Meet the R family in hiragana and learn how to correctly write your strokes!
Before we start studying the symbols of this hiragana family, remember that the hiragana family “R” in Japanese is read as the “R” of CARO and not the “R” of RAIO.
Also, in many cases the “R” in the Japanese language is read as “L”. I call it chive syndrome. There is no rule to show when changing the "R" for the "L", but over time we end up picking up some tricks.
RA = ら
Well… The first time I learned this symbol, I associated it with the image of “Rambo”, that character so well known from war movies. The first line would be the red band and the second line would be the face and nose (very exaggerated by the way.). To link the sound to the drawing, I distorted the reading of “Rambo” to resemble the Japanese reading. Imagine as if Galvão Boeno ( I don't know if his name is spelled like that. ) was shouting “Rambo!” instead of “Ronaldinho!”, pulling the “R” as he always does.
If you are not satisfied with this association, you can use others. I've seen some students associate RA with an upside-down “a” or a “b” while wearing a hat. Use your imagination and leave the rest to your brain that it does everything right when it comes to remembering the sound and strokes of each symbol.
RI = り
The hiragana “RI” always reminds me of a “y” Laughing a lot. In fact, laughing my ass off. Again I distort the “R” from laughing (laugh) to resemble the Japanese reading and thus remember the sound of this hiragana.
RU = る
This one is pretty easy. Note that the top of the hiragana resembles a “7” (number seven) and the bottom (bottom) of it resembles an upside-down finger. So we have a seven-fingered hand with bitten nails. The mutant, owner of this hand, is very nervous and is always biting his nails.
As with all characters in this family, I distort the “r” sound so that it sounds similar to Japanese reading. Then read “gnawed” and “gnawed” as if it were the “ru” sound, becoming “noise” or “ruendo”.
RE = れ
I don't know if you noticed, but whenever a vertical line appears in the hiragana symbols I associate him with a ninja, as in に. Remember? This case will be no different. The first dash is a ninja and the second is composed of the numeral “7” and the drawing of a wave. So we have a ninja, who surfs using the numeral “7” as a board in an attempt to win a race. A lot of traveling isn't it? The crazier the association of symbols, the easier it is for the brain to learn and remember later.
Use your imagination to see the scene in your mind as exaggeratedly as possible, and you'll prove what I'm saying when doing the exercises. Don't forget to distort the sound of the word “regata” to resemble the sound of “re” of the word “picareta” which, in turn, will sound similar to the sound of the Japanese reading.
RO = ろ
Another easy-to-learn symbol is the “RO”. Look closely at it and you will see the numeral “3”. Now imagine Roberto Carlos wearing a white shirt with a big blue “3” stamp (hehe). In addition, he repeats each word of his song lyrics three times when he sings. Again, remember to distort the “RO” of “Roberto” to resemble the Japanese reading.
Personal encouragement! We are in the penultimate family of the hiragana. After that, we'll learn four more symbols, make a few thoughts about vowel extensions, accents, and double kanas using hiragana. Finally, we will have another battery of exercises to fix all the symbols studied.
Japanese calligraphy exercise
Select the Japanese alphabet symbols and click the Generate button in the Worksheet for Kana and Kanji Practice . Then a new window will open with the file for printing. Then just print it out, cover the gray hiragana symbols and then try to write it yourself. Just print and practice!
| り | る | れ | ろ |