the Japanese number grid

BY KIMIE MARKARIAN

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Teachers Notes

Aims:

This activity will give pupils experience of writing Japanese numeralsup to 99, which shows a pattern.

Background information:

Until the 9th century AD, Japanese had no fixed writing system.Chinese characters, known in Japan as kanji had previously beenimported, but these did not adequately cope with Japanese, which wasa completely different language. Two additional sets of charactersbased on sounds, hiragana and katakana, gradually evolved to solvethe problem and written Japanese was born.

Nowadays, any piece of Japanese text will be a mixture of kanji,hiragana and katakana. Traditionally, Japanese is written in verticalcolumns, starting on the right of the page and moving to the left.However, in 1946, Japanese newspapers began to include horizontalwriting, from left to right. Both forms of writing are now in use. Thehorizontal form tends to be more convenient for science, geography,music, history and mathematics, but for Japanese literature, thevertical form is still preferred.

If you would like to write Japanese properly, it is important to writestrokes in a certain order. The sheet Japanese numbers shows thestroke order for the numbers 1 - 10.

Other related activity sheets for practicing reading and writingJapanese kanji numerals are: Numbers in kanji (a shorter form of theJapanese number grid), Numbers written in Japanese, Dates shownin Japanese characters and Some facts about Japan.

Please go through the instructions for completing The JapaneseNumber Grid with pupils before they start and remind them of theEnglish words for the numbers eleven to nineteen.

the japanese number grid

BY KIMIE MARKARIAN

Complete the Japanese Number Grid.

There is no kanji numeral for zero, therefore the top right square remains blank. The kanji

numerals for the numbers from one to ten, one hundred and one thousand have already been

filled in for you. Please start from 11 in the 10 column.

In Japanese this is written ten and one ( ). (Remember that kanji script runs vertically.)

Continue to the bottom of the column, ten-nine. The next column is twenty, this is shown by

two and ten ( ). So for 21 you need the symbols for two, ten and one ( ).

Continue and complete the column. By the time you reach 99 the pattern will be obvious.

NB. Ten, hundred and thousand are expressed in one symbol.

1000 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10

9

8

7

6

5

1

2

3

4

0

ichi, n

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numbers in kanji

BY KIMIE MARKARIAN

ichi, n

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Numbers written in KANJI are usually written vertically whereas arabic numbers (e.g. 1,2, 3, etc) are used when Japanese is written horizontally.

After two lines of practising the numbers from 1-10 continue to write the numbers up to30. In Japanese numbers from 11 - 19 are written 10 and 1 ( ) etc, 20 is 2 ten ( ),

21 is 2 ten and 1 ( ) etc.

Then write todays date and your birthday.Note: January is the 1st month of the year, February is the 2nd, March is the 3rd,etc In Japanese the month is written before the day. So is 1st January.

26 21YourBirthdayis

TodaysDate is

16 11

1

2

27 22 17 12

3

4

28 23 18 13

5

6

29 24 19 14

7

8

2530 20 15

9

10

japanese numbers

1

2

3 4

5

1

2

1

2

3

1

2 3

4

1

2

1 2

12

1

2

12

34

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numbers written in japanese

BY KIMIE MARKARIAN

__________________

No. Word Character

1 ichi

2 ni

3 san

4 shi / yon

5 go

6 roku

7 shichi /nana

8 hachi

9 ku / kyu

10 ju

100 hyaku

1000 sen

10000 man

Month Day

A. Translate the following into English:

1. 2. 3. 4.

1.2.3.4. ---------------------------Total __________________

B. Translate the following into Japanese:(dont forget to write the numbers from top to bottom)

1. Twenty-two 2. One hundred-and-ten3. Ninety-nine 4. Five hundred

1. 2. 3. 4.

C. Write todays date below:

in English: __________________

in Japanese (in the box):

D. Now write your birthday below:

in English: __________________

in Japanese (in the box):

ichi, n

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dates shown in japanese characters

BY KIMIE MARKARIAN

The following dates are important in Japan: -

A. Change the dates in 1-5 into English in the spaces provided.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

1 _______________________ : Foundation of the country day

2 _______________________ : Greenery Day (birthday of the Emperor Showa)

3 _______________________ : New Years Eve

4 _______________________ : Marine Day

5 _______________________ : Setsubun, bean throwing ceremony

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Change the dates in 6-10 into Japanese in the spaces provided.

6. 1st January : New Years Day

7. 3rd March : Girls Day

8. 5th May : Boys Day

9. 7th July : Tanabata Matsuri (Star Festival)

10. 3rd November : Culture Day

6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

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some facts about japan

BY KIMIE MARKARIAN

Traditionally, Japanese was written vertically in columns starting from the right and moving tothe left of the page. However, in the 20th century horizontal writing was introduced and today,both systems are used. In Japanese newspapers, magazines and other printed materials todayyou will find both ways of writing.

Horizontal writing tends to be more convenient for science, geography, music, historyand mathematics, but vertical writing is still preferred for literature. Usually, Japanesepeople use Arabic numerals for horizontal writing and kanji numerals for vertical writing.

Kanji numerals do not include a symbol for zero. There are individual symbols for 10, 100 , 1,000 , and 10,000 .

1 ichi 2 ni 3 san 4 shi / yon

5 go 6 roku 7 shichi / nana

8 hachi 9 ku / kyu

10 ju 100 hyaku 1000 sen 10000 man

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some facts about japan

BY KIMIE MARKARIAN

4 3 2 1There are

volcanoes, and

of them areactive. Japanexperiences

earthquakesper year.

The capital ofJapan is Tokyo

with over

millioninhabitants.

Thepopulation of

Japan is

million whichis now

times greaterthan

years ago.

Japan consists of

main islands(Hokkaido, Honshu,Shikoku and Kyushu)

and over

tiny islands.

% of Japan is coveredby mountains.

Read the sentences in the table above and fill in the gaps.

1. Japan consists of ____ main islands (Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu) and over____ tiny islands. Over ____ % of Japan is covered by mountains.

2. The population of Japan is ____ million which is now ____ times greater than ____ yearsago.

3. The capital of Japan is Tokyo with over ____ million inhabitants.

4. There are ____ volcanoes, and ____ of them are active. Japan experiences ________earthquakes per year.

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some facts about japan

BY KIMIE MARKARIAN

7 6 5It is

kilometres from Londonto Tokyo. The shortest

journey takes

hours by air.

The length ofthe country

fromnorth tosouth is

kilometres.The widestpoint from

east to westis

kilometres.

Mt. Fuji is thehighest

mountain inJapan, at

metres. Itlast erupted in

Read the sentences in the table above and fill in the gaps.

5. Mt. Fuji is the highest mountain in Japan, at ________ metres. It last erupted in ________.

6. The length of the country from north to south is ________ kilometres. The widest point fromeast to west is ____ kilometres.

7. It is __________ kilometres from London to Tokyo. The shortest journey takes ____ hours byair.

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counting with fingers in japanese style

BY KIMIE MARKARIAN

Use Right hand for Units

and Left hand for Tens

0 1 2 3

4 5 6 7

8 9 10

This is a traditional Japanese counting system.However, the representations of 0 and 10 have been designed by the author.

ichi, n

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