ll feel that much more once you’ve fully learnt hiragana. You’ll be that much closer to fluency– The clouds will part and it’ll be like you suddenly have a window into a new world, or maybe a world that was around you all along.

So, today, we’re going to learn how to read the next five hiragana. If you’re not sure what hiragana is, then be sure to take a look at this article to see how the Japanese writing system works. 

どうも！QUIZBO™でございます！日本語を学びましょう！ Let’s NihonGO!!

But, without further ado, we’ll need to enlist the help of our computer friend, QUIZBO™くん！(The ™ is silent) This is a portable version, QUIZBO™ Mini, who lives here on the site. He’ll be here to help sound out these hiragana for you. You can click the sound ‘bytes’ as many times as you’d like, QUIZBO™ won’t mind. ( Get it, bytes? … Computer?  …We’ll stick to teaching Japanese. ) Afterwards, you’ll be able to take a quiz with QUIZBO™ to help you review them or test your knowledge! Are you ready!?

Let’s NihonGO!! さしすせそ!!

We’re going to show you the character, then you you can click the play button to hear QUIZBO™ sound it out for you. But, as a better visualisation of each sound, we also have the romanised pronunciation of each character so you have something in English to which you can compare it.

In romaji, 「さ」 is transliterated as「sa」which sounds like 「sahh」

In romaji, 「し」 is transliterated as 「shi」which sounds a little like the pronoun「she」

In romaji, 「す」 is transliterated as 「su」which sounds like 「Sue」 or like the 「Su」in「Susan」

In romaji, 「せ」 is transliterated as 「se」which sounds like 「say」♫Say, say, say♬

 In romaji, 「そ」 is transliterated as 「so」which sounds like the conjuction,「so」and looks a little like a crotchet rest ( 𝄽 )

Ta-daa! And that’s how you read: さしすせそ! If you study these, and repeat them aloud, and revise, we’re sure you’ll be able to read and recognise さしすせそ in no time! Or, take all the time you need, the journey is yours for the travelling.

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 wonderful day!