The (Learning) Hiragana Song
When a foreigner sits down to start learning Japanese, he or she must prepare to learn three writing (and reading) systems: kanji (the old Chinese characters) and hiragana and katakana, two modern sound syllabaries that make it easier for young people to first pick up their mother tongue. Foreigners also can use hiragana and katakana to pick up some Japanese, and if you really study hard and become a fluent speaker of nihongo, more power to you!
Meanwhile, as a gesture of international goodwill, I created a simple, silly song for beginning learners of hiragana and katakana, just to put you in the mood. This version is actually a pre-pre-release version of a song-still-in-progress titled "The [Learning] Hiragana Song." I jotted down the "lyrics" a year ago after thinking for years about how hard it was for me to learn the hiragana and katakana syllabies, and how a simple silly song might have helped. In its own minor way, of course. I'm still hetakuso!
The intent of this novelty song ― which of course still has a long way to go before it becomes a really ''listenable'' song ― is to give beginning learners of Japanese in the West, in the UK and USA and Australia, a fun activity to get them started or to raise their interest in between real classroom learning.
Give it a listen at this site here. Also, you can follow along on this site here if you find it hard to hear all the words in the song. NOTE: at the music website, click on the earphone icon or the yellow cube with a big black dot in the middle. That is where you can hear the song. NOT the download button....
A friend in New York commented: "Nice. My office-mate says it sounds like Sesame Street Meets J-Pop."
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