Hello. I have a question about learning Japanese that is probably stupid.
Once you learn hiragana and katakana, though you can read what the writing will say, will you also understand the meaning behind it in English? Or do you have to memorise the hiragana and katakana then learn all the meaning behind the words?
2 comments
You also have to learn all the words, as well as more complicated symbols called Kanji. Just like you don‘t understand French or German or Itslian even though they use the same letters as English
Just like letters in English don’t really mean anything unless you make words with them, hiragana and katakana are used to make words that you will just learn one by one. When you start learning a language most people rely on understanding words with the equivalent in their own language. Getting more advanced though, it is ideal to not have to think about what the word is in your native language but rather just understand what the meanings are.
Also, Japanese uses kanji, Chinese characters, which do have meanings on their own but are also used to build other vocabulary.
Hiragana and katakana are just scripts for writing and reading. You have to learn words using them.