Hello! ~ こんにちは

Welcome to Hai! Japanese, the creation of Japan enthusiasts Lewis & Charlotte. We have been creating learning materials for Japanese ever since we started learning it ourselves.

Our projects aim to take all the things we wish we knew before starting and package it up in a new, friendly and easy to understand manner.

What is Japanese?

The history of Japanese writing dates back more than 3,000 years, originating from ancient China.
Today, Japanese is made up of three separate writing systems which have different purposes but are all used together in everyday writing. It can sound like a lot to learn but if you break it down and tackle it one step at a time it’s really rewarding and a lot of fun!

Let’s learn more about each of the systems and the products we offer for teaching each.

Hiragana

This is the Japanese phonetic alphabet and it contains all the sounds which make up Japanese. This is where you want to start when learning and will give you a strong foundation to build upon.

Order now - £10

52 quality large flashcards printed here in the UK

We turn each character into an illustration of a Japanese word starting with that sound. It’s a bit like ‘A is for Apple’ but instead you get ‘KA is for KArate’. In this deck, there is a flashcard for each of the Hiragana characters and 5 rule cards for ‘voiced sounds’.

Learn more on the method and what’s inside the pack here:

Katakana

This uses the same sounds found in the Hiragana but is primarily used for foreign loan-words. It’s fun to learn as usually you will already know words written in Katakana, so it becomes a puzzle to work them out.

Order now - £10

52 quality large flashcards printed here in the UK

As with our Hiragana flashcards we have turned the Katakana characters into cute illustrations of words used in Japan. We have also include new rule cards explaining more advanced topics like ‘contracted sounds’ and ‘loanword sounds’.

Learn more on the method and what’s inside the pack here:

Kanji

The most complex of the three systems. Each character has a different meaning and some Kanji can have multiple meanings and readings. It’s a challenge but super interesting & useful.

Order now - £15

352 page hardback book with fabric cover also printed in the UK

Hai!ku teaches the Kanji with visuals and haiku mnemonic stories. It covers Kanji likely to appear in the JLPT N5 (the first Japanese language proficiency test) and some useful ones for travel & food. We aim to teach a method to go onto learn more!

Learn more on the method and what’s inside the book here:

As Seen In

You can see the packs yourself before you buy at the below locations in London.

If you are interested in stocking Hai!Hiragana then please get in touch at lewis@haihiragana.com

Who Are We?

We are a small team based in London. Hai! Japanese is a passion project which came about while we were starting to learn Japanese. We were experimenting with lots of tips, memory techniques and methods and found that by creating our own designs we could remember it much easier.

We hope that these cards will help you just as much and create a strong foundation and spark the same passion to learn Japanese! Everything is made right here in the UK so we are kinder to the environment.

Illustrated by the wonderfully talented Charlotte from Martin Le Lapin.