It would be best to introduce some more useful Kanji right here!
First off, learning "私" in place of "わたし" will really make your writing and reading easier!
[It takes less strokes to write AND mind power to read as well!]
(7 strokes, "わたくし/わたし/シ" are possible) [First two Kun-yomi, third is On].
国 or "くに" is kun-yomi (native Japanese) reading of 国 or country. (コク is the on-yomi)
Note: The reason I used Katakana for on-yomi is because most dictionaries will too,
on-yomi are Chinese, thereby foreign). Some friendly uses of "国" include "中国" which is China (ちゅうこく)
or 韓国 which is (South) Korea (かんくこ).
And of course, where would 日本語 (にほんご; Japanese) be without 日本 (Japan)?
Here: 日, normally read "ひ" is read "に" and 本 is read as is, because it only has one reading here, "ほん."
Here's a good mnemonic to use to remember Japan as 日本 if you need one...but I don't think anyone will:
日 (Sun) + 本 (Origin). They don't call 日本 "the Land of the Rising Sun" for nothing, you know!
It's also probably well understood at this point that "にほんじん" and "にほん"
are not the only way to say "Japan[ese]."Another variant exists: "にっぽん."
This is a special use, like the "にっぽんぶどかん" or "にっぽんれっとう" (Japanese Islands).
Of course, that doesn't mean that you won't hear "にっぽん" used frequently either,
they are both correct, so they are both used.