Blue Sea Tip
Nihongo Support
Mark Hiragana Separations
The following tip has been provided by Todd Adkisson, an editor for several Blue Sea Wordbooks. Star rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Purpose
This technique assists the reader in quickly recognizing each separate language component while reading, thereby fostering a smoother reading experience.
Preparation
Keep a pencil handy during reading of a paper book.
Execution
During reading of a book, use a pencil to insert a mark at the point that several consecutive hiragana characters actually constitute separate words or separate parts of the language.
In the above example, the hiragana separation marks have been made with red, but a regular pencil will do fine.
This practice can also be applied to long sequences of katakana, and can even be used when several adjacent kanji words will be easier to decipher when separated with a mark.
Evaluation
The reader should notice that separating the hiragana sequences will result in a deeper understanding of the individual words and parts of language represented by the hiragana.
This practice is especially beneficial when the reader plans to reread the same book at later date. The marks will already be in place and the reading can go quickly and smoothly while reliably understanding every portion of a long sequence of hiragana characters.
See the following related tips:
Blue Sea Tips
A Blue Sea Tip is a suggested practice that may help a person to make progress in the learning of Nihongo (the Japanese language). The intended audience is people who are learning Nihongo as a second language.
Go to Blue Sea Tips.