こんにちにゃあぁ～！Welcome to Kiki+Koko: Let’s NihonGO!! Online, the Blog, in glorious technicolour! We’re your helpful guides to Japanese language and more: Kiki and Koko! And, oh yes, it’s that time, again. It’s time to learn how to properly write more hiragana!  Totally terrific tests of triumph:【たちつてと】！While our favourite hiragana are ゑ and ゐ, these are our favourite to say quickly in a row. Though, today, isn’t about saying, it’s about writing; BUT! if you’re still learning to read 【たちつてと】, or you just want to bolster your skills, you can say the characters as you write them.

In case this is the first you’ve ever seen of us, or Japanese language, we figure it’s important to mention: if you’re asking yourself, what’s a hiragana? or what are these squiggles I’m looking at?, your questions should be answered with this article written just for you! (That’s right! Just for YOU!!): How Do You Write in Japanese? | Japanese Writing System Demystified (Let’s NihonGO!!) and then you can come back to the other articles and this one after you’re comfortable with this little thing called Japanese writing thing 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!!)

書きましょう！Let’s write!!

Now that anyone who wasn’t caught up is probably now up to speed, we can bring in our favourite computer friend, QUIZBO™, who is here to show how each hiragana is written using the latest and most advanced technology we have available to us: arrow diagrams.

Though simple, it’s very effective to help you go at your own pace! We’ll be right here to give you helpful hints along the way.

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!!

Kiki+Koko’s Helpful Hints:
If you remember our good ole friend こ,then you’re already halfway there! See stroke 3 and 4? You can use the same protip for this one! We always think that た looks like it has a 「t」 in it already, so that might help you remember how to write it.

Kiki+Koko’s Helpful Hints:
Oh, this is another early reunion with a previous hiragana! Remember さ? Yeah, this isn’t さ, and the protip for さ definitely will help you differentiate these two. In most computer fonts, this doesn’t really show up, but the biggest differentiation is its orientation.

Remember, ち ≠ さ and さ ≠ ち — A practise word might help! 

ちいさい（小さい）chiisai = small

Hmm, but you might still want to know:

ちっちゃい (小っちゃい) chicchai = tiny

Hopefully that helps you practise differentiating, and then you can use 「ちいさい」 to practise your writing~!☆

Kiki+Koko’s Helpful Hints:
Well… Hm… There’s not much else we can really add to this one-stroke hiragana. But, you’re probably doing great, keep up the good work!

Kiki+Koko’s Helpful Hints:
Another one-stroke wonder~ Hmm, not much to add, but— Oh! Well, we can give you a practise word:

て (手) = arm, hand

And, it kind of looks like an arm? …A little? … A little.

Kiki+Koko’s Helpful Hints:
Well, there isn’t really much more to this one… But, we’re proud of you for getting this far! You’re going to be able to write all sorts of words! Some great practise words can be found in the reading and bonus section~ 

And, that’s that! That’s たちつてと! Now, all that’s left is to write, rinse, repeat! Return as often as you like and write them as often as possible– It’ll really help you memorise these! Sometimes it’s a bit fun just to apply your knowledge with some vocabulary words, but don’t weigh yourself down with too many characters at once if you’re not ready. And, if you ever get overloaded, you can take a break and come back to it. Rushing can overwhelm anyone, but patience and taking stock of your goals can help out! Just think of all that you’ve learnt so far, and enjoy the journey, even if it can be a bit of work. But, it’s something you can be proud of! And, we’re proud of you, too~

We hope this was/will be helpful for you on your Japanese learning journey!
We really appreciate that you’ve chosen to learn with us.
Until next time, thank you for visiting! We can’t wait to see you again!
♡Kiki+Koko

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