Mandarin Bridges 中文橋
Lessons connect Japanese back to Chinese characters, readings, and meaning you already know.
日本語の冒険
Japanese Adventure
A Japanese learning guide for Mandarin speakers, built around shared kanji, on'yomi readings, and English loanwords.
Why this guide?
Section titled “Why this guide?”If you speak Mandarin and English, you already have useful footholds in Japanese. Japanese kanji (漢字) came from Chinese characters, and many are identical. On’yomi readings often sound like their Mandarin counterparts. English helps too: thousands of katakana loanwords are English words adapted to Japanese phonology.
This guide is organized around those connections. It won’t make Japanese easy, but it will make a lot of the vocabulary and reading less unfamiliar than you’d expect.
Memory Tricks 記憶のコツ
Visual mnemonics, sound associations, and stories that help things stick.
Deep Dives 深掘り
Optional sections on etymology, history, and linguistic connections.
Travel Ready 旅行準備
Phrases and cultural context for a trip to Japan.
How to use this guide
Section titled “How to use this guide”The chapters are ordered for sequential reading, but you can skip to whatever you need:
- Introduction — How Mandarin and English connect to Japanese, and what the writing system looks like
- Hiragana — The 46-character phonetic alphabet used for native words and grammar
- Katakana — The alphabet for foreign loanwords, many recognizable from English
- Kanji — Where your Mandarin background helps most, plus common traps
- Grammar and phrases — Sentence patterns, particles, and everyday expressions
- Travel Japanese — Practical language for airports, trains, hotels, restaurants, and emergencies