Preface: I’m trying to learn my hiragana by writing it over and over again (this method isn’t for everyone, but I learn by doing and by practice, so it’s good for me and I don’t need any more advice telling me that handwriting is a waste of time when I could just type, thank you very much).
Anyway, a lot of the characters are easy to write, but I’m getting a lot of mixed signals about how to correctly write certain characters, especially か , or ‘ka’. Some people have told me it’s ok to limit the curves and that the general shape and proportions matter more, while other people have told me that it absolutely has to maintain the curves and the little looping hook at the end of the first stroke. One of my friends who lived in Japan told me that many Japanese natives don’t even bother writing them with all the curves, and that some of them even use straight lines! I’m so confused. What is the right set of goals for writing this character (and all the others, honestly)? As long as someone can recognize it, is that good enough? Someone help me out here.
(I would post pictures of all my hiragana, but I only know a few characters so far and I feel like it would be silly to ask for specific feedback until I can at least write all the basic characters; I’d like that feedback in bulk).
12 comments
Have a look at [https://youtu.be/RZiKQh8oio4?t=45](https://youtu.be/RZiKQh8oio4?t=45) – most examples of handwriting will be somewhere on a spectrum between the bad and good examples. In other words, it doesn’t matter how you write it as long as others recognize it as a か.
Of course when you are practicing in order to learn them, you should aim to get a reasonably good version – following the stroke order can help with that. When/if you ever need to write it in daily life though, your handwriting will naturally degrade somewhat.
>I’m trying to learn my hiragana by writing it over and over again (this method isn’t for everyone, but I learn by doing and by practice, so it’s good for me and I don’t need any more advice telling me that handwriting is a waste of time when I could just type, thank you very much).
Writing the kana to learn them is a very good idea actually. Must have been beginners that gave that piece of advice.
>One of my friends who lived in Japan told me that many Japanese natives don’t even bother writing them with all the curves, and that some of them even use straight lines!
Here you have your answer. Average native handwriting in any language really looks different from how it’s supposed to look. As long as it’s readable it’s fine, this goes for any language.
I think it would be better if you googled 手書き or か手書き and looked through images, looking for ka’s, neat ones and messy ones. To see what shapes, sizes and proportions people go for, because they’re surprisingly diverse.
Make sure that you learn and use the correct stroke order, and you will be fine. The correct stroke order gives a flow to the character that can be recognized. More info here:
[https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/11479/why-is-stroke-order-important](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/11479/why-is-stroke-order-important)
If you think about it, that helps in any language.
I guess it depends on how “good” or proper you think it should be. The same as in English, if you’re filling out forms it’s probably better to get it to look really nice and readable but if you’re just writing notes then it’s less important. English example again, people write letters and numbers in all sorts of wierd ways, at least from my perspective.
Source: gf is a native and has terrible hand writing, bless her heart.
From my experience with people on Hellotalk, as long as it’s close enough to be legible It’s good enough.
I also practiced learning via the “write it out” method because I believe it is one of the best things you can add to your learning process. 90% of the time Japanese people don’t care about stroke order or how close it is to correct as long as it’s readable. And 90% of the things or people telling me stroke order matters are none native speakers or textbooks.
I will add that understanding how stroke order flows will help in writing things in a way that makes them easier to read. Once you know the flow of stroke order then it will be easier to write new things without knowing the stroke order.
I did download a hiragana worksheet for practice but ended up not making it all the way through it before memorizing hiragana.
http://japanese-lesson.com/characters/hiragana/index.html
This website has good practice worksheets. The proportions is what I had trouble at first and on top of stroke order the worksheet has boxes that help with that.
>I don’t need any more advice telling me that handwriting is a waste of time when I could just type, thank you very much).
Whether you’re doing it to learn the characters or not, it’s definitely a good idea to learn how to handwrite anyway especially if you plan on spending an extended length of time in Japan. One of my friends who’s lived there for a few years now told me it’s essential when I asked that question as you still have to fill in a lot of forms out by hand.
Wouldn’t worry about it. Take one look at native handwriting and you’ll probably find out you’re already putting in a lot more effort than they are.
Hiragana is supposed to be very fluid so I think stroke counts can vary. Like か is usually 3 strokes, but I sometimes do it in 2 (first two run together into a single stroke). き is 4 strokes but I do 3 (last two becomes a single stroke). こ is 2 but I sometimes use just 1 (but if I’m not careful it ends up looking like て). さ is 3 but I use 2 (last two strokes run together). ふ is 3 or even 4, but I use 2 (one stroke for the middle part, and then the last two run together). み is 2 but I use 1. も is 3 but I use 1. や is 3 strokes but I use 1. ゆ is 2 but I use 1. り is 2 but I do 1. And I don’t think I’m just cutting corners; I think this is perfectly acceptable. (Somebody can correct me if I’m wrong.)
But what’s important is the stroke order.
The reason the stroke order is important is because if you use the wrong stroke order then it makes it more difficult to read, especially if you’re writing quickly or in cursive. (More so with kanji, as hiragana is already cursive.) And it’s ugly. You’ll definitely need to know the stroke order if you ever want to do any calligraphy.
If you are the type to learn this way, then it is entirely possible that knowing that KA in both hiragana and Katakana come from 加 might help.
>and that some of them even use straight lines!
That may just be style, but it’s also possible your friend got confused with Katakana. Most Katakana look pretty different from the corresponding Hiragana, but “ka” looks pretty similar:
か
カ
Not identical, obviously, but Katakana is more sharp and angular in general and カ is no exception there.
Nor even natives care much about that so as we don’t care too much about writing a perfect “e” or a perfect “g”. And people telling that writing is a waste of time are just lazy f*cks that feel learning a new skill too much for them, ignore them.
But answering your question, hiragana is round shaped and katakana is square shaped without the extra stroke on the top. Just practice them as you’re seeing them here: か and カ