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When I first started learning Japanese I kind of jumped in and hurried to learn hiragana and katakana, that was a long time ago, but it came really fast.
One site that really helped me was http://www.realkana.com, it also has an iPhone and I think, Android app.Then I found some writting practice sheets on Tae Kim’s site where you would trace it at first then go on your own; each paper had a certain consonant group (one paper having Ma, Mi, Mu, Me, Mo, to Ha, Hi, Fu, etc.). After each paper I would go on the back and see if I could remember all the ones on the paper and right them down onlong with their sound. Then if I got that down I would see if I could write down all the kana I learned so far.
I just wanted to share this for anybody, if new at Japanese and maybe wanting a way they could study kana pretty fast. It only took me maybe 2-3 weeks to learn both, so I hope it helps somebody.
The RealKana app is the best, it includes normal hiragana/katakana, dakuten, combo hiragana/katakana (the site doesn’t), and when you get to it in chapter three it even includes the “weird” katakana characters (which the sit also doesn’t include). They even give you more fonts, all of which are even harder to read :P
Real Kana is a great site, however, I reckon using an SRS is still probably better for your long term memory. There’s also a Real Kanji site http://www.realkanji.com/. The Hiragana and Katakana drag-n-drop exercises are also a good way of learning the Kana too http://www.csus.edu/indiv/s/sheaa/projects/genki/hiragana-timer.html.
Weird katakana characters? You mean the special combos like シェ and フィ and the like?
@Joel: Yea like my name: ジェンセン
That drag and drop exercise is all I used for hiragana and katakana, it was pretty great.
If it were me, I would just brutely rote memorize everything. And I did do that. I just used Realkana for 1-3 hours nonstop every day for a week for hiragana and I learned everything in a week. I’m sure they still have that option to review whatever column you want. Just go at it one at a time and add the next once you got the first column down like 96%. Then repeat for katakana.
I mean, c’mon if you do the same 5 hiragana on RealKana for 30 min., I’m pretty sure one can learn memorize it.
Personally I loved learning katakana and hiragana, I thought it was cool, and hiragana was somewhat cute and beautiful. I just wanted to make the small thread so that if maybe somebody new to the language might find some suggestions on learning it.
I learned Hiragana in 3 days, and Katakana in one. Dunno how, just lots of self motivation. The one day for Katakana was all day though XD
… I learnt hiragana and katakana in an afternoon each, with mnemonics and printed-off-the-Internet flash cards. Granted, it took maybe a week or so to get them locked in good and proper, but it didn’t take me all day to learn them…
On the real kana site do you ever win? I been on there for hours and I still don’t get to the end. I was all like, WHAT IS THIS SPACE INVADERS!!!!???????
Really I need closure, give me a graph or something.
I only considered myself as “knowing” hiragana and katakana when I got to a point where I can read them almost as fast as English. (I can definitely read hiragana as fast)
All this learning them in a day stuff just seems odd to me, that’s just being able to tell which is which, it takes longer to truly get used to them, no matter how much you cram in a day.
I mean that I could recognize any character without aid within 2 seconds, to me that’s what ‘knowing’ is. I would call reading as fast as English reading fluently. Reading fluently would take months of practice, and I’m still getting there, though I’m close with Hiragana.
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This reply was modified 12 years ago by
Tom Jensen.
Recognising kana when they’re in front of you is pretty easy, being able to write and recall the shapes of them in your mind is what takes additional time, also speed reading.
I took at least a couple of weeks with hiragana, possibly more – at the beginning, I wasn’t that bothered/interested yet so I took it slow :P It was just something I was “trying out”, wanted to see what it was like.
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This reply was modified 12 years ago by
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