25385
I'm learning Japanese and currently I finished the hiragana and katakana
charts.

A friend of mine suggested me to start reading something simple to build a
vocabulary , so I found a children's story but I'm stuck on trying to read the
first phrase:

むかしむかし、あるところに、おじいさんとおばあさんが住んでいました。

How can I learn new words if I can't even understand where a word begins and
where it ends ?

I understand that I need to learn grammar because simply knowing hiragana-
katakana I can't even separate the words in the phrase.

I tried looking online for Japanese courses but they try to teach basic
'survival phrases' to speak and listen to Japanese people but for now I want
to learn hot to read and possibly write in Japanese so could you tell me where
I can find good resources, preferably online, that teaches me how to read and
write in Japanese and most important thing how to recognise the words in a
phrase in a language without spaces.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-06-28T08:33:49.363
25384
2015-06-28T09:04:31.207
question
grammar learning
trying to learn reading Japanese
If you're reading online then I suggest installing the Rikaichan plugin to
your browser. Hovering over the words gives you the meaning and the
conjugation of the verbs etc.

The real problem is that you need to learn kanji. Trying to read hiragana with
no spaces is a nightmare. The kanji break up the stream into manageable
chunks.

Also, become familiar with the particles. These are usually really helpful for
delineating where words end.

> むかしむかし、あるところ **に** 、おじいさん **と** おばあさん **が** 住んでいました。
>
> Once upon a time, in some place, there lived an old man and an old women

I've highlighted the particles in bold. In this particular sentence, that
separates all the words for you.

Finally don't get too disheartened if you struggle with the story. I have a
set of children's books which claim to be for beginners but which contain
complex grammar and obscure words. You'll get there in the end.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-06-28T09:04:31.207
25385
2015-06-28T09:04:31.207
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25384
answer