Lesson 2 of 12
Kana Sprint 2 — か and さ
about 5 minutes
After this lesson you can
- Read the か and さ rows on sight, including し.
- Read あき, the name from Foundations lesson 1, without help.
Words this lesson teaches
- かさ
- umbrella — ka-sa
- あき
- Aki, the name from Foundations 1 — a-ki
- いけ
- pond — i-ke
- こえ
- voice — ko-e
- すし
- sushi — su-shi, and now you can read the sign
What it explains
The chart is a grid, not a list
Every row after the vowels is one consonant crossed with あいうえお, always in that order. Learning the row order once means you never learn an order again: か is k plus a, き is k plus i, and so on. This is why the vowels were worth the first sprint. Where a row breaks the pattern it is the sound that bends, never the position — し sits exactly where si would, and is read shi.
Shapes that will cost you time later
き and さ are near-mirrors of each other with a different number of strokes crossing the top. く is a single angle and is the easiest character in the language. こ is two short strokes and is often mistaken for a piece of another character rather than a whole one. Look at each of these once now rather than untangling them at Sprint 10.