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KANJI
You should know the hiragana and something of katakana, I hope you will study them carefully because they are very important and I'll stop writing pronunciation using English font.
Let's start with numbers:
From 0 to 10 => れい いち に さん よん ご ろく なな はち きゅう じゅう  => 零 一 二 三 四 五 六 七 八 弓 十.
100 1000 10000 100000000 1000000000000 => ひゃく せん まん おく ちょう => 百 千 万 億 兆
Some examples:
128 => ひゃくにじゅうはち => 百二十八
1000 Yen => せんえん => 千円 (the second kanji marks the Japanese money)
Monday January 1st 2000 => 2000 ねん いち>がつ いちたち げつようび (2000/1/1) => 2000 年 一月 一日   月曜日
Ouch! Too many kanji for this lesson, but this is only a little part...(you can find other informations about kanji and examples in your dictionary).

GERUND
It is used to join two sentence with the same tense (so it is called gerund).
To do the gerund take the past plain and put te instead of the ending ta (group 2 change ru in te), but remember that group 1 has two ecceptions: bu,mu,nu don't end in nte but in nde and gu don't end in ite but ide (and iku is itte, kuru is kite, suru si shite).

Meaning => reading => present => pres. polite => past => past polite => gerund
to fly => とぶ => 飛ぶ => 飛びます => 飛んだ => 飛びました => 飛んで
to die => しぬ => 死ぬ => 死にます => 死んだ => 死にました => 死んで
to listen => きく => 聞く => 聞きます => 聞いた => 聞きました => 聞いて

to do => する => する => します => した =>しました => して

The gerund is used to join two sentences with simultaneus tense:
I went to school and red a manga => わたしは がっこうに いって、まんがをよんだ => 私は学校に行って、漫画を読んだ．
It is also used for requests (with kudasai):
A moment, wait => ちょっと まって ください => ちょっと 待って 下さい 

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