Konnichiwa. Yuko-sensei desu.
Kyoo wa Katakana no tango o yomu renshuu o shimashoo.
Today let's practice reading Katakana vocabulary.
In this lesson, I'm going to focus on Katakana words with small "tsu" ッ for double consonants
like this one.
ro-k-ku.
Like Hiragana spelling, this small "tsu" indicates there are double consonants, which is "kk"
in this case.
Even though you don't pronounce the first consonant "k" here you still give one beat
when you pronounce the word.
So, this particular word has three beats like this.
ro-k-ku. ro-k-ku.
It's not ro-ku.
It's ro-k-ku.
If you haven't watched this lesson where I explain how to pronounce Japanese double consonants,
please go to the lesson.
I'll leave the link to the lesson in the description below.
Also, please be sure to try other Katakana reading practices that I have on my channel.
This is the practice lesson for Long Vowels.
And this one is for Glides with small ya, yu, yo.
Ok, before we get into today's drill, let me point out one thing that you need to keep
in mind when you write Japanese words with small-sized letters.
Let me use this word, "Rokku" as an example.
If I place each Katakana letter of this word in virtual squares, this is how it should look.
Ro-k-ku.
Pay attention to the small "tsu" here.
Do you see that?
The small "tsu" is placed in the lower half of the square, right?
This is the correct location for any small-sized letters in Japanese spelling.
It doesn't matter if it's Katakana or Hiragana, or if it's a small "tsu" for double consonants
or small "ya, yu, yo" for Glides.
Any small letters in Japanese words have to be placed in the lower half of the square.
This is when you are writing horizontally.
But if you are going to write vertically, then you have to place the small letters in
the right half of the square like this.
By the way, you can read this Katakana word, right?
This is jazu. jazu.
What about this one?
Right.
This is na-t-tsu. na-t-tsu as in "peanuts."
And, of course, you do the same when you are writing something in Hiragana too.
If you are writing it vertically, you place small letters in the right half of the square.
If you are writing it horizontally, then you place it in the lower half of the square.
Now take a look at this particular word.
This word has two types of small-sized letters in one word.
This is small "tsu" for double consonants and this is small "yo" for Glides.
As you can see, both letters are placed in the lower half of the square.
This is the proper way of spelling.
Can you pronounce this word, by the way?
This is isshoni いっしょに, isshoni which means "together" in Japanese.
Never place them in the upper part of the square like this, ok?
When I'm checking my student's writing, I sometimes notice that these small letters are misplaced.
Please be careful not to place them above the centerline.
They have to be placed below the line like this.
The same goes for Katakana words.
Don't place the small letters too high but place them in the lower half of the square.
Ok, let's begin today's exercise.
Just like previous Katakana drills, I'm going to show you Katakana word and give you five
seconds to figure out how to read it.
For this lesson, I chose 11 Katakana words that are originated in English.
So, if you know how to pronounce it, you may be able to figure out its meaning too.
Feel free to pause the video anytime if you need more time to think about it, ok?
After five seconds, I'll give you the answer.
For your convenience, I added the timestamps for each Katakana word in the description
box below.
Ok, let's begin. The first one.
Chiketto, chiketto.
Messeeji, messeeji.
Shoppingu, shoppingu.
Yooroppa, yooroppa.
Jaketto, jaketto.
Ruuretto, ruuretto.
Poppukoon, poppukoon.
Koohii kappu, koohii kappu.
Intaanetto, intaanetto.
Since now you know how to say "internet," you may be able to easily guess the meaning
of the next word.
How do you pronounce it and what is it?
Right.
This is Netto shoppu, netto shoppu meaning "online shop."
Ok, here is the last one.
Sutaa bakkusu, sutaa bakkusu.
I'm not sure if you know about this, but Japanese people have the tendency to make loan words
shorter and create their own terms.
Starbucks is one of them.
When Starbucks first came to Japan, people used to call it Su-ta-a-ba-k-ku-su.
But since then, they have come up with the shorter version of the name by picking up
these three syllables and call it Su-ta-ba.
Su-ta-ba.
Nowadays, this is the most common term for Starbucks in Japan.
Same with the smartphone.
It used to be su-ma-a-to-ho-n but now people just call it su-ma-ho. su-ma-ho.
A personal computer used to be pa-a-so-na-ru-ko-n-pyu-u-ta-a.
Pa-a-so-na-ru-ko-n-pyu-u-ta-a in Japanese but now it's just pa-so-ko-n.
Pa-so-ko-n.
I hope you enjoyed today's exercise and now feel more comfortable reading Katakana words
with long vowels, glides, and double consonants.
In the next Katakana exercise, I'm going to introduce the special spelling rules that
exist only for Katakana words.
We don't use this for Hiragana words.
It's a special spelling system that was invented for Katakana only to transcribe foreign words
with the sounds that we don't have in Japanese.
For instance, a word like this, "chef."
We have the sounds sha-shu-sho in Japanese but we don't have the sound "she."
Then, how do we spell this word "chef" in Katakana?
I'm going to teach you that in the next lesson.
If you are interested in learning how to write Katakana, I have the complete Katakana lessons
on my channel so please check them out.
I will leave the link to the playlist in the description.
I also have Katakana chart and practice sheets that you can download on my website.
I'll leave all the information down below.
Dewa, mata tsugi no lesson de aimashoo! (See you in the next lesson!)