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.
Answer
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.
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